Necessary Evil. Wicked Stepchild. Customer Service.
Sadly, these phrases often get bundled together into the description of the profession that many of us have chosen. And while we could certainly spend time in a cathartic group session describing how this negative reputation has hurt our emotional state, a better spend of time would be working through how to fix this perception. Be positive, after all, right?!
Well, if we’re going to boost the reputation of customer service, we need to implement a strategy that emphasizes low-effort experiences for our customers.
Make It Easy to Get to You: Do you have a convoluted IVR (or VRU) menu? Probably so. And the truth of the matter is that you’re likely not adding loads of new IVR customers who are seeking self-service in this channel, so why not skinny down your IVR to only those things that are most important: fast and easy, whether that’s simply routing the customer to where s/he wants to go or, in those instances where it makes sense AND customers want to do it, achieving resolution.
Recruit and Hire Low-Effort Reps: While I’m sure you’d love to learn how to cost-justify an additional 100 FTEs, this solution is about ensuring that you hire the *right* folks when you do hire new staff. Our newest research study proves just how critical it is that you get hiring decisions right, especially as customer expectations continue to rise. And the sad reality is that our current rep population and the candidates we tend to select are largely failing to meet those rising customer expectations. This study will show you how to identify and hire high-potential reps, who will deliver low-effort experiences for your customers.
Teach Your Reps Low-Effort Skills: How do your reps deliver a low-effort experience to your customers? Are they using traditional soft skills, circa 1997? Or, have you taught them to handle customer baggage, engineer the experience and head-off the next likely issue? This holistic approach to service advances thinking for organizations and provides a roadmap to creating low-effort experiences for your customers too.
Improving the reputation of Customer Service requires more work than flipping a light switch, but these three initiatives will get you started on the right path. And we’d certainly love to help you take these critically important steps, too!
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