Actively asking for feedback is NEVER bad

If the shopper feels like it was poor service, then it was poor service. We are in the customer perception business.
Mark Perrault, Rally Stores

I love this quote – it says it all even if we think we give excellent service and provide the customers with all they could possible need and want. It is only so if the customer agree with us.

So how do we know if the customers think we give good service?  Often when I ask this question the answers are something like “well we do everything…” or “they come back….”.

So you think you do everything a customer could possible want – how can you be sure unless you ask them? And for the “they keep buying” what if they don’t? Is it not much better to figure it out before the customers go somewhere else?

I am always surprised how reluctant people are to ask for feedback from their customers. In the past I asked my team to call the customer up and ask for feedback on how we are doing. In the beginning they did not like it very much –but I believe as long as you realize and communicate that all feedback can be used to improve the service you provide it is one of the most valuable things you can do.

It goes without saying that if an agent has behaved  in an inappropriate manner the feedback could be used as part of disaplinary action – but to be honest if you are a good leader you should never be in a situation where something like this happens (this could be an entire new blog post). Mostly it is about finding out what are the customer missing and what do they like us to do more of. Then it is easy to narrow down, improve and really make a difference. Instead of just guessing……and aiming wide.  

So whatever you do – do not be shy about actively acquiring feedback.

Crazy measurements

If you work in a call center you are most like to have lots of KPIs. Answer rate, max wait time, average call time , average hold time , ring on no answer, I could go on and on… that combined with scripts makes an agents job really limited and frankly not so interesting if you have some brain (which let’s face it most of the customer care agents have).

Whilst a script might be good to lean on if you are new it is very limited in really interacting with your customers. And why is average call time even a measurement anybody sane want to use, is it better to jab through a call in 1.5 minutes and leave a customer unsatisfied and chances are he will call back again or spend that extra 1 min to ensure that customer is happy and understand the next steps? I know what get my vote.

I my ideal world the agents will get enough training for them to feel comfortable to actually talk to the customers and give them good and proper advice/help…..hey let go crazy here and provide some real service!

Let the call take as long as it should….. not a whole lot of things which are worse than if you as a customer feel rushed. I bet you will not only see an improvement in the customer satisfaction but also in the number of issues handled in the first call, and most importantly you will also see a improvement in your employee satisfaction.

I work in Europe; everybody on my team speaks at least two languages fluently but most speaks four or five. Around 85% are not native to the country we work in – but the country we work for. And let’s face it, it is probably the more openminded and indepent ones who move abroad to start a new life long away from friends and family. Most of the team is actually overqualified for the job… and the ones which have the “ideal” profile are the ones who really cause issues, so in my eyes there are no more an ideal profile…… If I ask these super clever people to only tell the customers what is on the script and that they can only spend 1.5 min on the phone, instead of letting them talk to the customer who needs for 5 min and give a service the agent as well as the company can be proud of and the customer can be satisfied with.