It is essential to have a skilled and experienced customer service manager to ensure that customer complaints are handled effectively and efficiently. Statistics from Zendesk share that 64% of business leaders say that customer service has a positive impact on their company’s growth. It makes sense; if your customers are happy, they’ll remain loyal to you and purchase your products or services. The manner in which you handle customer complaint resolution could make or break your company’s success.
With an effective customer service manager and complaint management system, your customers’ concerns can be dealt with effectively and timeously - ultimately maintaining your company’s good reputation.
What Is Good Customer Service?
Good customer service is typically when your customer service manager and representatives demonstrate the following:
- Listen closely and attentively.
- Communicate clearly and effectively.
- Demonstrate empathy.
- Approach situations with positivity.
- Remain patient and composed.
- Take responsibility.
- Don’t make empty promises.
- Demonstrate comprehensive knowledge.
- Ask for honest feedback.
- Be unafraid to ask questions.
It is, therefore, vital to proactively improve your customers’ experiences with your business by employing a reliable customer service manager, collecting data and feedback, and making adjustments and improvements as and when necessary.
You benefit your company in various ways when you provide good customer service through a reliable customer service manager. If customer support services are reliable, pleasant and effective, this can build a company’s reputation, retain customers and give the business a competitive advantage.
Furthermore, if most customers are satisfied, this can lead to increased sales and fewer returns, increasing revenue and cost savings.
What Causes Bad Customer Service?

The following are all common causes of poor quality customer service:
- A lack of training. In this case, it’s your responsibility to ensure that employees are well-trained and informed on their roles and that the customer service department is well-managed. Often, poor business performance will hurt your employees and stifle their innovation and motivation.
- Unclear processes and policies. Poorly defined policies, processes and procedures can lead to customer service agents being unable to give customers the correct answers.
- Poor communication. If customer service agents are not communicating effectively, it can frustrate customers and cause them to lose faith in your business and services/products.
- No feedback system. Without a feedback system, customer service representatives cannot learn from their mistakes and customer feedback and improve their service.
- Outdated technology. Outdated or inefficient technology can lead to delays and frustration for customers.
What Is the Result of Poor Customer Service?
Poor customer service and an unreliable customer service manager can leave your customers feeling frustrated, angry, unheard, and disinterested in your company’s products and services.
This can, in turn, escalate into negative comments, reviews and conversations surrounding your business. Ultimately, poor customer service chases off new customers. Zendesk reports that after more than one bad experience, around 76% of consumers say they would rather do business with a competitor.
If the problems arising from your poorly operated customer service system and underperforming customer service manager are left to fester, the result could be the demise of your business.
Poor customer support services result in the following:
- Less repeat business.
- Negative reviews and comments.
- Lost sales.
- Decreased employee morale.
- Unproductive operations.
Real-Life Examples of Bad Customer Service
Sometimes, when things go wrong, they go terribly wrong. Here are some big brand names whose poor customer service hurt their business:
Lack Of an Efficient Customer Service Manager: Bolt South Africa Story
A quick scroll through Bolt’s social media posts or Hellopeter profile reports that their poor customer service is shockingly apparent. For example:
- Customers have complained about long wait times for customer support, unhelpful and unresponsive customer service agents, and difficulty getting refunds.
- There have been reports of customers being charged for never completed trips and long delays in resolving disputes with drivers.
- Individuals have sometimes been left stranded after a driver canceled the ride.
- Customers have experienced problems with payment processing or promotional codes.
- There have even been reports of customers being robbed and harassed.
Having a dedicated customer service manager can make all the difference in addressing and resolving customer complaints with empathy. Customers’ experiences with Bolt prove the importance of addressing and resolving customer complaints with empathy and speaking to customers as human beings - not simply sending an automated message directing them elsewhere with their complaints.
Lack Of an Efficient Customer Service Manager: US Airways’ Poor Customer Service
US Airways (now merged with American Airlines) was experiencing significant debt when they decided to reduce their customer service manager's budget.
As a result, the company’s customer service operations were poor, and the department mishandled many complaints and failed to address and resolve issues effectively.
