Asking questions and solving problems with online customer service can be a great experience but let's face it, sometimes it's also mega frustrating. Customer service annoyances range from endless wait times to robotic responses - it can have quite a negative impact on your day. No doubt you've experienced it yourself on several occasions!

Several recent surveys show that many people have the same experiences that turn out to be the biggest annoyances. Consequently, these are the very points that customers cite in reviews, which in turn can cost you new customers.

We have listed the six biggest annoyances for you so your customer service can avoid them and improve your customer service. From now on, your customers will have only positive experiences. Use it to your advantage!

Long waiting times (or being unavailable)

Customers are often terribly annoyed by long wait times when receiving a response to their questions or problems. Twinkle research shows that wait times can range from 12 to 30 hours!

Tip: if you offer customer service, make sure you always have people on standby to assist your customers! Also, if you have an online store, make sure you always have a customer service team on standby in the evenings and weekends. It is a missed opportunity if you are not available at the very times when your customers are shopping!

Long filter menus

Opening a chat and seeing six different options to choose from but the one you need is just not there, so you click the next best thing and then you get five options again. Terribly irritating, also because you know you're not going to get out this way.

Tip: if you absolutely must filter out questions, limit it to the minimum necessary and always offer an option to speak directly to a customer service representative.

Impersonal answers

The feeling that there is absolutely no empathy on the other side of the screen is one of the biggest frustrations of customers. Standardized or robotic responses and interactions lead to annoyance and new complaints. Not something you want as a business.

However tempting, research by Kassa shows that 42% of consumers find chatbots annoying.

Again, limit the use of these types of bots to an absolute minimum. In addition, make sure your team is trained to empathize with the customer's situation.

Unclear communication

Confusing and unclear communication apparently happens too often. Technical jargon, unclear agreements, failure to return a question, etc.

It is important to be very clear so the customer knows what to expect. Be clear in language, make clear promises and keep them.

Asking for the same information

When there is a lack of coordination between customer service agents or when a chatbot cannot provide the right help and keeps coming back to the same question, the customer gets caught in a "vicious cycle" of giving the same information. How annoying!

Tip: always read the conversation history and make sure 1 person or team is responsible for resolving, so the customer is not sent from pillar to post.

Not providing a solution

Failure to solve problems effectively is a major source of annoyance. The frustration increases further when no compassion or alternative is shown. The customer is forced to seek help through other channels or, at worst, write a negative review.

Give the customer immediate confidence that they have come to the right place with you, and always confirm at the end if the customer was well served.

How to proceed?

All of this, of course, can negatively affect your entire customer satisfaction. Ultimately, it can damage your reputation and cost you customers. This is exactly what you should avoid in every way possible.

Now you may be wondering how best to do that?

Deploy smart tools and technology

There are several options. One option is to move from only human employees to a combination of employees and technology support. This mix allows you to provide super service to your customers.

Through smart technology you are always accessible, waiting times are minimal and all customer data comes together so you no longer have to send the customer from pillar to post. Think for example of tools that make order data from your webshop directly visible to your customer service team. This way they don't have to keep the customer waiting unnecessarily while they are searching.

Because an employee is always involved, you do not sacrifice that important personal touch and the employee can focus on the solution and more complex issues because the technology picks up small and repetitive issues.

Important: So this is a hybrid approach where a customer service representative works with together technology. So don't confuse this with being confident that you can leave it to a tool such as a chatbot alone, only to call in a person when frustrations are already running high.

Outsource customer service

And at Hikari CS, let's face it, this is exactly how we work. Supported by smart technology, our customer service agents ensure that you can always be reached when and where you want, plus those annoying wait times are minimized. Want to know more about outsourcing your company's customer service? Then take a look at our solutions!