In an age of instant message, instant information, customer service experience needs to happen in an instant. Virtual customer service is an expectation from customers today.
The last few customer service teams I’ve worked with have focused entirely on virtual customer service. I haven’t seen a customer face-to-face in years. Well, there was one time where a customer happened to be in the neighborhood and decided to drop off a document instead of scanning and emailing it. I graciously accepted it, and it went straight into our scanner so our team could process it.
The fact is, great customer service today doesn’t need to be done face-to-face. And that’s your advantage.
Virtual customer service is a great way for your to make your service offering stand out from the rest of the crowd. While your competitors are slow, you can be fast and customers will flock.
Addict your customers to your fast customer service
Instant customer service is addicting. Customers hate lines. They hate waiting. They like instant message because it’s instant. Instant coffee, quick check-in, fast food, high speed Internet. Customers like fast. Virtual customer service makes delivering instant customer service easy. Making your customer service go virtual is a great way to deliver the speed your customers need. The more customer service we move to do virtually, the better we are at delivering customer service fast. If you don’t think speed matters. Search online for bad customer service reviews. You’ll see a common customer frustration, slow service.
- Are you bogged down with paperwork? Go paperless.
- Are you slowed down because people need approvals face-to-face? Go virtual.
- Are customers complaining that your competitors are slow? Be lightning fast.
Virtual customer service can be a competitive advantage for your customer service team. To take advantage of virtual customer service, you need to have the right systems in place, create the proper processes so that your team can deliver service effectively, and you need to align your customer communication channels to take advantage of both.
Great customer service doesn’t need to be face-to-face
Not every customer wants to come to your place of business. Not everyone needs to see a human being. Not all want to talk to you on the phone. And that’s a good thing. Virtually, your customer service team can handle multiple customers at the same time, while delivering an exceptional experience. The technology to do it isn’t expensive. Implementing it doesn’t take long. And the benefits of having and using it come quickly.
This doesn’t mean that we should eliminate the possibility of personal interaction. Some of your most loyal customers may need it, allow your systems, people, and processes to accommodate for that. But for everyone else looking to get and out, get just what they need, and get it fast, you can give them what they’re looking for and build on that positive interaction to hopefully keep those customers coming back, again and again.
What’s your take?
How has technology changed the way you do customer service? Have you had experience with something that has made customer service easier for you or your customers?
