Let’s all stand and sing the song that will make or break your company. It’s called Customer Experience – the process formerly known as customer service, except it is about more than just service. More? Much more. Customer service almost always dealt with problems. Customer experience does that and also works to avoid problems. Sales is part of customer experience; operations is part of it; billing, delivery and repairs are part of it – if you are selling a product or service, what part of your business is not customer experience? Even the branding is now interactive and part of the product experience.
The latest, greatest technological advancements like automated telephony and Internet communications systems haven’t detoured the number one reason a customer leaves a service provider (of any kind, from cell phones to banks to credit cards): Customer experience. I predict the Chief CE officer will soon be the most important chair in a company next to CEO. It should be now.
A company that doesn’t keep its eye on customer experience will soon have no customers to experience. It may take a while to dismantle a company that fails at the “Big C,” but customer experience will kill a company as dead as Abe Lincoln if left unGlued. In fact, 62 percent of customers recently surveyed said customer experience was worse in all companies than it was five years ago.
Technical advancements are not a replacement for a customer experience person who has the information, the tools and the authority to actually help a customer before or after a sale. Often, companies are good at one of those three. It’s not a best-two-out-of-three game. You have to win at all of them. That takes Glue.
This will sound familiar: 54 percent of customers polled said that most of their customer experiences were like being stuck in bad traffic and being forced to take time-consuming detours when you can see a short cut, but the people in charge have rules that don’t allow them to help you get to your destination.
Ah, the rules. Got to have rules. But there is really only one rule in 99 percent of customer service transactions: The Customer Rules. When you forget that rule, all of your other rules become unruly.
There was once a very good customer experience guarantee: “You will be satisfied or your money back.” Period. End of rule.
That was before cell phone companies, banks, airlines, me, you, us and them automated our robotic answering systems and buried every human in a “Press 1 for more options than you can imagine and less service than you deserve” purgatory.
All too often, the customer experience rule is this: No matter why the customer calls, make sure it is the most time-consumingly miserable experience they have ever had. Put them on hold often. Make them wait and wait; maybe they will hang up, give up and pay up. Make sure they get absolutely nothing they want, even if it makes perfect sense and costs the company nothing.
That sounds like what more than half of consumers feel when they call that dreaded toll-free number. That kind of research is so prevalent, it’s free on Google.
“It’s not a toll-free number, really,” said a woman in Virginia. “The toll is huge. It takes a toll on your patience, sanity and common decency. If you have never cursed, then call a customer service line, especially if you have small children you have to take care of. You will feel like a sailor in an hour when you finally get off the phone. And you will have accomplished nothing except a rise in your blood pressure and a hatred of your fellow human beings.”
Here are some ugly customer service numbers:
• 75% said their customer service experience was negative
• Nearly 100% had a negative reaction to outsourcing the customer service to a third-party call center
• 70% said the representative was unable to solve problems
• 55% said reps tried to sell other products instead of helping with the issue
• 50% said customer service was inflexible
• 50% said response was slow
• 52% of customer service reps were not personable
• 48% mentioned one-size-fits-all solutions
• 40% said computer was down
• 53% of college students didn’t like automated calling systems
• 78% of adults didn’t like automated calling systems
One customer in New York said, “It seems like companies are training younger customers to expect less, so the future looks bleak for customer experience to get better.”
Customer experience guru Ernan Roman has spent 31 years advising companies about their customer service. Here is his Customer Service Bill of Rights:
As a customer I have the right:
1. To have my precious time respected by the company’s customer service department in every situation and to have my issue resolved in a single phone call or e-mail by one representative who speaks clearly, is easy to understand and has access to my customer records.
2. To be treated with courtesy and respect as a customer who paid money to the company with the expectation of customer service that cares about my individual needs.
3. To have adequately trained representatives who know enough to actually solve my problem and who will provide me with a case number I can use for a credit if I do not receive great service, as well as the ability to call back or e-mail the same representative should the need arise.
4. To receive quality customer service — including an easy-to-use menu with a minimum of clutter to quickly reach a representative — OR be compensated for my time and effort.
5. To have rapid access to a live person from a company with sufficient staff so I am not kept waiting on-hold for more than 10 minutes, or I will receive a negotiable credit on my next bill. I also have the right to receive a negotiable credit on my next bill from the company if the first customer service rep does not have my records or cannot solve my problem and has to transfer me.
6. To receive a negotiable credit on my next bill from the company if I have to speak with more than 2 customer service representatives trying to resolve my issue. I also have the right to receive a negotiable credit on my next bill from the company if I ask for a supervisor and none is available,
7. To receive a negotiable credit on my next bill from the company if I am billed incorrectly and I have to call or e-mail to fix the problem, or I am given the wrong information to fix my problem by any of their representatives, compelling me to call back or send another e-mail.
To make a customer service shift in the direction of what Mr. Roman writes above, you will need to Glue the internal components of your people, processes and telephony systems to your external customers’ needs and desires. How many meetings will that take? One, if you inspire people the first time.
Tags: Branding, Customer Service, Glue, Technology