It’s Not About You: Keep Your Employees Focused on the Customer

When customers call into your contact center, they are looking to have their issues resolved as quickly and effectively as possible. A recitation of your customer service processes and policies does not necessarily serve their interests. An ideal customer care experience will instead focus on the individual, not your business’s imperatives—except for the one that says “put the customer first.”

A customer care Communicator who responds to an inquiry with a statement of policy is anathema to the reason for customer service, as it puts up a wall between Communicator and customer. It shows disrespect for the customer as an individual. Instead, Communicators who feel they can’t positively resolve a customer’s issues should find someone within the organization who can.

Indeed, the experience you create for your customers will directly impact your business’s bottom line, oftentimes significantly, according to a 2017 Forrester report. While Forrester acknowledges the challenge of connecting customer experience (CX) quality with revenue growth, the research company demonstrated—using its own CX Index data—how CX improvements, for the most part, drive customer loyalty and, subsequently, greater profitability.

More important than being right is being considerate and helpful. Customers rate companies more on how they handle issues than whether their products or services have minor issues.

To improve the customer experience in your contact center, try to abide by the following list of do’s and don’ts:

Do:

• Acknowledge the validity of the customer’s complaint, and show empathy for his or her trouble.
• Seek help from an expert in the organization for customer questions you can’t answer.
• Listen! Don’t be so committed to your script that you miss connecting emotionally with your callers.
• Consider backing up your customer service actions with a promotional gift, such as a discount on a future purchase, to inspire the customer’s loyalty and good will.
• Be human/authentic. That is, avoid sounding robotic and/or disinterested.
• Treat the caller as a unique individual. Don’t lump his or her complaint into a global category that makes addressing it unlikely.
• Connect customers with someone in service who speaks their language.
• Distinguish between personal and professional behavior. While the Communicator may not be personally responsible for a product defect, for example, he or she is professionally responsible as a representative of the company.
• Be polite and friendly.

Don’t:

• Use foul language. Ever.
• Label customers or call them names, like stupid, fat, rude and obnoxious. (It’s happened.)
• Quote policy.
• Expect customers to know or care about your processes.
• Pass the buck. If you can help, then do help; don’t ask an associate to do it for you.
• Blame the customer for the product or service issue.
• Refer the customer to another support source, such as a doctor or the Internet.
• Say there’s nothing you can do to help.
• Contradict the customer. If he or she says something happened, assume it did.
• Be sarcastic; don’t act frustrated or angry. Be empathetic instead.