Good customer service experience starts with several big factors. But, before we get into exactly what, let’s step back, and talk about something that we often mention. We say this a lot, so we may seem like a broken record, but for new readers, this point needs to be hammered home every chance we get. It’s that important.
Your customer service is what will make or break you. You can have an amazing product or service, you can have a terrific brand, prices that can’t be beat, but if your customer service experience is a lousy one, you’re up a creek, friends. This is what people judge you for. Think about it. When you’re in a circle of consumers yourself, think of how often you hear, “Well, I like that product, but once I got a defective one, and the lady on the phone was a rude, unhelpful something or other”.
So, it’s important to know what good customer service experience starts, continues and ends with, because no matter how good your wares are, it’s not going to help you if this goes wrong. So, what does it start with?
The first thing it starts with is convenience. The moment the customer has to be inconvenienced in order to contact you, that’s a drop in quality by the perception of the customer. Some people find having to pick up the phone to be an inconvenience. It may seem odd at first, but some people genuinely don’t like phones at all, or dealing with people directly. I confess, I partially fall into this group, and there’s a chance you may too. So, a good mark of quality is to have multiple channels they can choose from. Social networks, help desks, chat systems, a million options exist.
What else does it start with? Speed! No matter what channel they use, speed is a huge issue. On phones, eliminating phone trees, hold times and other time wasting nonsense are a start. Having dedicated staff for help desks, social channels and other systems to make it fast is a huge boost to quality.
People aren’t patient when it comes to already having issues, so focusing on speed and first contact resolution should be a priority.
However, along with this, it also starts with a congenial, empathetic attitude. Showing friendliness, but understanding of their being upset, and conveying a genuine desire to remedy the problem – showing contriteness – is very helpful. Nobody likes rude or apathetic customer service agents, no matter the channel being used.
Finally, it starts with empowering the customers to deal with their own problems were possible. Self-service is not only practical now, it’s becoming mandatory. Implementing frameworks like WalkMe to guide users through handling technical problems or inquiries that shouldn’t need them wasting their time with agents gives a sense of convenience and modernity that resonates with customers greatly. People don’t mind “do it yourself” like they once did. There’s a reason buffets are popular in a sea of restaurants that wait on people, after all.
So, good customer service starts with a good attitude, convenience for different preferences of communication, speed, and empowering them.