Entrepreneurs' View & Action Plan on Providing the Best Customer Service

The opinions & views in this article are contributed by various industry experts & entreprenuers in the startup ecosystem.

The first priority of a business or a company is to meet the demands of the customers. Though the demands of the customers are growing, the impressive customer service is attending these demands only too well. Extending the best customer service is the rule of thumb for every business, young and old. No doubt it brings a wide range of benefits for the businesses, which is why more and more enterprises are lining up to empower their customer service.

If you are now curious to learn about the companies that are prominently prioritizing their customer service, then here we bring you a list of startups that are keeping their customers ahead! Read about how these entrepreneurs deliver commitment and gain trust from their customers with actionable insights, tools, and strategies.

Vinayak Shrivastav | Co-founder and CEO, Toch AI

“Building a good customer experience does not happen by accident, it happens by design.” - Clare Muscutt. At Toch AI we take our customers' specific requirements seriously and deliver with commitment.

Every new inquiry is guided by a complete demonstration of our platform and product. With diverse clients across the globe, it is imperative to process the definite and precise needs of each client. It is then assessed over face-to-face virtual meetings. With technology bridging distance, a personalized solution delivered across geographies needs to be seamlessly integrated; such that demand meets the expected workflow efficiency. The next step is an effortless onboarding process that is comprehensible in the form of flowcharts and direction for unobstructed services that eradicates remote chances of disruption. A Slack channel is created with the client for fast and direct communication with a quick turnaround time, in case of any queries, suggestions, or problem-shooting. The success team steers smooth adaptation of the new work profile with precise timelines. A step-by-step discernable communication is chalked between the client and the concerned team.

At Toch providing solutions to every customer's unique needs is our best business plan. Our work has been the best branding we have ever done through the life of our company, where each team member is involved in ensuring delivery exceeds expectations. The patrons might forget our faces, but they seldom forget the work we do. It is an intangible feeling of pride, being associated as a dependable company that never backs down.

Also Read: List of Top Customer Experience Management Software in 2021 | Free Tools

Prashant Radhakrishnan | VP of Sales & Marketing (India), SemaConnect

Companies need to wire all design thought – whether it be products or services ground up from a customer-centric viewpoint & usage, instead of spending a lot of time and effort in getting the policies, processes & people approach around customer service. Now, providing effective customer service is important – however, the overall goal of an organization’s need to revolve around eliminating said customer contacts (typically negative or catering to issues).

While this is easier said than done – it involves crafting organization structure, processes & culture across all functions from a customer at the center viewpoint.

At SemaConnect, the endeavor is to build the relevant products and services after extensive understanding of the “Voice of Customer” – each iteration of a new product or service is user-centric – this user-centricity in design is not restricted to external customers but to internal customer groups as well. For small startup companies, this is always a challenge – hence a “Guiding Principle” on user-centricity in building new products or services can only be done when the clarity of thought on Customer-Centric design is part of the DNA of the organization."

SemaConnect, established in 2008 is a leading provider of Electric Vehicle Amenities to North American and Indian Commercial & Residential Market. For over a decade, SemaConnect has installed over 14,000 charging stations in North America, while its IT development, R&D, and manufacturing are based out of India.

Harsh Shah | Co-Founder, Fynd

Fynd is a one-stop omnichannel retail platform, with customer service at its core. Our key focus while serving our brands is to offer hassle-free coordination between all points of service, be the expert solution providers, and engage in our brands’ growth with regular checks and market insights.

We offer business insights and monitor a brand’s performance over periodic weekly/monthly calls. Going a step beyond the basic technology platform-based omnichannel solutions, this demarcates us from our peers and attracts most brands to sign up with us. Our clients look to us as solution providers and place their trust in us for a resolution in times of crisis. Brands like Sportstation & Ruosh have appreciated that even if something gets stuck at 11 PM, it will be taken care of to ensure a smooth running for the brand.

Brands often run tight on schedules around the mega sales time (both, in-store and eCommerce). That’s where our customer support has been a great relief for brands like Mothercare, Hamleys, Red Chief, allowing them to focus on core sales, while we take care of the rest. Another highlight in our service offering is our user-friendly Fynd Order Management System (OMS) that allows a brand’s store and warehouse staff to adapt to technology with an appealing UI and UX. Our collaboration and experience with logistic partners ensure a speedy delivery for our clients giving them an edge. There have been instances where the product manager himself went out to deliver so that the brand’s customers do not suffer.

Shubhi Agarwal | COO & Co-Founder, Locobuzz

When it comes to customer service, the secret to success lies in personalization, consistency, and timeliness. In the post-pandemic era, we witnessed a voluminous spike in digital customer interactions that have coerced even the most traditional businesses to innovate their service scope and digital engagement methods. Today, brands across sectors constantly deal with delivering timely customer experience at scale. Through AI-led automation solutions, we aim to give customer service the human touch and personalization it needs for a brand to succeed in volatile markets. To us, ‘personalization’ is the result of rich, real-time, actionable insights that help eliminate the chance of a neglected customer.

Social listening and response management, therefore, is not just about AI-technology at its ‘always-evolving' best; but about a brand’s utilization of AI-tech to deliver the best customer service. With simple things like faster responses and interactive social media engagement, one such BFSI brand celebrated 40% sentiment score uplifts and extended to nearly 700 new leads every month. One of the services we often suggest to clients is CRM integrations (Customer Relationship Management) - A Retail brand that leveraged CRM in its response management was able to garner organized intelligence about its customers and converted those insights into a consistent engagement strategy wherein; they captured 16,000 unique visits over WhatsApp Business alone, and measured 264.6k brand replies from customers within a year on social platforms.

