Customer experience & service is in a beautiful renaissance right now, with energy, innovation and progress accelerating. Fast growing organizations realize that customer service is a key driver of customer lifetime value, and the individuals leading these teams are motivated and empowered. Magic is starting to happen.
In this fruitful, fast-changing environment though, it can be easy to lose sight of the basics. So let’s take a brief moment to remind ourselves. Here are the ABCs of good customer service:
1 – Be available
2 – Be fast
3 – Leave customers happy
Let’s dive in deeper…
After your customer has made their purchase, their motivation changes. Pre-purchase touchpoints are about pleasure, shopping is fun! Post-purchase touchpoints are about task completion, there is something they need or want from you. When the motivation is task completion, your goal is to make it as quick and easy as possible for your customer to successfully cross that item off their to-do list.
1 – BE AVAILABLE
When and how your customer decides to engage, you need to be there. Whether they want to call on Saturday morning or email you Tuesday afternoon or live chat you Friday night, it’s your job to be in the channel they choose and prepared to serve them. Understand where your customers go when they want you, and be there.
2 – BE FAST
When your customer has chugged their coffee and gone into productivity mode on their to-do list, be the fastest item to cross off. Answer them immediately and complete their request swiftly, with no hold time, transfers between agents, or needs for follow-up touchpoints on the same situation. Basically the opposite of this quite funny SNL parody.
3 – LEAVE CUSTOMERS HAPPY
If your customer is satisfied with the outcome and appreciates how they were served, they will buy more from you in the future and feel positively towards your brand. Delight customers with quick answers to their simple questions, and honest compassionate handling of bigger mistakes or more complex situations.
Of course this is easier said than done, but keep these pillars front of mind. Talk about them, evaluate against them. Do your KPIs sufficiently capture it? Is new technology meaningfully advancing you towards one or multiple of them? Are any of your processes contradictory?
We understand the capacity problem, budget and staffing have serious limitations, and these are lofty goals. But this is a renaissance! Keep experimenting, and innovating, and pushing the boundaries, just make sure you keep your eye on the prize.
