What If You CAN'T Provide 24-Hour Customer Support?
Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP
Customer Experience Speaker, Trainer, Podcast Host, and CEO
Customer service. It used to be a specific thing.
It was the desk with the curvy cursive letters above it in the grocery store. Then it evolved into the toll-free number for issues with package delivery. Then it became the click-to-email link at the bottom of websites for technology.
The customers acted. Then organizations would respond. That was the implied agreement.
But now, in the world we share with robots who automatically vacuum our houses and intrusive phone calls from recorded (and not quite human) perky representatives, customer service is either everywhere or nowhere, depending on your outlook.
Customers now expect service to be there. Now. Organizations now have to live up to those expectations in a 24/7 and ever-connected globe. And the customers are challenging those expectations.
Here are a few ideas for how to keep up with the demand for 24-hour customer service, even if your organization is made up of people who require things like sleep and family time and coffee breaks.
1. Review your customer journey and prepare for the most likely service situations.
Mapping out your customer’s worst day will help you see the likely places for service failure. Don’t focus on the ideal situation when everything works. Think about the customer entering the journey grumpy and frustrated, then consider if nothing works. It’s a powerful exercise that highlights just what can go wrong. Prepare for them with better training and proactive communication.
2. Embed your service.
Amazon (of course!) is a front-runner with embedded customer service. By introducing the Mayday instant video chat for service on their Kindle products a few years ago, they prioritized service in a way most customers had never seen. Now, embedded customer service is showing up in many places, including live video connections on banking ATMs and even holographic help at airports.
Listen in for more tips on embedding customer service.
But for many organizations, this might be out of reach. Consider embedding what’s most important and where it needs to be for your customer.
Those stickers on your water heater and HVAC system in the basement? Those can be considered embedded customer service. They typically have all the information needed for service, including a telephone number. They are there where the customer needs them, when they are staring hopelessly at a clunking machine, not tucked away in a file folder somewhere. But understanding those water heaters might go kerplunk in the middle of the night means providing service when they call.
If live service isn’t an option, provide instructions for what is, like a DIY tutorial on the website or expectations for replies from messages.
3. Set expectations clearly.
This amazingly simple step is perhaps the most overlooked in customer service.
Clearly providing expectations on how and when to find customer service helps reduce frustration for customers. The best organizations go beyond the simple statement of hour available and provide resources for when customer service centers are not available.
Point customers to where they might get the best help, even if that means outside of your organization.
Tech companies tapped into the power of their user communities years ago- online communities of peers helping one another create resources and help when needed.
The world is changing in really powerful ways! This means it’s your job to keep up with the world and your customers, regardless of what hours you keep.
This post originally appeared on the blog at 360Connext.com Come check it out!
Customer Experience | Professional Services | Transformation Leader | Design & Real Innovation | Driving Growth & Revenue Generation
7 年Loved this strategy-operation-execution subject, prepare for your most likely kind of services for target market as you mention is exactly the point. Loved it! We did that with Samsung. There are several ways to solve it, for instance different time zones contact centers switching form each other, different people supporting it in different times from the same place, if a smaller company. Also different kinds of customers contact centers services, depending the services and products based in their SLA (If B2B or B2C). It depends also of the kind of product/services we are talking about, sometimes the company also can be in holidays as far they return later to the customers. All depends of the situation. Great post Jeannie Walters, CCXP!
Director of Marketing Technology & Digital Services, Consumer Business @Sunstar_Global | Team Builder, Mentor & Coach | AEM Customer Advisory Board, Adobe; Co-founder, Women in Digital Switzerland.
7 年Love this topic! I'm absolutely passionate about how companies can connect even when resources can't scale or budget is lacking. From experience running lean customer care for four years a global SaaS startup with operations in Europe and 70% of customers in the US, I second expectation setting as a key priority. People have heart and I learned ( less the few that will never be satisfied) they are actually okay with slower turn around times when 1) they know exactly when you will be there for them 2) what the turn around times look like ( hours, day, days) 3) their problem, interest, need is answered mindfully the first time. Community ambassadors can also help lend a hand for businesses that don't have the resources. And even when you do, what better way to showcase how much you care by leading customers to a community that can help answer questions any time. Embedding customer serve is great, too! I learned it's important not to forget referring to your help desk stats weekly to know what content & questions are hot so you can tweak and adjust those embeds quickly, if needed. Thanks so much for the food for thought, Jeannie!
Customer Service & Sales Training That Reduces Escalations, Improves Client Retention, and Boosts Sales | ICMI Top 25 CX Thought Leader & GTACC Award Winner
7 年Jeannie Walters, CCXP, I liked your ideas regarding customer expectations. Your third point is especially important, since "expectation failure" drives customer DIS-satisfaction. If customers think they will get 24/7 response and don't hear back instantly, they become far more irate than if they knew the contact centre was only open from 9-5 Mon-Fri.