How to keep customers happy when things go wrong
Friday, 03 June 2011 00:00
Darren Langley of Actinic looks at how to get the best out of relationships with customers who require support. Three of the key areas he addresses are:
- Setting and managing customers’ expectations
- The importance of listening, acting on feedback and making customers feel valued
- Training and equipping staff appropriately.
In an ideal world, businesses would not need to offer support. Nothing would go wrong, orders would always arrive on time, products would never break, and our customers would never struggle to use our products or services. But of course, it isn’t an ideal world, so we need to be there to look after our customers when they need help. Here are a few lessons I’ve picked up from when I was managing Actinic’s helpdesk.
Set expectations upfront
It is worth producing a Service Level Agreement and publishing it. This way customers will know what to expect from customer services. Remember though to stick to your SLA, if you say you will return all calls within 2 hours then this is something you must do.
Also, don’t hide your support contact information in an obscure page of the website – this will only put the customer in a bad mood before they even talk to support. It’s important to be upfront about any charges for the service as well.
Put yourself in their shoes
Employees working within support must show empathy with the customer, have strong interpersonal skills, and above all, patience. Make sure they receive adequate and regular training on the products and services you provide. Imagine how irritating it is for a customer if they find they know more than the call centre agent.
Sometimes your customers may overstep the boundaries of what you support. You need people who can be strong, but yet polite when saying ‘no’. Your SLA will help back them up here.
My own personal mantra is this: “Be treated as you would wish to be treated yourself”. If your support function shares this ideal, then you are half way there.
Escalating issues
What if the customer’s issue cannot be sorted there and then by the support representative? Maybe it needs to be escalated to a senior person within your company, or perhaps a supplier or courier needs to be contacted. The support team needs to know what they can deal with themselves, and what needs escalating.
Escalating an issue is likely to cause a delay for your customer, so it is important you tell them what you are doing and why. Keep them in the loop, or else they will assume the problem is not being dealt with. It is a good idea to review what is being escalated, as it maybe that you need to introduce some training which will reduce the volume of issues not being solved first time.
The right tools for the job
The infrastructure you put in place very much depends on the size and function of your business. However large or small your support function it will need equipment that is fit for the job. Providing support staff with inadequate phones and computers for example will just lead to reduced productivity and frustration for both staff and the customer.
Very importantly, record all details of contact with customers, preferably in a database. Should an issue need to be escalated you will have all the information to hand.
Keep a central, up-to-date record of your suppliers’ contact details as this will speed up the process if an issue needs to be escalated outside your organisation.
Ask your customers what they really think
Ask your customers what they think of the support they were given. You could use a telephone survey, or email customers asking for their opinions. Listening, and most importantly acting on the feedback provided will benefit customers, and in so doing, benefit your business.
Over here, or over there?
So, do you base your help desk or customer services in the UK or overseas? It may be cheaper to outsource abroad, but remember with inflation running at high levels in places such as India, it may not be as cheap as it once was.
There is also a negative view amongst many UK consumers, of overseas helpdesks. In fact some businesses have moved their support operations back to the UK.
If you do outsource, do not treat the remote helpdesk as a separate entity to your business. Keep in touch regularly with them, preferably through video conferencing. It really gives that face to face feel. If the remote team feel included, they are more likely to care and really deliver to your customers.
Finally
Any business that chooses not to support customers in their hour of need is likely to lose repeat business, and because people are more likely to talk or tweet about a negative experience than a positive one, you could be losing future business too. So caring for those who need help is not an optional extra and it pays to do it as well as you possibly can.
Written by Darren Langley, quality assurance manager of ecommerce and EPOS supplier, Actinic. Originally published on BusinessZone.