Navigating the Customer Service C’s
Customer service managers can easily get overwhelmed. There are so many ‘don’t do this’ and ‘you have to do that’ s constantly flooding the knowledge bases; even if you knew where to look for advice, you wouldn’t know where to start.
Let’s break all this information down to the basics:
Communication
This is about clarity and connectivity.
As a rule, people don’t like being confused. They want to have a clear understanding of:
- What you’re offering
- Where they can find it
- When they can expect it
- How it will arrive
- Why they should use your company
In general, people crave simplicity; we all know we don’t like to be forced out of our comfort zones. This is particularly true of people today: Millennials are more likely to check out what they want and whether they’ll buy it online than coming into a shop. By the time they set foot on an actual sales floor, 60% of them already know what they’re going to buy.
This connectivity comes from the clarity of your service or product, as it is presented to prospective customers. As a result, it’s not a bad idea to let the customer set the pace and choose how they’d like to be connected with you. For example, Millennials may prefer to connect to your product/service via social media platforms like Facebook or Snapchat, while an older generation would rather receive an email or even a phone call.
Communication isn’t just about how you connect with your prospective market, it’s also about making sure your company’s internal workings run smoothly.
Just as clarity is a boon to a prospect, it’s also vital to making sure that your team knows what it’s doing, how it should do it, and why! Which brings us to the next C:
Consistency
This is about well…consistency and cohesion.
According to Google, ‘cohesion’ means:
‘the action or fact of forming a united whole.’ (Source)
Customers are individuals, as well they should be! But a customer service team? They should be of one mind and one bo — too creepy. Your customer-facing front line needs to be a team! This is the first step to great consistency, and through that to customer loyalty.
Google defines ‘consistency’ as follows:
‘conformity in the application of something, typically that which is necessary for the sake of logic, accuracy, or fairness.’ (Source)
Now, conformity gets a bad rap, so we’ll just avoid that word. Let’s focus on the section about ‘logic, accuracy or fairness’.
We’re logical creatures, most of the time anyways, and we enjoy knowing what comes next and how to get there. Picture this:
Customer A walks into a bank in Downtown City. They want to open an account. No problem, fill in a few forms, sign some paper work, produce identification, put some money on the account…. maybe an hour later, they walk back out, mission accomplished: bank account opened.
Now, another customer — Customer Z — walks into the same bank, but this one is in Outlying Suburb #223. They want to open an account too. Glitch: they need an introductory letter from their previous bank. Disappointed and a little confused, the customer goes home, gets the paperwork together and comes back several weeks later to open their account. They sit at the same table, but there’s a different consultant there today. This sales consultant is a little confused as to why you would need a letter to open a bank account and simply puts it aside and ignores it throughout the account opening process. No problem this time, forms filled in, paper work signed, identification produced, etc… and off the new customer goes, bank account opened, bemused but satisfied.
This is the same bank remember, they’ve just employed different strategies for a reason that no one knows or understands: not even the bank team themselves! Customer A will respond positively if asked about the process of opening a bank account with said bank, but Customer Z? They might give mixed reviews.
What are we getting at here? Obviously, we all want to have the Customer A experience! The differences between the two scenarios is marked, but not inexplicable or fixable: all it would take is to implement a consistent strategy to generate a cohesive team and policy that accomplishes the customer’s end goal.
This isn’t just for services, it applies to any company that has customers, which, last I checked, meant pretty much everyone! A little analysis of how our own systems work, and how our teams function, can suddenly highlight reasons why we’re not doing as well as we should. Once we’ve got this knowledge we can understand, fix and implement new strategies to increase our cohesion and consistency which will automatically lead to a better customer service experience.
Commitment
What’s that quote? Something about not bothering to get into the ring unless you plan on fighting? That.
Commitment is about just that: commitment.
Establishing trust is not something that happens over night, and any commitment to such a relationship will shine through! (Especially if there’s none!) It’s important to look at any customer service strategy as a long term investment, one that is going to require time, people, effort and finances.
This will also help build your capability, supporting your authority on your chosen subject matter(s), thus making you and your brand more trustworthy in the eyes of current and future prospects.
Conclusion
Which also happens to be a C word. Go figure.
There are several big aspects of customer service you’re not allowed to miss. There are also plenty of smaller ones; the important thing is to remember that many of the ‘small’ ones often fall under the ‘big’ ones. Next time you find yourself stressing out about the latest article talking about how you’re not communicating enough, or your not doing enough of something else — think about, maybe you’re already doing it, a little bit.
There’s no one road to great customer service but people offer you plenty of road maps, in the end you have to make your own way.
About the Author
Olwen van Dijk is a digital marketer and business development executive at AQ Services International
Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn
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