Ditch your stupid business processes and give me exceptional customer service!
Think about the last time you walked away from a business meeting or phone call to a company and genuinely smiled because you felt the person you came into contact with actually cared about what you had to say, or they managed to complete what it was you were looking to achieve with exceptional customer service? I bet you struggle...
If you can recall such an instance easily then you are privileged. We're living in a world where in business we put process, technology and targets before actually being human.
I have made sure all my processes are accountable and that if you have to wait more than 3-4 rings to be answered then we are not doing well enough as a company to satisfy the needs of our customers. The business world is changing rapidly and you should have high standards of customer service built upon strong morals and the hunger to want to do well, rather than hide through a process or that contact form on your website because you can't be bothered. Clearly business isn't for you!
It's highly ironic that for the most part, doing deals in business, attracting new clients or even just something as simple as going through the process of engaging with potential customers is largely all done through building relationships. Gone are the times where you would read an advert in a newspaper and just buy something just because it looked good. Now we want detail, we want value and we want recommendations from those who we trust when purchasing things we are spending our hard-earned cash on. Surely that value and supposed guarantee can only come from the relationship we have with a brand or company?
Good relationships come from a range of different things, and it's unfortunate a large percentage of companies fall into the same trap when it comes to customer or client relations. We get stuck within stuffy processes run by technology which isn't necessary (and isn't always fit for purpose), only to still be put on hold because the person doesn't know the answer to that question you asked, and likely due to inadequate company training, or the directors of the company decided those policies you learnt 6 months ago could probably be changed for the 50th time.
All this means is that they need to log you into another system, just to make sure they can actually help you on the day you call in, in fear of having to tell you the actual department you need to speak to are only operational weekdays between 9am and 5pm. Right this second sir we can't help you any further and you'll have to waste more of your time calling us back in when you're probably at work, so we can help you further with your enquiry. WTF???
Wake up business people and look at your businesses!
As a human race we make things way too complex. We over complicate things, either through process, or to avoid giving the very service our customers expect from us. Couple this with an ever growing unhealthy need for greater technology and automated systems, and you have the perfect storm for a level of customer service swiftly deteriorating out of control.
If the service behind the glossy bus ads and glamorous tv campaigns was even half way to being the same in terms of satisfaction or outcome, then maybe there wouldn't have been a need for me to write this piece illustrating where we are headed at a business world when it comes to maintaining and really understanding our customers.
You can place as much emphasis and investment to boot on data systems which display the customer's first name so when they call you can sound as genuine as possible in that first sentence, but nothing really beats actually giving a $h!t!
Yes big companies have millions of customers, but when I call a large call centre I don't expect the same reception as when i walk into my local pub or my mates for dinner. What i expect though, is a certain level of acceptance that the person i am speaking to might actually be able to solve my query without having to put me on hold 20 times, and then still feel the need to transfer me to another 3 other departments because they are only trained in changing customers postcodes; it's actually Dave in 'Customer Relations' who deals with the telephone numbers.
Companies are quick to throw money at attracting customers to a product or service, and very rarely do anything about the service behind that customer when they actually are spending money with you.
Business leaders need to become more personal, they need to take a long hard look at their processes, are they too complicated? Are they really necessary? Can you make them easier and more digestable for the customer? Why do you have so many departments when you can empower teams and cross train them so customers are satisfied quicker and on the same call? Are agents given enough autonomy to actually make sensible decisions so they don't have to consult five other teams members whilst the customer is sat looking at their watch because they would rather be doing something else.
We live in a world now where you have to be personal with your customer to attract them we see this through a mass of different marketing campaigns from the big brands such as Argos, Primark or Barclays, but when it comes to getting that delivery time slot or even just the correct day for your new product no one knows anything. When you really want that t-shirt you saw on the website which is probably only around for that season, you've seen it on the website, but no they don't do online shopping, and you can't have it delivered to your nearest store because it's not a 'flagship store'.
More personally and recently you've got funds but they have frozen your business account because of irregular activity, but its fine because they'll have it all sorted within 24 hours. The only issue is the team who support you with your business aren't back in until Monday at 9am, oh, and the person you spoke to thought they were in Saturday when they advised you to call back in tomorrow. Customer service can't help you but if you pop into your branch, the manager who is on her day off can possibly help you.
Whilst I understand certain processes have to be in place, and exceptional customer service is wholly subjective, if you are still thinking of that last instance where you received exceptional service, then this piece has done it's job in highlighting the stark reality of the world we currently live in. A world where business processes and the need to install technology to make our lives easier, (not to mention the targets that go with them), are put above just having a decent conversation and actually engaging with our customers and clients on a way which makes them feel like they are getting that added value. All this over and above your nearest competitor, who by the way is only just down the road, (because now the market is saturated with online services), oh and he does it better and cheaper than you do! But is their service actually any good?
Before you think this piece is unnecessary, for the record and to put things in perspective I have been writing this whilst on hold to a call centre for Barclays Bank who 'apparently' care about the way they service my business accounts. Collectively today I have spent just over 6 hours online, in branch and on the phone trying to resolve an issue which could have been solved very simply with the flick of a switch. Shame the business teams who were required to complete the enquiry only work 'business hours' which apparently are weekdays between 9am and 6pm.
Isn't that massively naive comment 'business hours' just a massive insult to all the people like myself who are self-employed and work 70 hour weeks to put food on the table because business is not 9 to 5 anymore. Ironic those comments come from a bank led by potential over paid middle aged white men who still live in this antiquated world of suits and stiff banker mentally, where you turn up in the office at 8:59am and log off at 5:30pm.
Real business owners work all hours, and they do it because they love what they do, and probably work just as hard, if not harder to keep a roof over their head. It just takes more nerve and skill to do so when you know the pressure is on you and you can't hide behind a corporate process. So when I wasted the best part of a day expressing my concerns at how my 'business banking team' were not around to resolve my issues and I finally managed to raise and log my complaint, having been cut off three times and passed through numerous departments, I was given ￡25 and an apology only to be told i wasn't really any better off because my original issue still wasn't going to be resolved until Monday and that the complaint would now be closed.
Do large-scale companies purposely make their processes as difficult as possible to deter customer feedback and complaints in the hope the weaker section of our society will just lye back and take the appalling customer service we experience?
Can you really train agents to become exceptional at customer service, treating everyone they come in contact with, with the right level of respect and care which you would expect when coming into contact with a company you are looking to spend money with?
Is exceptional, and more importantly genuine customer service, at a level we can only aspire to, naturally intuitive and engrained into people at birth? Or is it actually something you get to learn over time through common sense and genuine empathy?
Surely when you raise a complaint it's because you have experienced a breakdown in customer service, or you are unhappy with an outcome which has led you to experience inconvenience or stress? So when you log a complaint you require someone with an ability to listen and then take on board what your key concerns are, and to actually investigate what caused the events which led to the complaint in the first place. Then hopefully other customers won't have the misfortune of going through the same experience, and even though one person who felt compelled to raise such feedback had to go through it all, hopefully it wasn't completely in vain!
Surely the skill is to be able to leave that sometimes awkward conversation with a certain level of respect for each other where the customer feels less aggrieved than when he or she started. I'm not suggesting for one minute it should be all giggles and invitations round for dinner, but as a business you surely want to know that your customer will feel impressed in the way your company dealt with the matter and actually want to come back and do business with you?
Don't just throw a tenner at the problem because you said you had been on hold for hours and then dismiss it all as closed within 5mins because business processes dictate you have to close a certain number of complaints within the hour; but I imagine the bonus you'll get when you do is motivation enough isn't it?