No matter what kind of product or service you provide, every company provides some sort of customer service experience through the very nature of the transaction you are engaging with the client in. While customer service is always important, it is particularly imperative in the world of B2B, where there is an extended focus on building long term relationships because of the very specific nature of the product being provided.
As such, it is important for one of your customer support service team’s primary goals is to always be focused on reducing churn. To begin with, let’s actually define “churn†in the context of the business world, and then look at ways in which your customer support team can solve churn problems through providing proactive and well-thought out service.
What Does Churn Mean in a Business Context?
In the simplest possible terms, “churn†is the word used in the business world to refer to a customer who is no longer doing business with a certain company and has decided to move on to another product entirely. This is obviously detrimental to any company, and it often occurs as the result of one or more poor customer service experiences. Which is why your customer service department should be your first line of defense against reducing churn. It is also why having configurable customer support software that you can tailor to the needs of your clients is so vitally important as well.
Also, it should be noted that there is no such thing as a “churn free company†– this is, in no uncertain terms, a myth.
What Steps Can be Taken to Reduce Churn?
As previously stated, it is impossible to completely eliminate churn from occurring at your company. While there is no set process that can change this fact, there are factors you can focus more attention on to help reduce the amount of churn at your business.
The first is to ensure the onboarding process, or the process of bringing a new client into your system, goes as smoothly as humanly possible. It is the first real impression your new client gets of how your business actually runs on a day-to-day basis. If it does not go well, your client may be hesitant to continue doing business with you in the long term.
Another important thing to consider is who the point of contact for the new client and what their professional background is. Use your imperative assets to systemically figure out whether this person is technical or not and structure your customer service approach based on this information.
A third area which can be focused on is implementing proactive customer service responses into your outreach strategy. This means if you have updated a bug or are implementing a new feature a client specifically asked for, let them know about it in a personalized communication as soon as possible.
If you would like to learn more about how configurable customer support software can help reduce churn, contact PhaseWare at their website or by phone today.