Stop treating your customers like shit!
We've all been on the receiving end of poor customer service.
Long wait times; and then having to painstakingly input our details into an archaic IVR system, only to have to repeat the very same information to a live agent - and sometimes...often times....having to start that process all over again after being transferred between departments.
You know that feeling. The frustration that comes when you've spent your hard-earned money with a company, made an investment in their product or service, and then been treated like shit.
Like you don't matter. Like your business is worthless.
And then, in that state of frustration, we have all likely switched brands because of those poor experiences. In fact, as a whole, U.S. companies lose more than $62 billion annually due to negative customer experience.
SIXTY TWO BILLION DOLLARS.
EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR.
It's a costly proposition no doubt. And to try and curtail this persistent hemorrhage, companies continue to make massive investments to improve the customer experience. Support headcount is growing, BPO call centre costs are spiralling out of control, digital live agent infrastructure is massive.
And in spite of these investments, customers still do not feel they are having good experiences.
According to Bain & Co., 80% of CEO's believe they are delivering a great customer experience. But only 8% of customers feel they are receiving one.
That's a monumental miss. Why the disconnect? What do customers actually want?
What customers want is quite different than what most companies are delivering.
Customer expectations have changed. They want to self serve, on demand, on the channel of their choice. Especially millennial customers, who are accustomed to having their needs met 24/7, on their mobile device, with the click of a button.
Customers want to transact in the language of their choice, no matter where the company is headquartered, and they want you to remember their preferences, and account details, so they don't have to repeat themselves over and over.
Customers want to be valued, and understood. They want experiences that are primarily automated - but with seamless access to meaningful live support if/when it is warranted. And when they reach those live agents, customers don't want to start all over again. They want a consolidated experience that takes past transactions and interactions into account.
So how can companies do a better job of meeting these customer interests?
For starters, companies need to consider an automation-first strategy. Upfront automation is faster, cheaper, omni-channel - and most importantly, it's what your customers want.
A chatbot, or an IVR system, can't be 'set it and forget it' point solutions. Automation should underpin your entire support organization and this requires a reorientation of resources - a culture shift of sorts.
Automation-first means your greatest investment should be in automation - not live resources. You need to start with automation - make it available to customers wherever they are. Not because a slick sales rep twisted your arm, or because all the cool companies are doing it, but because it just makes sense - financially and practically.
When you automate the vast majority of customer inquiries, you are able to:
- Radically diminish the costs associated with customer support
- Free live resources from having to deal with very frequent, mundane and straightforward transactions and requests so they can be available (without wait times) to support mission-critical customer inquiries
- Gather important data to offer a consolidated view of the customer, over time and across channels
- Introduce up-sell and cross-sell opportunities to transform your customer service organization from a cost centre to a profit centre
An automation-first strategy is absolutely the way forward. It will empower you to get off the treadmill and stop treating your customers like shit. No doubt, it requires the right tooling and infrastructure, along with a reorientation of your existing CX resources.
But you can do it. Many disruptive, leading edge companies have made the change successfully, and their CSAT scores are soaring as a result.
To learn more about best practices and to read success stories, check out Ada - the leader in Automated Customer Experience (ACX).
founder @ wittier \\ co-founder @ parlour
5 年Totally agree Ruth Zive... conversational marketing at it's finest
President at Aspen Consultant Group- President of International Hotel Spas Academy
5 年If your target buyers are millenials you are ABSOLUTELY right. On the other hand if the price of the house is in the higher bracket you probably will be dealing with older folks! You know the ones who detest robots! And they obliterate you from their life.
Marketing Manager | Event Management & Field Marketing | Partnership Marketing | B2B & B2C | ESG & Sustainability | Asset Management
5 年Poor customer service takes its roots from the staff who doesn't like the work they do and is not treated well by their boss.
Artist designer at Freelance
5 年Spot on brilliant message much needed
Strategic & Planning executive. Inspiring & Practical leadership. Authentic & Productive relationships. Measurable results.
5 年I agree Ruth Zive, and I would add that a Digital first self serve approach must be looked at across the entire journey. That’s not to say that every interaction point must be digital. It’s about understand how transitions happen across those channels. Too often companies slap tech “solutions” at things in piecemeal fashion. They rush to implement the latest “whatever shinny thing promises to fix all that ails them”. Yet instead of improving things for the customer, they create those very dead ends, or disconnected experiences, that are painful. The customer eventually has speaks to a person to get help. And without persistency of data, without a holistic view of the journey and experience a company had, that customer has to start from scratch and explain things all over again. It’s these situations, that you described so well, that leaving the customer feeling abused. As you pointed out, the cost is huge. The best customer you can get is the one you already have. It is so much cheaper to service well an existing one, then try to earn a new one. Add on top that one of the highest lead-to-conversion rates is with word of mouth referrals (often 3x higher than other channels), and excellent customer service pays for itself.