No matter your industry, whether hospitality or financial services, quality customer service has become a major differentiating factor for businesses – often forming one of the key reasons for repeat business and customer loyalty.

If your customer service team is not meeting the mark, it will show in declining sales, and your company will begin haemorrhaging revenue.

However, customer service doesn’t need to be a challenge. The big secret is that: quality customer service is not that complicated.

In this guide, we will explore some of the best customer service feedback examples and how these can help you land more 5-star reviews for your business.

What’s the Key to Customer Service Success?

Essentially, at its heart your customer service approach needs to embrace these mantras:

  1. Be humble;
  2. Be helpful;
  3. Be friendly;
  4. Be knowledgeable;
  5. Be thoughtful;
  6. Be useful;
  7. Be timely;
  8. Every customer-facing employee is a part of customer service;
  9. Ask for the Review!

Your HR and Executive team are responsible for bringing the right people on board, but they’re also accountable for training, supporting, educating and informing their staff.

All of this is imperative in building a strong customer service culture within your enterprise – here are 9 customer service feedback examples that help demonstrate how you can provide 5-star service.

1. Be Humble and Don’t Make Your Customers Feel Dumb

online review 1

It’s clear from reading the review that James sounds like a pretty amazing guy, and he’s developed quite the relationship with George, going from broker to friend.

While we may not share the same type of interactive connections with our customers, we can still aspire to be like James.

Not only did he answer ‘every stupid question,’ – he did so with humility and patience – key virtues in the consumer journey.

Many of your customers come to your business with a complete lack of knowledge about your offerings and services.

And while they may have done research on their own, they expect your employees to be the experts.

When your support team has been on board for a while, and they hear the same simple questions day in and out, a glazed-over eye roll is understandable.

But the true gems of the customer service industry take those FAQs and explain them in a way that doesn’t make the customer feel like a child.

That humility and respect will go a long way in the eyes of your customer, especially if they already are insecure about working with your business.

2. Be Helpful Instead of Pitching the Sale

While its important for every business to try to have a sense of how their customers and audience discover them, and ultimately become customers, the buyer’s journey is never the same for any two customers.

As a business owner, you need to respect a potential customer that thinks they’re ready, but after consulting with you, realize they haven’t considered a variety of aspects that could inform their buying decision – positively or negatively.

Even if they have this realization early in their interactions with your team, it’s essential to be as helpful and transparent as possible.

People appreciate when customer service reps don’t lay on the hard sell from the get-go – so if your sales prospect isn’t ready, and you don’t pressure them prematurely, they will return to you when the time is right.

Karl of Flores Landscaping was ready to help guide his prospect on her timetable, and as they developed Amy’s vision together, Karl earned Amy’s trust based on his expertise and thoughtfulness.

I’m sure Karl’s suggestion to reuse Amy’s concrete slabs and save her money was the icing on the cake – and this represents the importance of supporting your customers buying journey.

3. Be Friendly and Surprise Your Customers

Some businesses benefit from making their customers feel like family – this often forms part of the marketing for mom-and-pop businesses up and down the country.

When your business model includes routine check-ups or frequent repeat customers, get to know them.

After all most people appreciate it when the baristas at their local coffee shop greet them by name or already know their normal order – and the same is true for many other businesses.

Taking the time to ask your customers about their lives (in a non-invasive way) will help them feel like family whether they’re at your store or on the phone.

In the dental industry, you wouldn’t expect people to be this excited for their routine visits, but Charlie’s experiences at Lee Dental Clinic stand out.

That’s because not only did he connect with his dentist on a personal level, but the little giveaways were a useful and clever delight.

4. Be Knowledgeable and Educate Your Employees

If you’re working in an industry where the stakes for your prospective customers are high (in a field such as law) and involve dealing with complex issues that the consumer might not be fully informed about.

Your expertise on the subject is essential in your customer service approach.

Not only being able to empathize with your client and managing the feeling they’re ‘out of their depth’, but also educating them on their problem so they walk away feeling confident, will set you apart from the competition.

Sometimes, the potential client will have attempted to research their situation on their own (WebMD set off any alarms?) and come to you thinking they’re knowledgeable on the subject.

