Friday, June 27, 2014

Four Elements of Good Customer Service

A few years ago, I was asked to zoom in on some of the elements of good customer service for a brief talk at a meeting of service professionals. In preparing the slide deck, I came to focus on four things I believe are the keys to everything else, and I often refer to them as "Roy's Famous Four" because others have picked up on them and repeated them elsewhere. There are many other elements that you might focus on, but for me, you don't get really good service without these, each of which builds on the prior one.

Listening: Whether a customer is calling you or sending email or chat messages, you need to be paying attention to what they are saying and the way they are saying it. Whenever I've "jumped the gun" and started to offer a solution without actively listening to the customer, I've gotten it wrong. Really paying attention and thinking about what the customer is saying--and how they are saying it--can give you a wealth of information about the customer's context, the urgency of the issue, and other factors that might very well figure into the correct solution to assist your customer toward the best outcome. As Covey says, "Seek first to understand..."

Empathy: Every call for assistance, technical or otherwise, has at least two components: One is the stated reason for the contact (question, difficulty, complaint, suggestion, praise, exchange, return, etc.); the other is the emotional state of the customer. There's an example I've seen in more than one customer service textbook about a woman who rushes into a hospital and excitedly asks where her sister is. Without that first component, listening, we're not sure whether the sister has been seriously injured in a car accident, or whether she is giving birth to a child. Once we've determined which it is, we can empathize, either to share the deep concern or the joy of the new child, and act appropriately.

Clarity: Once we understand the circumstances and the emotional components, we have come to the point where we have gained some insight into the issue. At this point, it's a really good idea to confirm with the customer that you do have a grasp of why they are contacting you by asking something like, "If I understand you correctly, you're calling because..." and then restate the issue, question, or complaint. (Don't forget to practice active listening when the customer responds. You may pick up details you missed.) 

As you begin to provide the customer with a solution, clarity is extremely important. Here are some quick tips:
  • Don't speak in jargon.
  • Don't use internal language--that is, language your company uses, but that the customer normally would not.
  • Don't talk down to the customer, but assess what level of information they are comfortable with.
  • Confirm that the customer understands what you are telling them.
  • Don't wander off track; stick with the customer conversation.
  • Don't ask the customer to "bite off more than they can chew." Keep it concise.
Consistency: Not every customer should be treated exactly the same way, but the level of service and the information you provide should be consistent. This requires that a body of knowledge be developed and shared so that the entire team is giving responses that match up and serve to solve the problem.

Note: Scripts, in my opinion, are death to customer service, especially if your representatives are unable to deviate from them. Customers see right through scripts, and often get the impression that the representative has no understanding of the issue, and doesn't have the authority to solve the problem. Provide guidance, good shared knowledge, and training, not scripts.

There you have them, in very short form: Listening, Empathy, Clarity and Consistency. The four corners of the customer service foundation.

Give it some thought.

Monday, June 2, 2014

Abandoned Surveys: Look At the Where to Get At the Why

Customers abandon surveys for many reasons. Chief among these are that the survey is too long and/or that it doesn't ask relevant questions.

As an illustration of the first case, I often tell the story of staying for one night in a hotel and getting a 142-question survey (yes, really) the next day. Of course I abandoned it after the first five questions, when I advanced to the next page and the progress bar barely moved.
As for the second case, people are likely to abandon a survey that is not asking questions which are relevant to them as customers, or which seem likely to be attempting to blame the customer service rep for the original problem--or at least for not having the power to fix it.

Call centers track abandoned calls and make note of how long people were on hold before they hung up. That's useful information, because it can help drive staffing levels and efficiencies if the call center management is paying attention. But what about surveys? Are you tracking the "drop off" points and making some sense of them?

As an example: If 45% of survey takers drop the survey after filling out the questions on page one and advancing to page two, you probably shouldn't have a page two--your survey is too long. If 25% of survey takers drop after answering the third consecutive question about the customer service rep (Was the rep professional? Was the rep knowledgeable? Was the rep courteous?), they are getting the impression that you are conducting an HR survey, not a customer survey. Customers are not there to solve your personnel problems. If a rep is being rude to customers, you should already know that, unless you hired them ten minutes ago.

Some quick, simple rules for your survey:
  • Keep it short - 5 questions maximum, fewer if possible
  • Keep it relevant - Ask questions about whether the problem was resolved and how the customer feels, not about details of the transaction
  • Leave room for comments - Open text fields require analysis, but can give you vital information about the customer experience and your products or services
Whether you use a customer satisfaction (CSAT) survey or a Net Promoter® (NPS®) survey or a customer effort score (CES) or something else, you are trying to determine a very small number of things:
  1. Why did they contact you? (If they report that product failed and 80% of your contacts are similar, no amount of great service will help. Fix the product.)
  2. How do they feel about your organization? (Key question, whether you are after satisfaction, delight, or "Wow!" reactions)
  3. What do they want to tell you? (Open comments)
Comments, or "verbatims" as they are often called, can give you terrific insights into what your customers expect and how they might respond if things were changed, even slightly.

If you are going to survey, get it right.

Give it some thought--and leave a comment. 

Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score, and NPS are trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company, Inc., and Fred Reichheld