Are your customer service representatives doing your company justice?
Yesterday I spoke about an unfortunate customer service experience with a large credit card bank in my post entitled “Customer Service Management, A great way to alienate clients” Today I’m going to examine where each customer service representative went wrong, and how they could have made a bad customer experience into a good one.
Interaction #1:
Problem: In the very first call, customer was given an insufficient pay off amount.
Solution: Better customer service training would have resulted in the rep understanding where to look for the correct information, as well as warning the customer that additional interest may accrue.
Interaction #2:
Problem: Different rep, same problem, gave insufficient payoff amount.
Solution: See above.
Interaction #3:
Problem: Rude, dismissive and unhelpful customer service representative made customer more angry.
Solution: Only hire reps with good people skills. Train them to be knowledgeable about all the solutions your company has to offer. Let them know that it is unacceptable to treat customers poorly, and that their goal should be to retain them.
Interaction #4:
Problem: Inexperienced customer service rep gave inaccurate information and made customer feel as if they had done something wrong.
Solution: Better / longer training. Let reps know that their job is to make customer happy. If they don’t have a solution that works, have them check with their supervisor to make sure there isn’t something else to consider.
Is your company guilty of bad customer service?
Turning bad customer service into great customer service isn’t difficult. If your company needs help improving the quality of your customer service, give me a call.
Susan Martin, Business Coaching
