Archive for category: Culture

From Boring to Dynamic: How to Provide Exceptional Customer Service

07 May 2013/0 Comments/in Culture, Customer Service, Excellence/by Patrick Strahan

It’s no secret that customer service sectors of companies often drop the ball when it comes to properly dealing with an inquiry or problem voiced by the consumer.

While there are of course exceptions, plenty of exceptions to be exact, the reverse side of the coin is also present, and more often than not it’s landing on this side. In a recent study put out by the Forester Customer Support Experience Index, only 37% of businesses, brands and companies received a great to excellent score. What of the rest? The remaining businesses received a less than desirable, “OK” to “very poor” rating, making the desired score the exception.

Customer service from good to great

The study went on to say that this poor customer service lost companies more than 83 billion dollars in losses both from consumer defectors and loss in revenue due to abandoned purchases.

3 Keys to taking your customer service experience to the next level

So how do you avoid being a statistic and give your clients and consumers some of the best customer service around? Consider some of the pointers below.

Ditch the Script

While there is a benefit to having your customer support team responding to like issues with the same solution, having a specific script that must be adhered to at all times should never be the case. Sure those first handful of interactions may come across genuine, but I guarantee you that after the 200^th the customer service rep who has said the same scripted dialogue since their time at your company is going to come off more like a robot then a real person.

Instead open up the floor and allow your staff to throw in their own personal flairs, anecdotes and greetings. Customers and consumers want to be treated as unique individuals not as one of the masses.

Get Personal

Encourage your support team to move out of the gamut of business and more into a personal, casual conversation. I don’t remember a lot of my customer support experiences. For one, I often call support at one of the worst times in my use of the company’s products and two, most of the interactions are the same across the board. You answer a few security questions, you may or may not be transferred a few times and a span of time later, you are wished a great day. However, I can recall a few times when the exceptions occurred. I get my car insurance through Geico and I’ll be darned if not every time I call I feel like I’m actually talking to someone who cares. I recall one time I was on the phone the customer service specialist and I began to talk about a recent trip I took overseas. How this came up I can’t be certain, but look what happened, four years later I remembered and I’m writing about it, so they must have done something right.

Sure, these moment might cost your company a few extra bucks in the long run as talk times will go up when specialist put in a little more effort to each call, but creating brand loyalty with a consumer through a great customer support experience simply cannot be monetized.

Embrace Social Sharing

There is no denying that social sharing is the future of customer support. As we continue to hurdle into a future that fully digitized and automated, consumers will become more proficient with things like Twitter and Facebook, driving up the need for real time answer to real time problems.

The solution? Embrace it now. Amp up your presence on social media. Let your consumers know that you are there and you are listening. Engage these users one on one, get personal. These little touches do wonders for improving your social standings with your consumer demographic.

The same Forester study that was quoted at the beginning of the piece also stated that customers who are engaged via social media spend on average 20 to 40% more than the customer who is not. So what are you waiting for? Get Tweeting! Go update that status!

Rewards and Incentives

Employees thrive in environments where they see that the work they do is not only recognized but rewarded. Sure, you can come from the antiquated camp that a pay check every two weeks or so is reward enough but research shows that when properly motivated, employees are not only more efficient workers, but happier. Happier employees equals happier clients.

In 2012, only 47% of companies rewarded their customer support specialists for great work. Pump up that percentage. Rewards don’t need to be huge, a small incentive can go a long way.

Don’t Delay, Act Now!

Quickly responding to a customer support ticket is an essential part of giving the highest quality of customer care. When customer support becomes partly automated through web-forms and emails, they can be easier to neglect. Don’t drop the ball. Just because these emails don’t have a voice attached to them doesn’t make them all the less important. When your customer support team fails to act in a timely manner, you risk fallout on a number of fronts. From losses in revenue to bad recognition on social media, always aim to give the highest form of care possible. Speed and all.

2013 is still ticking away and with it, the studies and scores for how industries across the US handle their customer support it also being tallied. Boost your customer support department with some of these tips or perhaps see where you are lacking and make your own changes.

Have any other great tips? I would love to hear from you. Leave your comments below or email me directly at pstrahan@help-desk-software.com.

You May Not Be As Customer Service Focused As You Think

01 May 2013/2 Comments/in Culture, Customer Service, Management/by Flavio Martins

The natural human tendency to think we are more than what we actually are is dangerous when it comes to being customer service focused.

