Making good customer service better
A recent post on LinkedIn echoes many of the same points I’ve made about customer service, which are worth revisiting. In “Five Steps to Walking the Customer Experience Talk,” Jonathan Becher writes, “Forrester’s latest Customer Experience Index report finds companies that outperform their peers in customer experience are likely to turn customers into repeat customers, and repeat customers into loyal brand ambassadors.” No surprise there. But what’s the best approach for achieving great customer service? Becher lists several steps: 1. Constantly look at data you’ve already gathered to see if new and better outcomes might exist. Becher cites the example of a UK toy retailer that used existing inventory information to create new services and, in the process, increased online sales by more than 30%. 2. Make decisions based on the customer’s perspective, not what you think are the best interests of your customers. 3. Instead of focusing on reducing call times in your call center, measure how frequently a customer calls back. Getting a customer off the phone quickly isn’t customer-centric; providing great service the first time is. 4. Customer service reps generally want to help their customers, but they don’t often have the support they need from upper-level management. Poor corporate policies make good customer service especially hard to provide, so some changes at the top may be necessary. Read the full article at LinkedIn.com.]]>