Recently a member asked a question on how to staff their contact center to accommodate the increasing number of Spanish-speaking customers who called them. At first glance, the most obvious answer to this question would be to hire more Spanish-speaking or bilingual customer service reps. But is this answer the most cost-effective one or even the most beneficial one from the customers’ POV?
Service organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to prioritize investments to keep up with the hectic pace of customer expectations. In fact, companies vie with each other to be known as the most “customer-centric” company and therefore strive to provide “Everything to Every Customer”. This often leads to unnecessary investments in channels and resources that may not be top priorities for the customers who wanted them in the first place; often at the cost of more beneficial projects.
So how can companies correctly prioritize investments to address the most pressing customer needs? Companies must approach their VOC data (particularly customer verbatim) with a healthy dose of skepticism. They should not simply focus on the customer-stated needs but understand the underlying reasons behind the needs.
For example, Maersk, an international shipping company, uses a two-part system for questioning customer statements to separate out what customers say they want from what they actually need. In particular, service specialists at Maersk:
- Apply a questioning approach to all customer-stated demands, and
- Observe customers in their natural environments to uncover unarticulated service needs.
After adopting the second approach, service specialists at Maersk found that instead of hiring additional Spanish-speaking reps which is what the customers stated they needed, it made more sense to fix the Spanish-language version of their website. The original customer demand had stemmed from trying to resolve an issue on the Spanish-language version of the website only to be re-directed to an English web page mid-way through the process. This real life example illustrates how asking ‘why’ (and similar probing questions) at the outset of conversations can effectively shift the dialogue away from implementation-focused questions toward topics related to customer needs and the best ways to satisfy them. CEB Customer Contact members can learn more on how to separate customer ‘Needs’ from ‘Wants’.
How do you prioritize service trends gleaned from the VOC data at your organization? How do you prioritize investments across multiple channels? We would love to hear your views in the comments box below.
Related CEB Customer Contact Resources
- VOC Pressure Testing Program (Maersk)
- Building Effective Customer Listening Programs (Webinar)
- Customer Observation Toolkit
Related CEB Blogs
- Do you Listen to Your Customers
- Keeping Customers Happy in Social Media Era
- Serve Your Customers, Don’t Confuse Them