You may not be as customer service focused as you think you are. Everyone knows the importance of customer service. We may preach customer service and think that our people, our team, and our organizations are customer centric, but there’s a natural human tendency to think ourselves more than what we truly are.

Customer service focus

Just because you can shoot a basketball, doesn’t make you a basketball player.
Just because you can cook a meal, doesn’t make you chef.
Just because you keep a budget, doesn’t make you a financial wizard.

Just because you think customer service, doesn’t make you customer service focused.

Much of our daily customer service work is distributed across a number of projects and focused on complete many different tasks. Each one of these contributes in some part to the overall strategic goal of the organization. So when you step back and break down the tasks you are performing each day, how are they contributing to your customer service mission? It’s more than just knowing what is good customer service. Are you really contributing to developing exceptional customer service experiences? Are you actually satisfying customer relationship needs?

Often times when we honestly review our daily actions we’ll find that many of them had little overall effect on real customer service. We fill our calendar with meetings and can check off a number of boxes on our to-do list, but if we were to poll our customers, would they say that these contributed to a better customer service experience?

Unleash the power of exceptional customer service experiences

Until we learn to identify the most positive customer relationship building tasks and focus on filling our to-do lists with than with other administrative duties, we’ll never see the full power of exceptional customer relationships within our organizations. It takes more than just regular customer service training. We have to learn to constantly and consistently review our behaviors, preferences, expectations, and workplace rituals and center those on activities that create the most positive customer service experience.

Too often as we build new teams and join new organizations, even though we set out to raise the bar of customer service, we simply revert to doing the same things that have been done before.

Lack of bottom-line impact from customer experience isn’t the fault of the experience, but the practitioner

Many organizations today dismiss customer service and customer experience as ineffective at driving the bottom line. We set high goals for developing customer experiences, but then set out by performing the same customer-neutral tasks that have been done before. The result is the same level of customer engagement that we’ve seen in the past.

Take a look at the typical behaviors of those with whom you work. What are the typical choices and decisions that are made when your people work with customers. How do you manage your customer contact channels and what level of attention to you give to general customer feedback and the experience that takes place during typical customer interactions. It may surprise you how little influence your “culture of customer” actually is being translated into every day customer action.

Don’t be discouraged in customer service well-doing

The key is not to be discouraged at this revealing self-examination. Think of it as therapy. In order to REALLY take a step in the right direction, you have to determine which direction you need to go. Revealing the weaknesses in customer focus implementation is part of the process of becoming service-focused aware. The more light you shine on the true nature of your customer service practices, the clearer the direction you need to go becomes.

As the path to great customer service become more clear to you, and as you begin to better understand the nature of your service-based actions, the greater the ability to connect your practices to the customer service vision will be.

Value in Customer Service Creates Lasting Customer Loyalty

30 Apr 2013/1 Comment/in Culture, Customer Experience, Customer Service/by Flavio Martins

April is International Customer Loyalty Month, and what have you done to show your customers your appreciation for keeping you in business?

It’s not too late, if you haven’t done so, tell one of your customers you appreciate them today. Start with picking out just one customer interaction and doing something different to show your appreciation. It will change your day, and chances are, it’ll make a difference to your customer too.

Winning customer service experience

Going out of your way each day to make a special phone call, send a specific email or just taking a few extra seconds to tell your customers you appreciate them goes a long way in changing the mindset of what customer service means to your organization. As this idea begins to spread within you, your team, and your organization, a new fire for customer service experiences will ignite and the result often is a greater level of customer loyalty between your customers and your organization.

Loyalty = Great Service + Confidence

A 2012 article by Mila D’Antonio in “1 to 1 Media”, outlined the important of making the extra effort to deliver exceptional customer service experiences and the value it creates in generating greater customer loyalty. It makes the case that spending a little bit more time, efforts, and sometimes $, really does pay back in exceptional customer loyalty returns.

88% of customers indicate that quality often is the key factor in remaining loyal to a brand

Price often is touted as the key decision maker when it comes to choosing a product or service. True, but only for some specific customer segments. But then again, when you compete in price, you’re almost always giving up on delivering quality and experience. For those whose services aren’t simply a commodity and are priced at a reasonable market rate, it’s critical that the right experience is created in order to bring in customers and keep them once you have them.

