Are you getting the most out of your customer service staff? I’d bet dollars to donuts that you aren’t, because most companies aren’t anywhere close to doing so. See, the mistake that is often made in customer service these days is that people are overlooking a vast amount of channels and resources through which the bulk of this communication can be handled and processed.
Unfortunately, it’s been difficult slow going to get people to understand that while a call center has its place, there are so many other viable ways that customer service staff can handle this problem, that can resolve issues that don’t belong on something as heavy handed as a phone call.
Your customer service staff have skills for working with some technology that you probably overlook, because they use this technology in their daily lives. That is, they use social networks heavily, most of the time. Few people don’t at least have a cursory Tumblr, Pinterest, Facebook or Twitter account they use at least monthly. They know how to use it, they know the lingo, even if they aren’t heavy users.
It’s as common as riding a bike, driving a car, or … using a phone! So, we can get the most out of our customer service by utilizing this vast repository of untapped skill to broaden channels, and make our customer service system not only faster but more convenient for everyone involved.
If we take a lot of workload off the call center, and channel it through Twitter, or another communications medium, then the hold times will rapidly and significantly drop for issues that need to be handled over them. Smaller issues will stop being such a dang inconvenience thanks to the ability to just tweet, email or send a ticket to a help desk, which the customer service people can deftly handle, and resolve most minor routine issues readily and quietly.
Also, with this new rechanneling, customer service can become your first line of defense when it comes to PR. That’s right, with them online with Twitter and other social networks, they can respond to casual remarks about the product or company in a genial way. This shows a proactive, part of the people mentality on your behalf, and it works memorably.
So, you can use these talented people person groups to establish a strong relationship with customers, and make yourself more accessible, more convenient and more everything good, pretty much.
Remember, as I’ve said time and time again, customer service is what your company will be judged for above all other things. Isn’t it then common sense that you should do all in your power to get the most out of your customer service staff? They are crafty, patient, calculating humanists who understand how people tick, so they should be generals in your army of customer relations at all times.
These are just a few things you can do to get more out of them, but there are a lot of other things you can do, if you want to be creative. They’re also very useful as a source of metrics for public opinion, suggestion and objection as well.
