I had a very interesting customer service experience today with my cellular phone provider. Interesting because it covered so many of the elements of Customer Service challenges consumers and companies face on a day to day basis.
The purpose of the call was to change one of the phones on my plan to a BlackBerry from an Android. About 6 phone calls later, at least one disconnected one, and about 8 or 9 representatives , back and forth between two departments, at the end of the final call which lasted close to 2 hours, my request was finally completed.
Being of a service background, and also being someone who manages a customer service team, I came out of the experience identifying several areas where the whole situation could have been avoided. Where the team could have functioned far more efficiently. What amazed me most was that so many issues came up out of one user experience. Issues that basic training or implementation of procedures could have easily solved.
For companies, it brings to the forefront the absolute necessity to do several key things regularly:
- Monitor your call center routing
- Monitor and review phone calls with your representatives. Create training opportunities, develop your talent.
- Hire people with a talent and passion for the work, create environments where this passion and dedication to offering great service is recognized.
- Make sure there are records of client call interactions – so your customer doesn’t have to explain things twice, or worse, three times. Keep a way for people to communicate internally about your clients, so when they call there is a connection, a feeling that you know who they are.
- Team work – serve your client knowing they may call again, lay the groundwork to help your team mates pick up where you left off
- Inter-departmental communication : Make sure there is good teamwork and an attitude of “helping together” not “passing someone off”.
- Accountability – Clearly if a client can call your company and be passed from person to person, never receiving an answer, the reality is there is no tracking of accountability for actually having completed the task at hand : Serving the client.
- Create Guidelines for when to escalate a call – the importance of asking for help.
Hire resourceful people, people who think outside the box, people who can think on their feet, who feel empowered, who feel pride in their work & their mission.- Review your representatives attitude, tone and style. The famous “smile” at the end of the line – can your clients hear it?
It was only once we hit a representative who held a smile in their voice and compassion in their words that we got the issue resolved. This was no coincidence, she was the superstar that saved the day.
The company will likely never notice the hours and man power wasted on an issue that in reality only took 10 minutes to solve. Superstars like our last rep carry the company.
In his presentation at #Brandsconf, Frank Eliason, SVP of Social for Citi, made several excellent points on the customer service experience, one of the most poignant, paraphrased, was that a major issue we face is that senior leadership in companies do not understand the experience their customers are truly having because they do not hear the customer experience, they are hearing what they are being told – they are hearing the “great calls” and thinking the best, leave major gaps in service without even realizing it.
Imagine how efficiency would soar and how sales and retention would increase if the 10 points above were implemented to make a team of superstars, instead of relying on scattered individuals to carry the team.
This has to be a focus and mission for those companies truly interested in giving outstanding service for 2012. The work is up to all of us, and in customer service, we must start with truly being involved, putting people in place to drive a positive experience, and making sure everyone is committed and engaged.
Related articles
- 6 Reasons Companies That Use Social Media Naturally Excel at Customer Service #custserv (milaspage.com)
- 12 Most Stupendous Ways to ROCK Customer Service by Ted Coiné (12most.com)
- 3 Bold Ideas to Help You Screen and Hire The Right Talent for Your Culture (And weed out employees who don’t fit) (myragolden.com)
What have your experiences been? What will your commitment to service be for 2012?
I have asked a roomful of people to raise their hands if they enjoy great customer service. All do, of course. Then I ask those who have received great customer service 100% of the time for their entire lives to keep their hand up. And of course you know the response.
We mess up, we make mistakes, we let customers down but that isn’t a customer service issue IF we fix it and be human about it. You can say that your cellular provider – which sounds eerily like mine – is a large enterprise and there’s no way to keep a high standard of customer service and that would be untrue. Be human and care. No, that isn’t easy to do for a large company that has millions of daily customer interactions but certainly it’s worth a shot.
@KnealeMann You are so right! We all enjoy great customer service, but who can say they get it everywhere they go? You bring up a great point, that we are all human. We have our good days and bad days, and that goes for the people giving customer service as much as the people calling in for help. I think the challenge is for larger organizations to keep managers at all levels accountable for their direct reports. Keep involved, and connected, so that when someone is having a hard time delivering that service, or maybe just need some training to know how to handle a situation in a positive and reassuring way for the client, that there will be someone there to guide and train..always working to improve the customer experience. myragolden has some great tips on training that I have used in my own department, and as simple as the points are, her tips really shine in the call management area – even for experienced reps. We are always learning, we always have to strive to do our best.
It is not easy, but somehow, especially in large corporations who have funding available and resources to hire trainers, they should hold managers accountable, and encourage opportunities for growth.
I love the way you put it, “be human and care” if everyone put a sticky on their computer screen and just took a glance at those guiding words every once in a while, you never know, change in the large coorporations may just be on its way.
its definitely worth a shot Kneale! Thank you for your thoughtful comment!