If a company wants to improve its bottom line, it needs to focus on improving sales. That is only possible when the brand is addressing the right audience and solving their key problems. But, how can the brands achieve that? Being a mind reader sounds amazing, doesn’t it? Now, no need to lose hope. There still are different ways by which the companies can tap into what their customers’ pain areas are. Post that knowledge, they can plan their customer experience strategies to solve those problems.
In this article, we will be discussing the customer service pain areas of the customers – some pressing issues, urgent needs and what could be the possible solutions.
Problem 1: Feedback and Complaint
It sucks when something goes wrong with a product that you bought and the company brushes their hands off the problem. You are trying to contact the customer support but to no avail. Customers do not like to keep on waiting without any proper response. Obviously, in the best case scenario, the customer does not face any glitch on the part of the product or service. But, that isn’t always true.
Solution: Monitoring the Voice of Customer
Keep a keen eye on all the possible channels that your target audience prefers. Monitor the social media to see what they talk about. Today, the social media channels have become one of the primary sources to get information about the current trends, anything and everything that is in the news. The customers also post their complaints or feedback through these channels. There should be a proper system in place to track where and why your company name has been used. This will help the company to determine the customer satisfaction and thus, take actions make necessary improvements.
Problem 2: Lack of Time
The millennials are the “on the move” generation. They work as they go. One cannot expect them to be stuck to their desks and operate. They are also the top smartphone users. Thus, they are not the kind of audience who are up for calling a toll-free number and wait for someone to fix their problems. They want self-service or at least customer support across various channels – email, social media, chatting, etc.
Solution: Omnichannel Customer Support
Allow the customers to reach you through the channel of their choice. This can be done only when your business is omnipresent. Today, being present on only one or two channels is not enough. Know your customers well to make sure that even if you cannot be present on all the channels, you are there on the ones your customers prefer most. For eg., Is your customer base more comfortable in using email than social media? Then ensure that your customer service system supports emails.
Problem 3: Service Expectation
The customers have high service expectations. They want to feel special, valued. Customers like to know how something is beneficial for them and don’t just want a standardized pitch for all. The customer service executives need to know and understand the customer properly before trying to pitch a product or offer any other service.
Solution: Personalized Service
Work towards transforming your contact center into a customer engagement center where the service executives are empowered with all the relevant information about the customer, prior to connecting with them. This will ensure that the agent-customer interactions are personalized and will improve customer engagement.
Problem 4: Repeating the Query
Customers do not like to repeat themselves. Period. Being asked for the same information by different agents frustrates the customer and leaves a bad impression about the company. Reiterate their problem will not make things easier for the customer service executives. In all probability, it will make them worse.
Solution: Removing Silos
An organization can truly flourish only when its customers are happy. The silos need to be removed completely to make information flow easily within the organization. An agent receiving the customer’s call should know who the customer is and what could she/he be calling about (in case of existing customer). and when did the customer contact again and for what. In case of a pending query, irrespective of the channel through which the customer raises the query, the agent should be able to access all the information. Thus, letting go of the need to ask the customer to repeat the information.
Problem 5: Getting Incorrect Information
Having an issue with the product or service that you bought is bad enough, you do not want the customer support executives to wrongly guide you. When a customer contacts the “customer care”, she/he is looking for a redressal and not another round of torment just because the executive does not know how to solve the query. Moreover, rather than admit to it in the first place, she/he keeps on redirecting the customer.
Solution: Third-party Integration
The customer support executives need to have the right tools to answer the customer queries satisfactorily. A way of doing that is by using third-party integration. If as a company, you do not have the financial backing to develop all the technology in-house, it is better to look outwards for some help. Integrate with a third party CRM or case management software to make the customer support a seamless process.
Conclusion
There is a popular saying, “customers don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” By identifying these pain areas, you are letting the customers know you care enough to do something about them. The more you care about the customer the more loyal they will be to your brand. In the times, when keeping everything else similar, if one wants to win over the customers, they have to focus on amazing customer service experience and then work backward towards the technology.
Indeed. A must read. I love the article. =)
You have to deal and understand how the customer feels, and give appropriate action to their concern. And becoming progressive every day of our duty.