A scathing article written by an outraged customer described the following issues:
- No system was put in place to deal with recurring problems.
- Cutting costs was prioritised over customer satisfaction.
- Regular, loyal customers were treated dismissively.
- Filling the plane was a top priority, to the detriment of passengers who had already booked.
Many of US Airways’ customers seemed disappointed by their services, and some circumstances were considerably more outrageous than others. In 2013, the airline kicked a blind man and his dog off a plane. When all 35 of the other passengers protested, the flight (which had already been delayed by 2hrs) was cancelled.
Poor customer service and a damaged reputation were just two factors that contributed to US Airways’ eventual bankruptcy in 2004.
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Real-Life Examples of Good Customer Service
When a company puts in the effort to keep its customers happy, it can go a long way. Here are a few brands whose empathy and consideration contributed to their resounding success:
An Efficient Customer Service Manager Experience: Apple’s Good Customer Service
Apple leaves no stone unturned to keep its customers satisfied and loyal. The company has a reliable customer service manager and a personalised support portal, and they are known for approaching their customers with the utmost kindness and respect.
Apple employs the following techniques and principles to ensure a great customer experience:
- Sufficient staff training (which also covers people skills).
- Lead with empathy.
- Listen to understand.
- Creating real value for customers instead of simply selling them a product.
- Personalisation.
You want your customer service manager and staff to be well-trained and enthusiastic about their roles, as this can make customer service more pleasant for clients and employees alike.
While training is key, developing a strong company culture and ethos contributes to staff motivation and morale and can greatly improve business performance. Apple’s excellent customer service proves this.
An Efficient Customer Service Manager Experience: Amazon’s Good Customer Service
Amazon is among the top customer service leaders with a stellar customer service manager.
The company offers free shipping above a certain price, automatic hassle-free refunds, personalised recommendations, and other appealing benefits for customers, all of which help them stand out amid the competition.
Amazon’s customer service is known for the following:
- Understanding their customers.
- Resolving issues attentively and timeously.
- Dealing with problems effectively.
- Remaining calm and collected.
- Maintaining an organised, reliable system of customer complaints resolution.
Amazon’s customer service manager is well-equipped to handle high volumes of queries and complaints seamlessly, which makes interacting with the brand a stress-free experience.
In addition, Amazon’s comprehensive Help Centre is intuitive and informative. They even provide a help forum where members of their community can help each other and share advice and knowledge.
Why You Should Outsource Your Customer Services
A key reason for outsourcing is that it puts otherwise resource and time-intensive tasks in the hands of a third party, thus freeing up your team to focus on your core services.
The benefit of outsourcing to a company specialist in your industry is that they deeply understand the specific industry and its needs. They may have expertise, technologies, and resources that your company does not have. This can help you save time and money by relying on their specialised knowledge and experience rather than developing it in-house.
Additionally, outsourcing to a specialist can give you access to a larger network of contacts and resources to help you grow your business.
Is your business struggling with any of the following? Then it might be time to outsource.
- Immense pressure.
- Employees multitask outside of their job descriptions.
- Financial strain.
- Difficulty meeting employee and customer needs.
- Excessive supply expenses for customer support roles.
- Unmanageable cost of space needed for customer services.
- Difficulty finding suitable candidates locally.
- Stagnation of operations.
- Lack of innovation amongst staff.
- Difficulty adapting and scaling internal customer support operations.
Companies that outsource their customer service manager, help desk, and escalation management have a competitive advantage: their time is better managed, and their core operations become their primary focus. .
Read more about the top 10 business benefits to outsourcing here, and make informed decisions about your customer service manager today.
Deliver Professional Customer Service Management
Take the stress and overwhelm out of customer service management with solverASSIST’s specialised help-service desk and escalation management services.
Our services can help your company reduce costs, streamline business processes, improve overall performance, and drive greater ROI.
solverASSIST also offers technical support for your middleware and monitoring and management requirements, so you don’t need to worry about technical issues disrupting your daily tasks.
Read our complete guide to escalation management to learn how we can help improve your customer service system. If you’re convinced your customer service needs attention, contact us today to get your customer service system up to scratch for 2023.