Taking Real Action to Improve the Quality of Customer Service

For all the efforts companies today go through to try and improve the customer experience, there is evidence that’s it’s not working very well. Customer complaints are increasing, and not decreasing. Part of the reason for this may be the attitude that many companies still have when it comes to customer service: it’s something to be suffered rather than mastered.

No matter how well you use marketing vehicles to convince customers that your company will serve their needs and meet their expectations, if your organization fails where the rubber meets the road – when customers first call in or send a message – you’re undoing all the work of marketing and advertising, according to a recent article by Jennifer Lonoff Schiff writing for CIO.

“Companies spend tens of thousands of dollars (or more) promoting their brand, trying to create a positive image,” she wrote. “Yet often they treat customer support, which can be a customer’s first point of contact with the company, as a necessary evil. Many businesses make it difficult for customers to get the help they need – creating a negative impression.”

Once that negative impression is created, companies will have a hard time making up for it…if customers give them the opportunity at all. So rather than guessing what will improve customers’ perception of their organization, companies need to be examining their own customers pet peeves’ and taking concrete steps to correct them. This may include:

Better training for agents. Agents dropped into real customer contact too quickly will become flustered, confused and burned out, and that attitude will be picked up by customers. One of customers’ biggest irritants is when agents are rude or don’t know the answers to their questions. This can be remedied with better hiring processes (not just any “warm body” will do), more extensive and ongoing training, easier desktop applications that eliminate duplicated effort and input errors, and better supporting documentation that helps agents find the answers they require.

Longer hours for customers. Chances are good that your customers aren’t using your products or services only during the hours of 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. When a customer picks up the phone at 6:00 pm and finds your organization has checked out for the day, his or her irritation will likely mount. This may mean adding shifts to an internal contact center or contracting for longer hours with an outsourcer.

“If your company has the bandwidth to do so, provide 24/7 phone-based support,” Hossein Ghazizadeh, Vp of Technical Support for Barracuda, told CIO. “There is nothing worse than calling a customer support line when you need assistance only to get a recording telling you to call back during normal business hours.”

Pick your channels. While in a perfect world, companies could serve all customers flawlessly via any channel they choose, it’s not always practicable. Poll customers to determine which channels they use the most and become proficient at customer service via those channels…even if they are social media or text messaging. Customers should determine the channels…not companies.

“Organizations must remember that without the right infrastructure and resources in place, trying to be everywhere can result in being nowhere,” wrote Marije Gould for Business Computing World. “Instead, they must critically evaluate the channels that will give them the best presence among their customer base, and focus on delivering excellence on these based on current resources, whilst working towards a more long term omnichannel strategy.”

Trying to be all things to all customers isn’t a great strategy. Neither is giving up and writing off customer support as a necessary evil. Companies today need to find a successful niche in servicing customers the way they want to be serviced, but they need to base their approach on the wishes and desires of their customers. 

Edited by Stefania Viscusi