In the movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray plays dreary weatherman Phil Connors, doomed to repeat the same conversations over and over again until spurred by the revelation that he can change everything simply by improving his interactions with other people.
Having to repeat yourself again and again is no holiday, especially when it comes to customer service. The 2012 American Express Global Customer Service Barometer notes that three of the top four customer service complaints are passing the buck, having to wait too long for an issue to be resolved, and being shuffled from channel to channel or representative to representative.
So how does an organization ensure that their customers never have to repeat themselves in a customer service version of Groundhog Day?
- Listen intently. When interacting with customers, create a personalized experience; call the customer by name, and listen intently to the information they’re providing so that they never have to repeat themselves.
- Note what’s important. Utilize a multi-channel customer service solution with customer satisfaction tools to document and give agents real-time access to each customer’s product or service information, specific support issues, past customer service interactions and all-important feedback.
- Employ agile channeling. Keep a record of your customer service interactions across all your communication channels using a unified system. If you don’t, you’ll frustrate your customers by making them repeat their information every time they reengage with your organization via a different channel, and your staff will waste time by gathering the same data over and over.
- Don’t let your customer service be shadowed by daily repetition. Publish answers to common and repetitive customer service questions in an online knowledgebase so that your customers don’t have to ask (and your staff doesn’t have to answer) the same questions again and again.
- Adjust your future actions based on what you’ve learned. Use the information and feedback you gather from each consumer to improve products and services with commonly reported issues or problems, and to improve overall service across all channels.
Will it be six more weeks of bad customer service or an early spring for your organization’s customer experience? Take steps now to change the outlook of your brand’s service and support.
