Great customer service is kind of like the weather everybody talks about it but nobody every does anything about it. You know what I mean; we all say we are dedicated to delivering great customer service, yet we tolerate mediocrity right under our noses. We design elaborate customer service systems, and when they dont work, we redesign them. We are making things too complicated. Customer service isnt about a system; it is about good people taking the time to give good service to good people. Customers just want someone to care about their needs when something goes wrong. Isnt that what you want when you call customer service? Treat your customers like you would want to be treated and you will be a long way down the road toward fixing the problem.
Too many customer service reps today secretly have the attitude that customer calls are an intrusion, an annoying interruption in their otherwise peaceful day. Instead of seeing calls as an opportunity to help people, they often view callers as unreasonable, irrational nuisances who just dont get it. It should be no surprise when customers pick up on those attitudes and decide to take their business elsewhere. When they do, they take your future profits with them! What an unnecessary loss that is.
There are a number of things that companies can do to encourage a higher level of customer service. Bonuses and raises tied to great customer service performance provide a helpful incentive. Empowering employees to go out of their way to deal with customer concerns is also a great idea. However, for me there are two other factors that never fail to elevate the quality of customer service. First of all, hire great people. Pay attention to personality and people skills, and look for employees who seem to care about more than just getting a paycheck. Next, give them great training. For instance, our customer service training program focuses on being able to understand and listen for a persons needs so that you can find ways to be constructive and responsive. If you spend as much time on training your employees to be caring as you do on how to run the software on your system, you will significantly improve your customer satisfaction rate. And keep their money in your pocket.
A couple of recent customer service experiences I have had clearly prove my point. Not too long ago I had a problem with a local utility company. It was a foul up in their billing system and nothing to do with me at all, except that it was causing me a great inconvenience. I made multiple calls to their customer service line over several months; each time a very vague and apathetic CSR told me they would look into it, but it never was corrected. Finally, I called and asked to speak with someone who could guarantee that the problem would be fixed TODAY. I was put on hold and passed around, but I wouldnt get off the line until I was certain I had the answer I wanted. After more than 30 minutes on the phone, I finally spoke to someone in another COUNTRY somewhere in South America, I think and the problem was resolved. Almost four months after I had first reported the problem..
