What great qualities you should look for when dealing with customer service

Customer service experiences can run the gamut. We’ve all heard about how “Company X” is really great at customer service or how “Company Y” consistently falls short on delivering to it’s customers. Instead of providing yet another ranking or article about which companies are good and bad in handling their customers, we want to focus our attention on the attributes that define good customer service. Based off user feedback as well as our team of experts that have handled thousands of interactions with all of the major businesses in the US, we were able to pull out four key components that help define companies that excel at customer service.

Companies that excel at customer service want your business versus companies that have to deal with your business. There’s a key distinction between companies that want your business and companies feel like they have to deal with you because you do business with them. Companies that want your business are quick to respond, are pleasant to deal with, and make it seem like your issue is the only one that matters at that moment. Companies that have to deal with you are companies that know you don’t have many other options, put in the minimal effort, and often times give off an attitude that you are more of a burden to them than anything else.

One of our users recently was looking to do some work on their home. They contacted one of the big box home improvement stores to request an estimate. Thy also requested a similar estimate from a smaller contractor. The call to the smaller contractor was responded to quickly, the representative was nice and followed up promptly and the rep genuinely was interested in the best outcome for the client. The big box store on the other hand had a long hold time to speak to someone, setting up an appointment required multiple calls, and even though the contractor that showed up was pleasant to deal with, the whole interaction had a sour taste to it since it started out so poorly. Not surprisingly, the user went with the smaller, more attentive contractor.

This isn’t to say that you should always avoid the bigger companies and stick to smaller companies, but instead you should focus on the company that you get a good feeling with after minimal interaction. You want to make sure you do business with companies that you feel good about.

Companies that excel at customer service focus on hiring and training — Some big companies engrain customer experience into their culture from the hiring phase. They look for employees that are energetic and customer focused and help them build their customer focused skill set with superior training. These companies also give their employees leeway when it comes to

handling customers. Companies like Zappos and Ritz Carlton give the customer experience team money to make corrections to accounts, and spend on things that help provide a better experience on the spot versus other companies that may need to seek a supervisor approval, thus dragging the entire experience out. This may not seem like much, but think about it from a customer perspective, would you rather have your interaction dealt with all at once with one phone call? Or would you rather have it unfold over multiple interactions? Which gets me to my next point:

Companies that excel at customer service focus on timely interactions — No one likes waiting on hold. The sheer thought of it drives some people to not even want to deal with the issue itself, so they don’t even make the call. Good companies have zero or very little wait time, and they do this because they want to make sure your interaction with them starts off on the right foot, before they even know what the problem you are calling about is.

We had another user contact us for help dealing with a price drop from West Elm. Despite the fact that they made their purchase in store, when reporting the problem with the invoice to the store manager, the store manager insisted the user call the national 800 number to get help with their problem.

The only issue is that every time the user called the number, there was a 30 minute wait to even speak to someone. Even if it’s not the case, there’s a feeling from the user that the company doesn’t care about them because they moved the issue from the store to the call center, only to have the user be immediately greeted by a long wait to speak to someone. There’s a perception that the company doesn’t care by passing the buck and forcing someone to wait, even if that wasn’t the intention.

Companies that excel at customer service treat you like a real person — This may not seem like a big deal but it really is. Excellent customer service reps show empathy to your situation and often times follow up or follow through until the final resolution. Put another way, they are able to separate job function from the fact that they too are real human beings and would like to be treated fairly themselves.

One of our users recently missed a flight with United Airlines due to a death in the family. Not only did the rep who answered the phone understand the situation and tried to do everything she could to help make rescheduling the flight as pleasant as possible, she continually made comments to our user how sorry she was for her loss and even shared a similar experience. This isn’t something that can be read on the script.

We have also heard many times from users about reps that call them back on their phone once the interaction is over, just to make sure things went as well as possible, and they wanted to see if there was anything additional they could do. As a customer, this is the kind of company you want to deal with on a continual basis.

Too often company call center reps can get too stuck to the script because that’s what their job calls for, and instead of seeing each interaction as a way to build trust and confidence with the brand, they treat each call as a job function, only hoping to finish the call to move on to the next one. When this happens companies miss a real opportunity to create repeat customers or help customers build their brand loyalty by treating customers like real human beings.

In the end the decision lies with you. Sure you can read endless customer reviews about interactions with companies, but it comes down to you and how you felt the overall customer service experience was. Did you leave the experience feeling good? Did you get the feeling the rep treated you fairly and with respect? In the end your preference for solid customer service should help shape what companies you do business with because doing business today isn’t just about offering innovative products. It’s about pairing them with effective service as well.

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