The Secret To Happy Customers

How to make customers happy … is it really a secret? Unfortunately, to some company leaders, it seems to be. The “secret” is actually quite simple, and I’ll share it with you in just two words: happy employees.

The first step to creating a customer-focused culture is to focus on employees. Years ago, Southwest Airlines CEO Herb Kelleher recognized that if you take care of the employees first, they will do a better job of taking care of customers. When customers are happy, they will want to fly again on Southwest—and that makes stakeholders and investors very happy. The employee experience that drives the customer experience doesn’t always have to focus on the front line. That’s just one part of the culture. Everyone is involved with customer service at some level, whether they serve an outside customer or support someone on the inside who does. That said, this article will focus on the “extreme frontline employees,” the ones who handle your customer service and support.

Pegasystems recently released a new global survey that found customer service agents face “significant roadblocks” to providing a better customer experience. And, data indicates that three out of four customers will stop doing business with a company because of a bad service experience. That’s 75% of customers who are walking away will go somewhere else to get what they need, so if there is something you can do to ensure the best possible experience, you should at least consider investing in it. Here are some of the highlights of the report:

·       Inefficiencies: Agents want to provide a better experience, but 48% of them say they are frustrated when forced to pass customers to another department. Furthermore, 28% of these agents don’t like having to enter the same information in different parts of their system. Twenty-five percent are unhappy about asking for information the customer has already supplied either to another agent or on another channel. That’s at least double the work and a waste of time for both the agent and the customer, which translates into a waste of the company’s money.

·       AI and Automation Help—to a Point: Chatbots and virtual assistants can ease some pain. When a customer’s question or problem can be resolved through AI and automation, it frees the agents up to manage bigger problems that require the support of a live human. My view is that chatbots, automation, etc., are great … until they aren’t. If you’re going to implement these technologies, be sure to have a quick, easy way to transition customers to a live agent. Otherwise, you will create a bad experience that could potentially drive 75% of your business to a competitor.

·       Know How Your Customers Like to Connect: When companies provide many different ways for customers to connect, it’s known as omnichannel or multi-channel. Companies must realize that customers still value human-to-human interaction over any other method of communication. Specifically, 63% want to call a representative, 40% want to email and 26% want to chat online with a live representative. While other channels such as messaging, brand apps, etc., are gaining in popularity, you can’t disregard what customers want. At the 2019 PegaWorld conference, I worked with Jeff Nicholson, Pega’s global head of CRM, and we talked about how customers don’t care about omnichannel or multi-channel support. What they really want is a channel-less experience, meaning customers don’t even have to think about which channel to choose—they can simply connect in whatever way they find most convenient. And while they apparently continue to like the phone, it’s still important to invest in the technologies that will drive a frictionless communication experience between the customer and the company.

·       A Need for Speed: This is one I’ve been preaching since the 1980s, and it hasn’t gone away—if anything, it’s become even more important. Customers want answers fast. According to the agents surveyed, 84% of them said that speed was the most important factor in delivering the best service. That’s speed of resolution, which can mean short hold times, speedy replies to emails and messages, and more. Speed is about saving time and eliminating friction. While this may seem very customer-focused, focusing on speed can reduce agents’ stress and frustration when they know they have the capability to meet and exceed the customer’s expectation for a quick resolution.

·       Knowledge is Power: Forty-two percent of employees consider “well-informed service agents the greatest strength their business provides.” Give agents the information they need in the form of product and customer knowledge. When customers have questions, they expect the agent to deliver answers. That creates trust and credibility. That gets taken to an even higher level when the agent knows about the customer’s purchase history, buying habits and patterns, prior support needs and more.

This is all really simple, although that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Get the employee side of it right. Give them the technological tools they need, the knowledge to deliver the right answers and the proper people-skills training. Take care of employees and make them happy. In turn, they will take care of customers and make them happy. And wouldn’t that make you happy? So, do what you can to spread happiness, especially in the customer support world.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and the host of Amazing Business Radio.

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com.