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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 don’t work, we redesign them. We are making things too complicated. Customer service isn’t 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. Isn’t 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 don’t 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 person’s 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 wouldn’t 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
Compare that to a situation I had with my local insurance agent. I had discovered an incorrect charge on my auto insurance bill and contacted the agent’s office. A very helpful lady worked with me, and agreed that the error should be corrected, but she did not have the authority to change it. She was very sympathetic and concerned for me, and promised to find out what she could do. About three hours later she called ME to tell me that she had resolved the problem. Apparently someone in the central office was at first resistant to removing the charge by my new friend argued my case until they finally gave in and fixed my bill. Wow, was I pleased and impressed!
Speaking of Wow, in his book, The Pursuit of Wow, author Tom Peters states that as many as 90% of customers who change suppliers do so not because of price, but because of poor customer service experiences. Do you have any idea how much that adds up to every year in lost profits that businesses could have kept in their own pockets? We spend all this time and effort– and money– trying to boost the performance of our sales and marketing teams. We could probably equal that production for half the price by investing a little more time and attention in the customer service side of our businesses. Next time you think of customer service, think of more than a slogan. Make a commitment to actually deliver great customer service. It really pays off in the long run.
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April Customer Service Quick Tip of the Month– Ask for a Piece of Their Mind
Too often, when a customer calls customer service, he is more than ready to tell you what he thinks about your product or service, and not usually in a good way. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have something important to say, once you get him calmed down. Your company uses market research all the time when developing new products and services. The reason is obvious – you want to be selling what people want to buy! Why don’t you do the same thing in customer service? You won’t know for sure if your system is really keeping customers satisfied if you never ask (until repeat business drops through the floor). Why not send out an email survey to a customer within 24 hours of his call to your CS department, asking him to rate the way your company took care of him and asking for suggestions? Better yet, contact a sampling of your customers directly by phone, and use a live person to ask the questions. The answers you receive, even if they are not all flattering, can be invaluable for helping you to improve your customer retention rate, and that is a good thing.
