Why Scripts Are Still Needed For Customer Service Calls

In her recent article, Teresa Allen discusses the topic of utilizing customer service scripts. Many companies give their call center agents scripts to use in their customer interactions, but there is an argument that using scripts can remove the emotional connection from the customer experience by making the interaction robotic. While requiring scripts for every single type of call might lead to some stuffy customer interactions, Allen believes that eliminating call center scripts completely would be a mistake and they’re necessary to keep as a guide.

To demonstrate why scripting is necessary, Allen recounts a time when her daughter used her credit card to make a purchases, only to have the purchase denied. Allen called the company and assured them that she approved of the transactions, only to find out that the purchases had been denied again. She called the company once more and asked to speak with a manager, which the call center agent responded by telling her that no supervisor could speak with her. When she asked the call center agent if she could explain why the issue was occurring, the agent told her that the system was out of control. To add insult to injury, the call center agent told Allen that a supervisor would call her back, but they never called.

This frustrating customer experience could have been avoided if the company had done their research and created scripts to handle necessary explanations for potential customer complaints and pain points. Allen says that with a script, a company can empower their agents to give responses to customers that give them confidence in your company instead of appearing incompetent. In addition to scripting, Allen recommends that call centers have supervisors available at all times so they can speak to customers who need to escalate their complaint to people with more authority in the company. Finally, companies need to live up to the expectations they present to their customers. If a company promises to handle all of their customer interactions a certain way, and their training and procedures aren’t delivering results that reflect this promise, the company will disappoint its customers and will see negative effects.

A customer experience needs to be filled with empathy from the call center agent and flow in an organic, conversational rhythm. However, companies need to also remember that the main reason customers are calling them is to get information or to voice a complaint. If customers aren’t getting the information they need, it won’t matter how “natural” or “organic” the flow of the conversation was with the customer service representative. Call center agents should be allowed some leeway with how they handle interactions from customer to customer, but Allen points out that companies also need to keep scripts available as a guide or aid for the tough times when customers need specific information.

This blog post is based on an article from Teresa Allen: Customer Service Speaker. To read the original article, please click the link below:

Why Customer Service Scripting IS Necessary – Teresa Allen