Innovation is essential for customer service, but it can also be risky. You don't want to alienate your existing customers, waste your resources, or damage your reputation with failed experiments. So how can you innovate customer service without taking risks? Here are some tips to help you find the balance between creativity and safety.
The first step to innovate customer service without taking risks is to know your customers. What are their needs, preferences, expectations, and pain points? How do they interact with your product or service? How do they perceive your brand and value proposition? You can use various methods to gather customer feedback, such as surveys, interviews, reviews, social media, or analytics. By understanding your customers, you can identify the gaps and opportunities to improve their experience and satisfaction.
It's more straightforward when we think as a customer. Putting ourselves in their shoes. What are my experiences as a client and customer of various businesses and service providers, does my company provide a better service? Or do we share some of the same issues? As an example, automatic correspondence whether in writing or electronic can always be improved as this can be less specific than what a customer needs to know to avoid unnecessary repeat contacts. This is a trend across the industry I work within. We have a communications improvements team where we can suggest improvements and work with our compliance team to ensure improvements continue to fulfill our obligations and responsibilities whilst driving great customer service.
Customers are always right. Listening is the key tool to picking out the highlights to solve. When you listen carefully you resolve with ease. Your job is to know your job well to unfold the issue.
The second step to innovate customer service without taking risks is to start small and test. You don't have to launch a big and complex project right away. You can try out new ideas or solutions on a small scale, with a limited budget and time frame. You can also use tools like A/B testing, prototypes, or pilot programs to measure the impact and effectiveness of your innovations. By starting small and testing, you can learn from your failures, refine your assumptions, and validate your hypotheses before scaling up.
The third step to innovate customer service without taking risks is to involve your team and customers. You don't have to innovate in isolation. You can leverage the collective intelligence and creativity of your team and customers. You can invite them to share their insights, suggestions, feedback, or complaints. You can also co-create solutions with them, or involve them in the testing and implementation process. By involving your team and customers, you can foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and trust.
Critical!!! And the innovation should fully serve the best interests of both parties customers and colleagues. Lean processes should trump… no pun intended.. need to produce comprehensive reports for management. Simplicity and automation is key.
The fourth step to innovate customer service without taking risks is to learn from others. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. You can look for inspiration and best practices from other industries, competitors, or leaders. You can also benchmark your performance and customer satisfaction against them. You can also join networks, communities, or events where you can exchange ideas and experiences with other customer service professionals. By learning from others, you can gain new perspectives, insights, and skills.
Most things and approaches have already been invented. It's only a matter of finding which one would suit your profile and your project and adjust it to your needs.
The fifth step to innovate customer service without taking risks is to keep it simple and relevant. You don't have to overcomplicate or overdo your innovations. You can focus on the core value and benefit that you want to deliver to your customers. You can also align your innovations with your brand identity, vision, and mission. You can also prioritize the most important and urgent problems or opportunities that you want to address. By keeping it simple and relevant, you can avoid confusion, distraction, or disappointment.
The sixth step to innovate customer service without taking risks is to monitor and improve. You don't have to settle for good enough. You can track and measure the results and outcomes of your innovations. You can also collect and analyze feedback from your customers, team, and stakeholders. You can also identify the strengths and weaknesses of your innovations, and the areas for improvement or optimization. By monitoring and improving, you can ensure that your innovations are effective, efficient, and sustainable.