As technological advances continue to change the way companies operate, it’s important to keep your focus on two main goals:
- Make sure your technological solutions provide real value for your company
- Use technology to provide the best customer experience to your customers.
Many companies waste a lot of money on new technology without getting any true value from it. The CustomerThink article article “Throwing Money at the Customer Service Problem” by Ben Noble explains how companies are wasting their money on technology without addressing the real customer service issue.
Many contact centers in the last 5-10 years have been raising their spend on technology to increase their customer service levels. This technology includes additional communication channels (social media and IVR, for example) and high-powered CRMs. However, the article states that customer satisfaction levels have either remained flat or slightly declining despite spending more on technology. It’s very hard to increase a company’s customer satisfaction levels, so contact centers often feel that spending more money on technological solutions will help fix the problem. But what they should be doing is diving deeper into the psychology behind customer satisfaction. This isn’t entirely the fault of the call center. An increasing number of customers expect, and even demand, to find the solutions on their own via online message boards and search engines. Because of this, contact centers have shifted their focus on other issues, which lead to flat or declining CSAT ratings.
Contact center agents can do their best to use all the CRM technology on customers in order to solve their issues, but even then, the article states that the highest satisfaction rating they’ll achieve will be between 50 and 60 percent. Technology isn’t enough; the contact center agents need to understand the customer’s frustration and why they’re calling your company. The customer on the line is angry that your product/service didn’t deliver to their expectations and, often, they have called your contact center multiple times in the past without getting consistent information from representatives. In short, it’s not a matter of whether or not you solve the problem; it’s about treating the customer as a human being by providing empathy and appreciation.
So, how can contact center agents effectively convey empathy and appreciation? By simply acknowledging facts about the customer’s journey, such as how long they’ve been a supporter of the company, and by letting them know you’re sorry that they’ve had to call numerous times without a resolution, the agent can provide a more satisfactory customer experience than if they had simply given a quick solution. Acknowledge their frustration and previous challenges and you’ll be able to give customers the experience they deserve. The article points out the following items that fall under potential acknowledgement points to mention on calls:
- Previous customer service experiences
- Years of customer’s dedication to your company
- How much money they’ve spent at your company
- The customer’s level of frustration, anger, etc.
It’s one thing to have cutting-edge technology, but the true significance comes with knowing how to use that technology. Focus on your customers at a real, human level and you’ll succeed in providing satisfactory customer experiences.
Our blog post was based on an article by CustomerThink. To read the original article, please click the link below:
Throwing money at the customer service problem – Ben Noble
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