People who work in contact centres want to help customers. They aim to do the right thing for them. This is especially true for those with experience in that environment. Despite this, complications can dramatically reduce customer service.
Product difficulties and complexities, competing internal service priorities, and bad performance measures from management can all affect the overall quality of service provided. Some organisations seemingly prevent good customer service from ever being possible with kooky policies and procedures.
SuccessCX developed a method called “Agent Shadowing.” This method helps find issues in your customer service. By identifying these problems, you can improve the customer experience. We carefully select agents with different skills and experience, then meet with them to review several tickets together.
Observing how tickets are managed, an overall customer experience score is calculated based on the following criteria:
- The level of skill displayed when operating the customer service platform. Are advanced features being used?
- Are defined processes being followed, and are they consistent across the team?
- Does the agent have access to knowledge to allow them to work effectively?
- Is there a 360-degree view of the customer, including customer history, events and objects?
- Are third-party platforms integrated into the “single pane of glass”?
- How is the work prioritised, and does the platform make it easy for the agent to select the next enquiry to work on?
- Can the agent refer the customer to pre-built knowledge for further detailed clarification?
- Can the agent create draft articles and comment on existing articles when working on issues?
- What are the agents’ KPIs, and do they promote good customer service?
- How is the voice of the customer measured, and does that feedback make it to the agent?
- What coaching, training and support is available to the agent?
- Are there collaboration tools available to allow cross-agent assistance?
- How is empathy used to support customers?
Organisations need to do better to support their Customer Service capabilities and staff. Customer service teams need information ready at their fingertips in an easy-to-read format. Agents need an immediate understanding of customer context, providing personalised and effortless support. This translates to personalised customer service.
Access to knowledge is also an important element in driving customer service excellence. Agents should have access to documented resolutions to known issues at their fingertips. This provides speed to resolution and the best approach to solving, and it can be updated for continual improvement.
This information helps product managers understand customer issues, improve products, boost customer loyalty, and enhance the company’s competitiveness and profits.
Customer Service leaders must provide front-line staff with lots of support and guidance. Very few customers call into the Customer Service Centre to advise what good service agents are providing. Customer problems and frustrations are common, making the job tiring and difficult for the agents who handle them.
Creating a positive team culture is essential. Service Leaders should regularly celebrate successes and good customer results to encourage healthy behaviour among team members. I enjoy showing the OnePlus Customer Service Video in my training classes to teach the right service culture.
Writing up good customer feedback on the team board is a great way to highlight good work!
Allowing agents to make quick decisions for customers helps them feel responsible, leading to better outcomes for customers. Agents can give customers up to \$50 gift vouchers to compensate for a bad experience.
Leaders and staff should regularly give and receive coaching and feedback to help everyone improve and enhance team performance. The management team must create and implement career paths for employees to become leaders or experts in their fields.
Customer Service Leaders must create clear business cases to request extra budget or tools when needed. They should also have direct access to senior management to make things happen quickly.
Modern customer service software is also an essential element here. A “single-pane” view shows agents a customer’s preferences, purchase history, and past interactions. This information is important for providing a good customer experience.
Customer Service agents need direct access to stock systems and product details. This helps them quickly find information and spot up-sell opportunities.
Having this access is essential for providing effective customer support. This access is essential for effective customer support.
The number of considerations to truly bring your Customer Service Centre to a high level of excellence is daunting!
You can deliver excellent customer service with support from management, dedicated leaders, proper tools, and committed staff. When done well, this leads to great success for the business!