Essentially, it is a fact that people appreciate being heard and cared for by the brands they are loyal to. With AI-powered Listening and Response mechanisms, advanced automation lets brands deliver tender and attentive customer service to their clients. For all thought leaders of the new age, it will be interesting to see how fast-paced tech advancements in the future will be employed, while keeping customer simplicity and service at its optimum.

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Chaitali Das | Associate VP of Marketing, Sprink.online

Customer services have changed a lot in the last decade. Providing better customer service in today’s world goes beyond “professionalism” and “positive attitude”. It has become more than just solving problems but about how creatively the problem can be solved. It is about understanding the customer's psyche and helping them provide solutions for not only what they might need for the moment but also about how the interaction can add value to their experience. Customer services now demand to be more personalized, where the customer wants to feel more than just a ticket number. Today, companies are developing more full-proof customer service strategies than just deploying just call centers. Many food businesses are utilizing technology to a great extent and as a part of customer service offer online forums, detailed & self-sufficient FAQ pages, and automated chatbots along with human help that gives customers the chance to help themselves in cases where queries are taking more time to resolve.

At Sprink, our customer care strategy revolves around building human-centric customer service through great customer care representatives and the utilization of technology where it is needed. A lot of our menu and services have actually evolved into what our customers are actually looking for rather than just providing them with one-dimensional services. Our customers are living testimony of how they feel about us. We feel confident and lucky when customers residing in a foreign country or in a different city wants to book meal subscriptions for their elderly parents in Bangalore due to their trust in us or when a happy customer recommends us to their loved ones because we delivered food to their door-step beyond our predefined delivery slots when they were sick with corona. All in such cases and more, our focus is and will always remain working towards making a better customer experience.

Mahmud Kotebagil | CEO & Co-Founder, Beyond Garage

Providing good customer service is not an accident rather it's a design that involves people from all the level of an organization. We at Beyond Garage believe that will never have a product or price advantage eventually, as they can be too easily duplicated. But a strong customer service culture cannot be copied and excelling the customer service every time builds a huge gap between a successful company and a normal company. Also, a brand is no longer what we tell the customer or other people but it is what customers tell each other in the market hence we collect reviews in an open forum from all our customers. And it's easy to understand that, people will soon forget what we said. They will NEVER forget how we made them feel and that’s our effort all the time.

Naman Shah | Co-Founder & CEO, NowPurchase

Customers enjoy customized experiences from B2C brands on a daily basis. Companies like Amazon Prime, Voot are known to provide personalized suggestions, similarly, eCommerce platforms like Flipkart provide excellent customer service, but it's a different scenario when it comes to B2B enterprises.

The average customer experience score for B2B companies is less than 50%, compared to 65 percent to 85 percent for B2C companies.

Customer experience is a top focus for many B2B organizations, but their actions don't always match their statements. However, the trend is gradually shifting. B2B organizations are beginning to see the significance of investing in customer experience and the competitive advantage it can provide, especially in light of the uncertainties surrounding COVID-19 and its influence on global industries.

NowPurchase strives to give the finest customer experience to all of its stakeholders, including purchasers, production managers, and business owners. Some of our clients, for example, requested a live tracking system to keep track of their delivery progress. As a result, we created a WhatsApp notification system that alleviated their worries. We also discovered that clients preferred to receive information via WhatsApp notifications, so we developed a WhatsApp bot that allows them to receive daily pricing updates depending on market trends.

Priyanka Salot | Co-founder, The Sleep Company

In today's highly competitive business world, how you handle client complaints can either help you thrive or consign you to failure. Customer journeys are evolving based on specific customer personas, which is helping D2C firms improve their final mile. Customer attitude has evolved dramatically in some areas, to the point where there is no longer a blueprint.

So, we see innovation in the digital environment as a strategic opportunity. It benefited us in communicating with our customers and responding to their feedback and suggestions. Taking into account customer feedback has been one of the biggest advantages for The Sleep Company. We try to initiate one-on-one conversations with customers in order to have a deeper knowledge of their requirements.

Tech is at the forefront of our customer experience. We are using a website chat feature through which customers are addressed as per their inquiries. We also listen to our customers via social media and apps like Whatsapp. We have integrated the latest CRM tools to enhance the after-sales service. When it comes to human intervention, we also have dedicated teams for sales and support.

Customers have also expressed gratitude for taking their complaints seriously by providing speedy responses.  It has also helped us to determine what needs to be improved. Listening to their complaints has helped us identify issue areas that we can improve on in the future, to create a positive customer experience.

Customers have evolved, and they now prioritize a brand relationship over a brand product. Customers want to have meaningful conversations. Brands should take the lead in identifying answers to issues that directly affect their target audience, as well as societal and cultural concerns that their customers care about.

Sandeep Aggarwal | Co-Founder, Candes

We are a Delhi-based D2C brand of home appliances that aims at offering the best to its consumers. Be it technology, innovation, style, convenience, or after-product services. One should trust our company especially when it comes to your home appliances because we give a minimum warranty of 2 years in most of our product range. Also, we provide free door service to keep you tension-free, having over 1 million trusted users. We make sure to keep your electricity bill to a minimum and we have the highest ratings all across the marketplace. At Candes we make sure you get the best service and live a comfortable life with the help of our product lines. If there are any problems that you face, then you don’t have to worry as our customer service is always available to assist you. You can call us anytime between 10:00 AM to 5:30 PM from Monday to Saturday. We have a very convenient interface to register your complaint and resolve the same on a priority basis.

Also Read: Challenges faced by Entrepreneurs while Operating in Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities

Conclusion

Customer service ought to be a strong point of every business and most companies now are strengthening the services offered to their customers like anything. This is also resulting in a growth that is longstanding and built on the pillars of trust.

We hope you liked our article on the best customer service providers. Feel free to share your feedback about the article and also subscribe to StartupTalky for more articles of interest!