Join now or Sign in with your favorite social networking sites.
Sharing an office with my dad is great because we get to experience some great father-son bonding.
But sharing an office has it’s downsides...especially when my dad is on the phone with a customer service agent, gets super frustrated, and begins yelling.
As an observant, budding businessman, I decided to listen closely to what occurred during these calls. And over the last few months, I’ve learned some very important customer service lessons that you and I can apply to our businesses.
Here are the top 5 lessons:
My dad hates automated voice systems. “If you’d like to speak to a representative, say ‘representative',” the robotic voice says, to which my dad replies, “Representative.” Of course, the machine comes back with, “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t understand what you said--” Before it can complete a sentence, my dad begins yelling, “Representative. Representative! REPRESENTATIVE YOU STUPID MACHINE!”
Technology is great. But sometimes your customers just want to deal with a person. Don’t make it difficult to reach a person.
My dad sometimes spends hours on the phone. Usually the first person who picks up the phone is not able to help him, so the phone rep transfers him. The second person can’t help, so he transfers him again. He goes through this about 5 times before getting back to the original person he talked to.
“I’ve been going in circles here. Can’t anyone help me?!?!”
If a customer contacts you with a problem, it should be your personal mission to solve their problem. The customer should leave feeling like you went out of your way to help her.
My dad has to leave the speaker phone on whenever he makes a call to customer support.
Why? Because he’s usually kept on hold for so long that he’s wasting his time. During that time, the cliche voice says over and over, “Your call is important to us.” The longer he holds, the angrier he gets.
If a customer runs into a problem, solve it now. Not tomorrow, not in an hour, not later. RIGHT NOW. The longer you wait, the worse the problem will get. If you need an example of good customer support timing, call Zappos right now and see how quickly they pick up.
Customer service phone reps must have a script that says, “The first thing you should say to the customer is, ‘Sorry.’”
Every time my dad makes a phone call, he says to the person who answers, “Whatever you do, don’t say you're sorry. Just help me.” Of course, the rep replies with, “I’m sorry sir for your problems, and I’d be glad to help.”
No matter how many times you say you’re sorry, it won’t matter to the customer unless you do something about their issue. Helping them shows you’re sorry. Saying sorry doesn’t.
“I’ve just been on the phone for an hour straight. I’ve talked to 5 different people, and now you’re telling me you won’t do anything for me?”
“Yes sir, I’m sorry.”
Click, as the other end hangs up.
There will be times when you just can’t do anything to help the customer with their problem. But in such cases, don’t just leave it at that. Find some way, any way, to make the situation better. Offer a discount on a future purchase, offer money back, give them suggestions where to go for help.
Apple is great at this. If you have a product that is no longer under warranty, they don’t say to you: “Sorry, nothing we can do.” Instead, they print out a sheet of stores that will fix your product.
Customer service: it’s a difficult part of business. But it’s what separates the great from the mediocre.
Do like I did: listen to the complaints people have about customer service, concerning your business and others. And begin fixing it right away.
Image: Jan Tik, Creative Commons 2.0