By Joel Black on 12/19/2012
Everyone has experienced terrible customer service at some point, waiting and waiting, getting transferred with no one taking responsibility for the issues and actually helping. “Sir that is not my department…click click click…Have I answered all your questions to the best of my ability”? NO YOU HAVEN’T! It goes without saying how annoying and frustrating the process is, but more importantly it makes the customer feel like their business is not appreciated. Many companies big and small do not take the time to work a great customer support team into the infrastructure. What seems like a common sense move for any business is not as common as one would think.
For small companies, great customer service can be a catalyst for success. When people think of customer service it is usually in the context of ‘when something goes wrong’ or ‘oh great, now I have to call CS’. Today in many cases interacting with customer support is about as fun as going to the dentist, painful, agonizing and about as difficult as pulling teeth to get a satisfactory resolution. What happened? Where did we go wrong? The thought of calling support should be a relieving feeling to know someone is there to help you. This includes talking with someone that can speak the native language and is knowledgeable about the products and services, not just some grunt to soften the blow of eventually having to speak to their manager.
It starts at the initial meeting, not after something goes wrong. It continues through processing and fulfillment. Customer service is an organic part of any business process and should be consistent through every department. If there is a concern, address it. If there is an issue, resolve it. If the issue cannot be resolved offer multiple suggestions in its place. Whatever you need do, just own up to it! If a resolution can be achieved through an extra twenty minutes of work, the client will know it and remember the efforts and possibly stay with you for years. Many times this holds more value to a client than the actual resolution. Don’t hand off clients to some foreign offshore call center full of drones that say their names are Bob and Tom, make the client feel like their business is appreciated because it should be.
Have you experienced bad customer service from companies? Go ahead, vent below!