Personalised Customer Service, a Value Adding Service or an Attitude?

19/12/2023

Having good customer and business relationships is crucial to the success of any business. The ability to communicate effectively with your customers and collaborate with other businesses will transform your company and help you stand out from your competition.

What is personalised customer service? Customer service describes any, and all interactions between your business and your customers that enhance your customer’s experience of the services you provide. Ultimately, providing good customer service for your clients will enhance their loyalty to your business, leading to long-term relationships, returning customers, or even new business through positive recommendations.

There can often be confusion between ‘customer service’ and ‘customer support’. While customer service is an umbrella term, customer support is one type of interaction that falls into the category of customer service.

Should my Business Focus on Customer Service or Support?

All businesses provide customer service, but not all of them offer good customer support within this. At MSC, ensuring that our customers feel supported throughout their cargo’s transportation, whether inland or at sea is paramount. That’s why our global teams contain experts across different industries. This way we can ensure we understand exactly what your specific business requirements are, and that we have the knowledge to help create the best solution for you.

Why is Personalised Customer Service Important?

As previously mentioned, different businesses will offer different levels of customer service. If you want to transform your business and ensure you remain ahead of your competitors, one of the biggest areas you can enhance is your customer service. Personalisation ensures your customers feel valued, which in turn increases the likelihood that they will remain loyal to your brand or business.

For example, at MSC, we understand that often businesses can find the transportation and logistics process quite stressful or overwhelming as there are so many different elements involved. If you’re inexperienced, operating from a new location or industry, or if your business needs have evolved over time you may be unfamiliar with the different rules and regulations, or encounter delays that can impact your overall supply chain.

How Can you Enhance your Customer Service?

There are several ways to effectively enhance your customer service offering as a business.

Offer omnichannel support.
Meet customers on the channels of their choice.
Integrate customer support and CRM platforms.
Be personable.
Enable customers to self-serve.

1. Offer omnichannel support
Customers will reach out to your business in a variety of ways. At MSC, we are available to our customers by email, social media, our website, or by phone. But it’s not enough just to be available on multiple channels. You need to be able to offer omnichannel support, where your customer service teams can transition customer requests from one medium to another. This not only improves your customer service offering but means your support will be more flexible and quicker.

2. Meet customers on the channels of their choice
Similarly, offering numerous options for your customers to get in contact with your business also empowers your customers and means they can get in contact with your business in the easiest way for them. This level of service will stick in the minds of your customers, and help garner a positive reputation for your business as a result.

3. Integrate customer support and CRM platforms
Another way to enhance your customer service offerings is by integrating your customer support systems with your CRM platforms. This means that relevant data will be shared across all systems, so your customer service team will have the increased knowledge that allows them to offer custom solutions and support to your customers.

4. Be personable
Everyone wants to feel heard, so make sure that your customer support prioritises finding the best solution to a problem, rather than the fastest.

5. Enable customers to self-serve
Having relevant information about the latest industry updates, or frequently asked questions in a prominent or easily accessible page on your website enables customers to try and find the answer they want for themselves. This means they’ll spend less time trying to find the answers to simple questions, but be confident in your advice for more complicated problems.

Driving Stronger Business Relationships

Our worldwide teams are always on hand to work with our customers directly. What sets MSC apart from other shipping companies is that our customers have a direct relationship with an expert. Our team understands the requirements specific to the commodity being shipped and has the local knowledge of the country or region you’re shipping from or too. We combine this with global knowledge that enables us to adapt to changes quickly and ensures we can offer our customers recommendations that are valuable to their business.

We make use of the latest digital technology to enhance the support we offer our customers, rather than detract from it. We are customer focused to our very core and pride ourselves in offering a premium customer service.