My Two Cents on Customer Service

DISCLAIMER: This is mainly in response to the culture of call-center reps and what they go through for training and work on a daily basis. This is not to say Amazon is a bad company or that their training is bad- everybody has a different experience! That being said I recognize some of these faults in my own customer service background and even being a customer dealing with reps from time to time.

You see, I think that companies that focus on the metrics and the numbers have it all wrong (not just in customer service either...) Why on earth would you focus on getting a ‘yes’ from your customers and not focus on actually HELPING THEM? This is disastrous. It causes your customer service reps to pass on ‘bad calls’ and ‘bad chats’ to the next available rep because everyone is afraid to get a ‘no’ due to the focus on the numbers!

When you focus on the metrics so much your people lose sight of what is most important in life and in business- PEOPLE. Suddenly they turn into robots and they follow scripts because your training told them, “if you stick to this script you will have better scores”. Your training also tells them, “make it personal, BUT DON'T SAY THIS, AND DON’T SAY THAT, AND IN FACT- DON’T EVEN TREAT THEM LIKE A HUMAN”. 

“Oh, but by the way, if you follow our rules that turn you into a robot and you for some reason don’t get good metrics because the customers can feel that you aren’t really connecting with them, then you will get a write up!” 

How does this make sense? How does it make sense that when your team is performing horribly you call them into an ‘emergency’ meeting and scream/yell at them about how your boss is taking it out on you that your team is not performing well so if they don’t ‘step it up’ then you are going to start taking disciplinary action… How does that improve your workforce?

Do you think that your employees will want to actually do better out of love for helping people or out of fear for getting written up at a company that sees them as expandable anyways? 

I think that if a company wants excellent CS reps, they MUST focus on the human aspect- the fact that we are humans and that honestly- most people just want to be heard… they don’t want discounts, they just want to be heard (some are conniving though and will rip you off/scam you).  

When I find myself in a CS Management position one day or something similar, my process will be quite backwards from that of Amazon’s or other companies that focus so much on metrics. 

My team will focus on the PEOPLE, because we can always build strategies and develop unique ways to meet those metrics like shorter wait times, shorter call lengths, and higher PRR or higher YES/NO Ratios. You can always cut those numbers down AFTER you have built a foundation of putting your customer first without the worry of being reprimanded for low metrics which are usually a result of poor training combined with customers who are not interested in sharing their good experiences unless they are ‘bad’. 

Basically here is how I see how most CS reps are trained: 

1. Focus on your call times and wait times!
2. Make sure you are getting good PRR (Positive Response Rate)
3. Shoot for yes
4. Help the customer 

Where I think a better model would look something like: 

1. Help the customer first! (Putting people first)
2. Develop strategies to help you cut down on call times
3. Develop strategies to ask for the survey without saying it out right/sounding desperate
4. Resulting metrics= great PRR! 

It also helps to hire the right type of people who would actually EXCEL in the CS field instead of mass hiring a bunch of able bodied people and hoping for the best. All I am saying is- you get what you pay for! But that’s a whole topic for another day!

What are your customer service two cents?

Thanks for tuning in!

If you want to improve your customer service, or treat people like people in general, then click HERE.