Crafting a Future-Forward Customer Service Vision: The Role of AI Simulation in Revolutionizing Customer Experiences

During my travels from Great Falls, Montana a few minutes before my plane was scheduled to board, I closed my laptop and prepared to board. Suddenly, I heard “We are now boarding Group A for Awesome,” followed by Group B for beautiful and Group C for Charming. As I watched the passengers’ line up at the gate, they were smiling, chatting, and laughing. I found myself wishing I was boarding at that gate. My anxiety about my next flight had suddenly disappeared and I was excited to begin my travels.

?As I heard, “Group D for Great Falls, Montana” I wanted to stay just a bit longer to hear the rest of the alphabet. Would D stand for dapper and E for Elegant? I found myself wondering what inspired the airline employee to create this unique strategy for calling passengers to the gate. What was her airline doing differently?

?The Internet is filled with legendary customer experience stories that begin with a customer service professional going the extra mile. Search for?Disney?and you will discover a cast of characters that connect with their guests emotionally and deliver value far greater than the amount of money paid for admission. A group of staff members at the?Ritz Carlton?provided Joshie the giraffe for an experience of a lifetime. A?Zappos?call center agent spent 10 hours and 43 minutes on the phone with a customer because it was the right thing to do.

?What are these companies doing differently? Memorable customer experiences begin with a customer service vision. The research in Jeff Toister’s book?The Service Culture Handbook, revealed that almost every customer focused company has one. Yet, customer obsessed companies have discovered a vision is not enough. They also ask, “How do the overall capabilities of our staff support the customer experience our company wants to provide?” How do we this?

Three Strategies to Train the Vision in New Hire Training

Create a positive learning environment.?If people are anxious, uncomfortable, or fearful, they do not learn” (Perry, 2006, p. 26). Begin by greeting them at the physical or virtual door every day, smile, and welcome them back. This simple technique will decrease anxiety, create a sense of comfort, and reduce fear. Demonstrating sincere enthusiasm, learning names, and taking an interest in the learners is the first step in creating inclusion safety; the first step in a psychologically safe learning environment. Don’t forget to create a sense of belonging with company swag.

Connect them to the awesomeness of your product or service.?How does your product or service change the lives of your customers? Begin there. When employees understand the impact of the product or service they support and are aligned with the customer service vision, magic happens.

Imagine a group of support professionals being introduced to the product they are going to support, and they discover it is a water bottle. They will be handling shipping mishaps, credit card challenges, and other miscellaneous issues. It is easy to imagine how difficult it might be to offer inspired service day after day.

Now, imagine introducing the water bottle as a solution to the over production of plastic water bottles. But wait! There is more. What if a percentage of the profits were used to solve the water shortage in third world countries? Now, that is a mission most support professionals can get excited about. Find the magic in your product or service and share it on day one, hour one of new hire training.

Provide?scenarios?to the agents throughout training.?Skip the role play and create robust scenarios. Introduce the customer service vision as soon as possible and offer the opportunity to practice implementing the vision through scenario-based learning.

Throughout new hire training, revisit the customer service vision as often as possible. For example, when you introduce the CRM tool, discuss how their use of it impacts their ability to align with the customer service vision. Effective use of CRM offers the employee the opportunity to review notes from previous contacts, gain an understanding of how the customer is using the product or service, and leverage geographic information that can help them to create an emotional connection with the customer.

Finally, use a simulation tool such as ServiceSim from Vistio that lets your agents practice even the most complex customer interactions specific to the needs of your customers in a real-life situation with all the variables of a typical human conversation. With ServiceSim agents train with voice or chat in a virtual practice environment that bridges the gap between classroom training and the contact center floor.

Conclusion A memorable customer experience begins with a clear and well-articulated customer service vision. Customer obsessed companies understand a vision is not enough. A strong vision supported by robust new hire training, including a clear connection between skills and vision, will help ensure memorable experiences for your customers. Increase the confidence of your agents through the use of a simulation tool that will ensure they are ready to execute your customer service vision.

This article was created as part of the?Vistio Knowledge Collective.

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