Pre-emptive Customer Service

 

I don’t know how or when this happened, but more and more these days we seem to think of customer service in terms of the best way to handle customers when they come to us with a complaint or a problem they have encountered as a result of doing business with us. Of course, when this happens, we want to be professional, patient, and helpful, and do everything within our power to resolve the issue to the customer’s complete satisfaction.

But should that be all there is to customer service? What about doing everything we can to make the customer’s interaction with our company as satisfying as it can possibly be so that they have fewer problems and a more positive experience right from the get go? By taking this proactive approach to dealing with customers, you should be able to pre-empt most of your subsequent customer service complaints before they ever happen.

Try some of these tips for pre-emptive customer service:

1. Hire great people – personable, knowledgeable, and intelligent, and dedicated to serving customers instead of staggering through to their next break. Also, train them WELL. This will give them more confidence, make them more effective and provide better value for the customer experience. Yes, it costs more to do it this way, but I promise you it will make more money for you over time.
2. Think like a customer – deliver your services and products to the customer in a way that is appealing and valuable to the customer, even if it is more work for you. Don’t you just hate it when you walk into your neighborhood supermarket and discover that they have totally rearranged the store and relocated all the stock– AGAIN! This really burns me up. Why would anyone want to purposely infuriate good customers? Because some marketing genius told them that if they would keep switching things around it would force customer to look for stuff, and in the process of looking they would notice more "great bargains" the store has to offer. Balderdash. All I know is that as a customer, I am offended by it and I don’t know anyone who isn’t. For Heaven’s sake, don’t offend your customers on purpose (they are easy enough to offend as it is). If you would just apply the Golden Rule to your customer experience, preemptive customer service would happen automatically all the time.
3. Think for your customer – this requires a little more creativity, but it can really pay off. This is simply a matter of asking good questions, observing your customer’s behavior, going out of your way to discover their needs and interests, and offering them products and services BEFORE the ask for them. This isn’t as hard as it sounds; you just have to pay attention instead of just continuing to do what you have always done. Who would have thought that creating a little website where people could post their own bits of video would become such a huge over- night sensation? The creators of YouTube are fabulously wealthy today because they thought FOR their customers– even BEFORE they had customers! Pay attention; you can do the same thing.
4. Finally, the magic bullet of all customer service– especially pre-emptive customer service: give people more than they expect. You can never go wrong by going out of your way to give extra value, especially if it is noticeably more than your competitors are doing. Your customer complaints will go down and stay down if you would just try harder to give them more than they ask for in the first place.

 

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August Customer Service Quick Tip of the Month – Clue In To Vocal Cues

On one level, customer service can be pretty simple; answer the next call, click over to the right screen, read the script, pick an option, have a nice day, and keep moving. You followed the protocols but did you really meet the customer’s needs? An important part of finding a solution for you customer is providing that point of human contact that says to them, "I hear you, I know how you feel, I am here to help." One of the most powerful ways to do this is to match your pace and tone of voice to theirs. Do they sound sad and overwhelmed? Choose a tone that is sympathetic, kind and patient. Do they sound just a little bit outraged? Pick up the pace and add a little intensity to your voice as if to say, "I hear you, man. That would tick me off, too!" Listen to the message behind the message–the one that their vocal cues reveal, and then respond in a way that lets your customer know they have been heard and understand.