Three Main Obstacles To Outstanding Customer Service
Bad customer service undermines everything – from your newly redesigned product, to your beautiful packaging. It is the most personal interaction your customers will have with your company. It isn’t the same as browsing your website or even using your product or service, it is a direct human to human connection between your team and your customers. Ultimately, it is an opportunity to make a lasting positive impression. Below are three main obstacles to outstanding customer service that will prevent your customer support team from delivering 5-star service.
What Kills The Outsourcing Customer Service?
Inattention:
Customers want to be heard. Not only do they expect you to understand their problem and offer a solution, but they also want you to hear their feedback, their complaints, compliments and suggestions. They want you to hear what they say, and respond. If your customer support lines are constantly busy, or your call queues leave customers waiting on hold for 5 minutes or more… you have lost before you have begun. The customer feels like they aren’t being paid attention to and your hybrid support agents aren’t even given the opportunity to listen and respond. And really is the killer for outsourcing customer service.
Solution: Ensure you have enough customer support agents to handle call loads and offer outstanding customer service. This can be done using call reporting tools and overflow call groups when resources are tight.
Inconvenient access to support
Imagine not being able to find a customer support number after looking everywhere for it. Finally, when you find it buried on the company’s website, you call it only to be told to leave a message. Inconvenient access to support, even if it is good support, is off-putting and incredibly frustrating for the customer who needs help immediately. For outstanding customer service, ensure your customers have easy access to support when it is needed.
Solution: Put your phone number everywhere — on confirmation emails, invoices, packaging and most importantly, very clearly on your website. Ensure that you have an auto-attendant that allows your customers to easily select the department they wish to speak to, and that each department has someone there to answer the call.
Lack of customer personal data or insufficient use of it
It is important to customers that the company has access to their previous transaction history and their personal details. If your voice support agents have to put the customer on hold for minutes at a time to retrieve records, your company is not using modern technology to its fullest.
Solution: For outstanding customer service, ensure that your business phone system is integrated with your CRM system. Whether you use contact management system, you can set it up so that the most recent records relating to a caller pop up on the screen with the phone rings. Notes can be made in the pop-up window, and the call logged automatically—saving time and effort, and ensuring accurate record keeping.
