Maximise your humans to deliver service excellence

In the past few days, I’ve had to experience what two separate companies have laughably called their ‘Customer Service Excellence’ and it is fair to say I was not really very impressed.? The companies were in two completely different sectors - one was a telecommunications company, the other was involved in servicing my car - but both instances had numerous things in common and left me clear on one thing - there will always be a need for a skilled human being on the end of a telephone line in Customer Service.

Let me explain.

The problem at hand

In both of my recent experiences, I was attempting to contact a service provider with a fairly simple and straightforward question.? In both instances, I had scoured website FAQ’s and looked through the many self service options to answer my query without success.? In both examples, I discovered that the only ways to contact the companies involved were by email or by Webchat.? I chose Webchat (I mean, who uses email these days? I’m not an animal…) where some fanatical and frankly over-zealous Chatbot served up a veritable pile of questions, clearly trying to resolve my query by referring me back to the website I’d just scoured.? Eventually, this madness ceased and I was connected to an advisor who, after an extremely protracted text conversation, managed to provide some form of resolution.

All the way through this coach trip into purgatory, I was thinking, ‘If I was talking to an agent. I would have finished ages ago…’

Why had both of these companies insisted on this strategy?? Well the answer is fairly straightforward but might be slightly uncomfortable to read - the strategy had been led by what would be easiest or best for the company, and not the customer.

Digital transformation is too often being seen as the cheapest, rather than the best or the appropriate way to service your customers’ enquiries.? Yes, diverting really, really simple queries away from your Customer Service Advisors seems to be the right thing to do - and it definitely CAN be the right thing to do if you get it right.? Problem is, unless you are doing it because it is best for the customer, you’ll end up delivering the type of experience I was subjected to.? If you are only doing it for the benefit of the company, then corners will have to be cut, the focus will be in the wrong place and it will never land properly.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

The solution

At QStory, we see our customers use our Intraday Automation software to flex their workforce, to ensure an appropriately skilled telephone advisor is available to handle customers queries at the right time.? Having the ability to do this at scale and at great speed means that they can handle more work, across more channels, than ever before, delighting customers by making good on their promises to deliver service excellence.? Their moves towards self-service and digital channels are still going on, but against a backdrop of customer experience improvement, rather than in an attempt to fight fires and perform damage-limitation.?

And as they can do it all through utilising their existing workforce, they can ensure that this platinum-level performance doesn’t cost more money.

So why don’t you join the ever-growing number of businesses who rely on QStory’s software to power a better everyday for their customers?? Get in touch and I would be delighted to give you a demonstration.