Companies all over the world must understand how important customer service is to business; the customer experience has to be excellent and the service part and parcel of the process. Businesses with better customer service are much more likely to succeed on average.

But how do they achieve this, and why is it important?

Customers always expect a good level of service (although they shouldn’t be too unrealistic!). So if your service is poor, then they’ll call you out on it via public feedback.

How are customer reviews vital to business growth?

There are many reasons why customer feedback is essential. But these benefits are key:

It shows others how much you care about their satisfaction.

When you read reviews yourself, do you find that their feedback influences you? Well, according to statistics, around 79% of customers put as much weight on online reviews as they would on personal recommendations. If customers rate the service of a business as low, others might look at that and remember another bad business interaction they’ve had before.

This could end up leading to the loss of business, something that can be avoided by addressing your customer service with more care!

It could help improve your products or services.

Customer reviews can also help boost growth by giving you ideas of where to improve next. Businesses can take the experiences customers have and identify areas of improvement which can make the product or service even better than before. This could then help the business grow since the next product or service will sell more, leading to more profits and opportunities. Of course, before launching a new product, it’s impossible to know all of your customers’ needs. However, customer reviews are honest and show precisely what they want.

It can even lead to improvements in your customer service.

Coming in a full circle now, customer reviews can touch upon your service and the lengths you go to keep your customers happy and satisfied. A customer may bring up their experience - i.e. they might purchase a pair of pants and receive a complimentary shirt - and say how you purposefully went out of your way to make their experience better.

The same goes for the other way around, which ultimately shows you what changes you need to make to keep them satisfied.

What customer service features should businesses implement?

Once you’ve identified the importance of your customers’ reviews, consider the following:

Fast, effective customer support through many different channels.

The ability to provide customers with a choice of communications options will ensure your customer service is the best it can possibly be. A multi-channel customer support service must include phone support, live chat, email, and social media AT LEAST. Giving customers the power will only boost their satisfaction.

Self-service for common roadblocks.

Perhaps you can answer questions about your product or service before they’ve even asked. No one likes to go out of their way to get a problem sorted (that’s for sure!), so implement an FAQ page on your site to give customers quick answers to their equally quick questions. Just channel your inner Usain Bolt!

Discounts, returns, and refunds if the product/service is not right.

Finally, you should make it up to your customers if a problem has occurred with your service. Customer appeasement can help make amends for bad experiences, ensuring they find a happy solution. This could be a single-use discount code on their next purchase, a return or even a product refund.

The information presented in this article is provided as general guidance, it should only be used as the basis for further research or requesting professional advice.