It’s important in these customer service reviews to know your field inside and out, with evidence that you can turn to, so you can reveal why the prospect came to you in the first place.

5. Be Thoughtful and Solve Problems

Mistakes happen – you’ll never see a business without a negative review.

No matter how well-informed your customer service team and leadership are, the unexpected happens and it’s your responsibility to be able to handle the curveballs that come your way.

While it’s important to have policies in place to protect the bottom line, having managers or customer service representatives who can make exceptions to save a bad customer experience is paramount.

Not only will these exceptional cases protect your customers from a disappointing encounter with your company, but it will help your employees save face and avoid the dreaded, “That’s our policy” company line.

Even if the situation loses you money in the short run, you will possibly see a larger return in the long run – and crucially protect your brand image.

A satisfied customer will sing your praises when you turn a bad experience around in a timely fashion and offer (what the customer considers) a fair solution.

Whether you’re an events planner, a home services provider, a hotel, or any local service – keeping tapped into the network of local businesses that surround your location can enhance your reputation as a dependable and valuable asset to your customers, and even win you additional customers.

When you’re able to recommend complementary vendors to your clients, you’ll save them time and money on research, and add a layer of confidence to their purchase.

Make sure that you vet the companies you recommend, and don’t be afraid to reach out to complimentary vendors to create reciprocity agreements.

The last thing you want is to send one of your customers to an unorganized and incompetent business – so it’s important you only provide trusted recommendations.

Pro-tip: Hard as it may be, sometimes your services are not the right fit for a particular prospect – while it sounds scary to recommend a competitor, it’s the right move. You may lose that one customer to your competitor, but the next time they have a friend who is a perfect fit for your service, a recommendation is practically inevitable.

7. Be timely – Even at Inconvenient Times

Sometimes, your free advice alone can earn a positive review as in the example above – which demonstrates how going the extra mile to become bastion of expertise can supercharge your customer service reputation.

In the case of Chanel (Above), she reached out to George expecting to pay a fee simply for the advice he provided – however, this wasn’t the case and George created free value for her.

In exchange George secured a great review – highlighting that exchanges of value between businesses and consumers need not always be monetary.

Combine the free advice with the timely manner of George’s reply, late at night nonetheless, and you can see why he earned a customer for life.

8. Everyone Who Interacts with Customers is Customer Service

Yes, you have a dedicated staff for customer support, but that doesn’t mean they are the only employees involved in providing support to your customers and clients.

Remember, every employee who interacts with clients face-to-face has the responsibility to maintain the same level of customer service as your dedicated representatives.

As you can see, the reviewer above had a positive interaction with everyone at the hospital, from the employees dedicated to checking in on her to the wound care nurses, to the maintenance staff.

Sometimes, just one negative touch point can ruin an experience – if you have employees that are sullen, argumentative, or just plain sour, keep them out of the way of customers!

Not everyone is a people person, but social skills are imperative for any client facing role, no matter how small or insignificant it might seem.

9. And Don’t Forget – Ask for the Review!

Finally, while it may seem awkward, always remember to ask for the review.

Make sure your customer service managers ingrain this important request in their teams’ heads.

Who should be asking for the review? Always have the employee with the most personal relationship do the asking.

I can practically guarantee whenever you see a review mentioning an employee by name, the employee politely requested the client leave the Google review.

If they had a good experience, many times they will go and take the time to review your company – but the Ask is essential.

Customer Service Conclusions

The selected customer service feedback examples in this post represent the best types of reviews you can get – as you can see, all of them name the person who helped them, revealing the personal connection was developed.

The reviews aren’t novel length, making them consumable by other people researching your company, but they all share a personal story which adds to the credibility of the review.

The ones who show how they solved a problem are even more valuable since customers tend to hope for the best and expect the worst.

Being a friendly, helpful, problem solver can sometimes be more important than the actual service or product you sell!

And always remember, EVERY employee who interacts with customers needs to have the same mindset, training, and support as your dedicated customer service representative.

Employ the customer service reviews examples in your strategy and your online reputation will explode.

References: