Being in New York City over the past weeks has made me realise one thing. Customer service is everywhere and it’s becoming more and more vital to business. I found that every transaction I made and every interaction I had with a business, heavily involved some sort of customer service.
While visiting the US, I bought a T-Mobile SIM card with a data plan so that I could remain mobile and on the ball, whilst not in the office.
The offers were simple and the staff, inside the Manhattan store, were extremely friendly, very helpful, and quite intrigued by my British accent! We were happily chatting away while he sorted out the SIM card for me. Something occurred to me though; My transaction could have easily been done with the help of a self-service tool,such as a kiosk in store.
I was thinking…You can do this online, in a few short minutes, so why bother going to the store?
When I was being served in the store, the staff used cool iPads that put me in line to be served, and my name popped up on a big screen telling me how long I had to wait. So the technology is certainly there. We also see it in airports, with companies such as Delta Airlines.
There may be many reasons why they don’t fully equip stores with self service tools. But, in this day and age, it certainly adds to the ‘in- store’ experience. Throughout my stay in NY, I found myself in many other places where customer service was at the forefront of the experience.
A few days after my phone experience, , I experienced a problem with my phone (not T-Mobile’s fault) and had to call the call centre. This bothered me, because I knew the problem could have been solved online with self-help tools that could guide me through the task to completion. Considering the fact that I had already gone online to get the company’s phone number, why not help me solve the problem online too?.
It’s ok that I couldn’t, but it was a bit of an inconvenience. So, I simply called the call centre and waited for several minutes until an agent picked up.
I got the help I needed and got on with my day.
What can we learn from all this?
That in this advanced world, although some people may prefer speaking to a human and interacting with them, many would rather quickly deal with their problems and get the job done on their own – as fast as possible.
WalkMe would help fit in with the ‘New York minute’ mentality with its helpful tool that guides users to complete tasks in a matter of minutes.
