If you’ve been reading my posts for a while, then it’s no secret that I am normally no fan of buzzwords. When I mention various topics in various fields of business, I tend to talk a little about how a term becoming a buzzword has severely diminished the integrity of its definition and cause it to become devalued as a serious thing. But, today I’m actually going to talk about some customer service buzzwords I think you ought to be aware of for the near future.
While buzzwords are often exactly what I say they are, a devaluation of a term that had a real, valuable meaning at one point, there are situations where this isn’t true. For example, sometimes a buzzword is just a term that is being mentioned a lot due to authentic concern over the topic. These customer service buzzwords are such a case, because they will become buzzwords due to their ramifications as new metrics and models for business and customer service come about.
Customer Effort
Customer effort is a new metric that basically measures how much effort or annoyance a customer is willing to go through to see a resolution or satisfaction of a desire. This is a very useful metric that transcends industries, but we’ll stick to why it is important in customer service.
When working out exactly how involved or how snappy your call center needs to be, having a metric for your demographic’s average customer effort level for a given scenario is a good bit of data to make educated forecast from.
It also shows how reliable a call center is for your demographic, and may point you to adopting more convenient, new forms of contact via help desks or social networks. So, expect to see customer effort being discussed widely soon, especially when it comes to call centers or the social migration that’s just around the corner.
Service Awareness
This is a metric that basically indicates how dedicated and consciously aware a company is of its philosophy and credo when it comes to rendering a service.
Companies that follow their own philosophy and have their identity and goals In the forefront of their minds through all processes is more likely to perform admirably, and satisfy customers.
This is another one that’s going to become increasingly prevalent given how identity and brand-driven our pop culture society of today truly is. Get used to service awareness becoming a mantra for the next batch of business writers.
Smart Phone Integration
While the concept’s been a buzz for a long time, the terminology is going to become more widespread in the customer service world. Mobile is the future and while cell phones are prohibitively expensive for a third of the nation’s population for the moment, that is surely going to change soon.
The more compatibility a company has with mobile functionality, especially for assistance and contact, the more successful and respected they are going to be in the future.
As more customer service buzzwords make themselves known and show signs of spreading, I will continue to keep you up to date on what they mean, so you get their real definition before the internet breaks them utterly.