Quality, service, and experience is the glue that sticks customers to you.

The founder of our technology company often told the story of his first customer. When he started the company, he was the only employee. He was working out of the basement of his in-law’s home, with a cell phone in one hand and his young baby in the background. That first customer was special. That first customer order was a celebration. It’s an experience he’ll never forget. Someone took a chance on him and he was going to do whatever that customer asked because that order meant everything to him at that time.

As our organizations grow, it’s easy to take customers for granted. Suddenly one single customer order will no longer make or break the business. We can afford to lose a customer here or there, we can afford to skimp on service a bit. But the problem is that by the time this mentality sets in, it’s no longer just a little bit but a pattern of being de-committed to serving customers. By this time, we’ve already learned to manage by spreadsheets and disconnect ourselves from the needs and wants of customers and focused more on the bottom-line and what we know to be best.

Your customers deserve more

Customers today expect more than this. Customers want and deserve a special service experience. This doesn’t mean giving everything away, but it means dedicating our efforts and systems to delivering results in a polished, professional, and complete solution. Don’t let your product or service become a commodity. Let service and experience add the premium value that will develop long term customer loyalty.

How to Give Customer a Great Service in a Startup

23 Apr 2013/0 Comments/in Culture, Customer Experience, Customer Service/by Cristian Rennella

Customer service at start-ups isn’t hindered by any existing corporate bureaucracies, and have the unique advantage of being able to build a customer service culture from the ground up.

In any start up, the attention and care that is provided to customers is particularly important; a good customer service in the long term, will probably aid in the creation of a positive image, resulting – if our product or service is an offer of interest—in more sales and increased customer loyalty.

Customer Service Red Tape

If the clients´ expectations are not fulfilled, they will just not consume what is offer, they will complain or even worse, they will tell their acquaintances that they were badly treated.

There are some rules that should be followed to provide a good customer service:

1) Use customer service to listen effectively

The first thing that has to be remembered is the importance of listening customers. It is important to maintain an open and fluid communication with current and potential consumers. This allows a constant contact with the clients and enables companies to understand their needs and adapt the offer or create new ones that can satisfy their requirements.

This rule is very significant and the only things that is need is time and desire to do it. When listening and understanding the clients, always beat expectations.

2) Post-sale monitoring with customer service

It is a mistake to think that the relationship with customers finish once the sale is made; on the contrary, this is just the beginning. The relationship begins when the client recognizes the existence of a brand and they want to buy what is offered.

Once the decision to purchase is made, it is a good idea to maintain a close relation with the customers, for instance via text messages, Facebook, Twitter accounts, forums, or emails. It is important to maintain that relationship by asking them about their experiences with the products and services and to inform them about the latest news. This task can be carried out by any company and does not require a huge investment of money, just spending a some time. The result will gives a lot of information to improve the offer.

3) Qualified customer service staff

A starting entrepreneurship does not probably have a customer support staff. However, designate a persons to be in charge of solving the different situations that can appear when the products or services are being used, is essential. This person who has direct contact with potential or existing customers has a great obligation; it is because of them that a customer can fell satisfied or not with a company. They are the face of the company; and depending on the attention the customers received, shall be de perception and the opinion they have. Therefore, it is necessary to pay special attention to this selection.

4) Give effective customer service answers

The customer is always right, or not? What must be understood is that the customer has not the absolute reason about things, but they have their own reason based on their subjective view of reality. A company should never respond directly to a client´s request by refusing it; on the contrary, it is essential to listen to what the client wants and to give an answer to this, being as comprehensive as possible. Even though the company should not do what the client wants, it should provide the clients with a rational explanation that see eye to eye with the parameters and values that the enterprise handles.

Customer service complaints offer a great opportunity

Nowadays, complaints can be a great threat. Because of the new technologies, people can express their thought through forums or using the social networks and with a simple search, the company can become associated with negative information. Therefore, it is essential for every enterprise to develop rules like the once explained before to efficiently manage the customer service and to really care for the clients because they are what gives support to every enterprise.

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Archive for category: Culture

From Boring to Dynamic: How to Provide Exceptional Customer Service

It’s no secret that customer service sectors of companies often drop the ball when it comes to properly dealing with an inquiry or problem voiced by the consumer.