The Original and complete article version was posted here.
Here all started
The lack of empowerment and trust of Telefonica O2 an of the largest Telecom companies around the globe here in Europe, with their own employees is as frustrating to O2 customers as it is for their own employees. Despite wanting to help, they simply cannot. As if our in-store experience wasn’t bad enough, my SIX attempts at a resolution via their customer service hotline was even worse, their customer reps hang-up the phone, 6 times and the said thing here that this is true. Here are some highlights of my interaction with their online customer service team:
“Hi Ricardo, I am very sorry to read that you have had such negative experience with our customer service. I apologize for that. We cannot offer you a callback here but of course we are happy to assist here directly in English. What exactly do you need to solve? Do you need a new SIM-card? Or a new phone for your wife? Or do you want to change the tariff? ^XX”
The Bottom line.
A company that doesn’t empower their customer interface teams to decide and help customers in stores, and in any existing omni channels, is simply not offering strong customer experience and customer services.
Lack of flexibility in this very competitive world of telecommunications and actually any sector, is a killer for companies and a great gift for their competitors.
When your company completely disregards its customer’s experience–both good and bad, you are putting your businesses’ success at the chopping block. Not only was the O2 customer service and lack of empathy horrific, but their channels to contact them are out of touch with the times. When contacted via social media, we were told that they are not allowed to call back.
A successful customer service outreach should include a cyclical response. Calling, writing, chatting should all be interchangeable. The goal is to solve customer’s concerns as quickly and efficiently as possible—NOT to save money by cutting corners. I hope that in reading this article Telefonica O2 and any other company, including yours around the globe, will learn a bit how to fix their messy organization and avoid this lack of empathetic and helpful representatives in their contact center, and services.
I am their customer for 14 years and after all this time I must to say that, 14 years ago, O2 offered much better service and even a bit better customer experience. So I know it can be better. If they continue to ignore the basic principles of customer service, they will not win the market back and gain a lot of detractors around Europe.
The 27-10 pieces of advice that can drastically improve Telefonica O2 Customer Experience and Services and start a serious transformation in their and yours customer experience and culture now:
1. Ensure every interaction in any channel is working great and solve customer issues. People will remember your brand if you deliver a very good experience in a timely fashion.
2. Don’t focus only on profit first, and don’t assume because the company is very profitable that the customer will stay without a very good customer experience and services. Profit is a result of a great services, customer experience and several other factor well aligned.
3. Enhance O2 services and customer experience capabilities and awareness with a practical approach.
4. Change your nonexistent customer service culture to something great and valuable to your customer now. Theory doesn’t work, but a culture of services excellence does.
5. Hire great people focused on serving and helping others. Deliver on-going talent development training’s.
6. Empathy is key for serving others and going above and beyond to solve customers’ issues.
7. Being in tune with customer emotions is crucial. Don’t discredit or disregard anyone’s experience.
8. Layoff or transfer employees that hang up phones in customer faces.
9. Make a Customer Experience road map (Planning) and execute on it to win the market and customers hearts, so far you are doing the opposite.
10. As part of your culture, also develop a people focus— don’t neglect your teams, develop your employee experience, and employed continues training’s. This is the best way to develop better services, empathy, loyal customers and talent.
11. Give your teams administrating your omni channels support and please give them a simple phone to talk, as a solution to solve customers’ issues or at least ensure that can call customer to take care of their serious afflictions, as most professional companies do these days.
12. Create a Customer Experience for O2 that will become another “brand differentiator” ensuring customers will memorize very positively the interaction.
13. Teach your people WHY they are working… to serve customers—NOT themselves. The same applies to your C-suite. Ensure your services and experience is friction-less, and that is easy to make business with you.
14. Teach your employees to solve issues in an efficient and timely fashion and respect customer’s time.
15. “Customer Are Not Always Right, BUT they are Always the Customer”, so treat them accordingly.” By Shep Hyken.
16. Make your intercommunication more fluid and accessible.
17. Your business’ reason for existence is to serve the customers FIRST. You are disrespecting your customer every day if you do not enhance your customer service, and eventually you will pay the price they will leave.
18. Extra: Be very careful with your strategy of cheap offerings, this is not enough. Ensure your services and your experience are great and show your customers and the market that you are improving.
“The customers will always remember the way you solved their issues and the manner in which you acted” – by RicardoSGulko
Our questions for you:
● What do you think about Telefonica O2 case and what would you suggest they improve??
● What have I missed in this article? Please let me know.The Original and complete article version was posted here.
Here all startedThe Original and complete article version was posted here.
Here all startedAll my previous article on Customer Think are here:
