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5 Tips for Information Technology to Better Manage the Customer Experience

December 28, 2018

To help improve your IT service desk’s customer experience, there are five tips to consider in assessing and delivering a more appropriate level of IT support:

Know and catalog significant and commonly occurring service requests as “service encounters.”

“Your IT service desk should be able to describe what it does day-in, day-out without even thinking about it. But what about in the language of, and from the perspective of, the customer? What are the most commonly asked for and undertaken services? And are they actually viewed as services for customers or are they just a series of tasks/activities that are undertaken until it’s time to go home? A better customer experience starts with a change in approach and mindset – looking from the outside-in, rather than from the inside-out, with your service encounters built around the customer rather than the service provider,” said Sarah Lahav, CEO, SysAid.

Separate each encounter into its (1) before, (2) during, and (3) after stages, and identify where any of the common six “moments of truth” (MOTs) exist.

“These six MOTs are customer touch points in the first contact, greet, use, thank you or exit, last contact, and next contact. So, if you consider an end-user issue with a networked printer, the various MOTs in this example will include:
o The incident submission, perhaps via a self-service portal as a “before” interaction.
o Your requests for more information from, and updates on progress to, the end user will likely be part of the “during” stage.
o A personal callback, to check that the issue has been resolved, and the sending of a customer satisfaction survey are part of the “after” stage,” said Lahav.

Discover any other key interactions you know to greatly influence the end-user’s or customer’s emotions, e.g. what makes them happy or angry.

“These are likely to be additional MOTs. This could include the end user contacting the service desk “out-of-hours,” most likely just before they leave the office for the day, for an update – via the self-service portal, telephone, email, chat, or walk-up channels,” said Lahav. “If you think about how this happens with your service desk now – is it a consistent experience? And, does the end user receive a good customer experience?”

Within any encounter and stage, and for each moment of truth, know whether you have a suitable feedback mechanism in place.

“IT service desk customer satisfaction surveys rarely measure the customer experience. They are also often designed, and distributed, in a way such that end-user response rates are low – usually at 10% or less. To understand the customer experience, there also needs to be greater granularity and a focus on the things that matter most to the end user. Plus, surveys need to be kept simple! The best customer experience gathering mechanisms start with a binary “Are you happy or not?” yes-or-no styled prompt and then seek further, optional, information beyond this. For instance, digging into the reasons as to why there was a poor experience,” said Lahav.

If unsatisfactory, ask what can be done to eliminate, or mitigate, any issues to improve matters.

“In addition to the low response rates to traditional IT service desk customer satisfaction questionnaires, there is also often neglect to follow up (on both good and bad feedback, because of both offer opportunities for improvement). Which in turn drives the apathy end users might have towards your feedback mechanism (with this being in addition to surveys being too complex/time-consuming for them to complete). So, ensure that you proactively use the feedback information received from end users to make positive changes in how the service desk works and, ultimately, to the customer experience it delivers,” said Lahav.

Finally, these five tips won’t work if enacted alone. Instead, they need to be worked on in unison, ideally as part of an ongoing program or activity to better know, and manage, the customer experience as part of a continuous improvement initiative.

Source: Biz Report

How to Choose the Right Software for Customer Support Services?

July 13, 2018

Choosing the right support software is the first step to tackle after scaling your customer support team or simply realizing you’ve outgrown email as your current support solution. However, there is a ton of different support software out there.

Not only are the options pretty much endless, but every single help desk or support solution provider is obviously trying to put their product a step ahead of others. This means that they all look good at first glance, and choosing just one can be a pretty intimidating task.

The Process of Choosing Support Software:

Choosing the tool for you might seem complicated, but if you approach it in a structured way and involve your team into the process, it’s going to be much easier⁠—and hopefully also fun and constructive.

Here’s what you need to do on a very high level:

1) Figure out what you need as a company

The most important groups to think of when specifying your requirements are:

Your customers
Your support team
Your managers

2) Talk to your team

After you’ve put together a basic overview of your needs and future plans, you should also have a chat with other people in the team. The crucial people are obviously the ones who will be using the tool every day as well as those directly managing them.

However, having this discussion in an even bigger circle is great for unexpected but useful feedback and points, especially if you’ve cultivated an “everyone does support” culture in your company.

3) Put together a list of options

Go through as many unbiased review sites and listicles as you can, and just write down names of support software providers⁠—don’t worry about diving deep into features quite yet.

After doing your own research, ask your own network for recommendations. The best advice always comes from people that have actual first hand experience using these tools.

Who knows, you might be able to eliminate some options from your big list straight away⁠—or add some.

However, be careful to not take these recommendations too seriously. The fact that a solution didn’t work out for another company, doesn’t mean it won’t for yours.

4) Evaluate

You don’t even have to sign up just yet⁠—most serious providers have a list of features on their website or offer demo videos to show you what they have. This will help you see which tools immediately have (or don’t have) the things you’ve established you need for your team.Remove the options that don’t meet your criteria from your list. If the list is still long, you can also rely on your gut a little and get rid of the ones you feel are too complex, too expensive, or that you just don’t like the look of.

5) Play around and choose one

Now that you have your top options, it’s time to sign up and see how you like actually using them. Most awesome support software has a trial or a demo account you can use to get into it.Play around with it to get a feel of how it works and what the features you’re looking for actually look like.

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Source: GrooveHQ

How to Deal With Difficult Customers?

July 7, 2018

We all know that running a business in today’s world is not an easy job especially when you think you are having the most loving business of all the times. The scenario is becoming more and more genuine as the technology evolved its best and advanced of all the times. Those days have gone when people were complaining via contacting on the phone or reaching to the store/office manually. In today’s space, it’s very difficult to maintain and sustain a good reputation if you are selling online.

Difficult customers or better we can define them as the complex client are the ones who demand a lot for the cost that others are also offering for the same products or services. The question arises how to deal and handle such difficult customers? We’re offering a few points to analyze for the business owners and companies to think on such a case:

(1) Loyalty: If you are fair enough at the time of closing or dealing with the client and clarifying each of your deliverables to him i.e.terms or conditions or any hidden star, it would be great for the client to understands. If you are in a hurry of closing a deal without your customer’s conscience, you are being caught for the case and will face such a condition for sure.

(2) Perks: If you have a bad experience with a customer you are working with, there is still a chance to handle the worst. Reputation is the only food that your business eats! Never turn back if your customer gets happy with a little or an additional relevant service or product replacement makes him happy.

(3) Feedback: This is an era of rating including the customer’s words. Make sure you created enough space to live in the heart of him. If you are being failed to do so, you are left with an image makeover and generally comes more positive reviews and customer thoughts. Email your old or potential customers to give a rating or feedback on the channel where you have been trapped.

(4) Customer Research: This is orthodox and you should perform a research before closing a deal with the customer. If you find that a “company/client name check” gives you a negative taste, you can leave it from there only.

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AI Virtual Reality and Internet of Things

How Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and IoT are redefining the Hospitality Industry

June 16, 2018

Whenever it seems that customer expectations can’t rise any higher, they do. To continue to earn customers’ loyalty, hospitality brands are embracing technology. And in particular, they are finding that Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), and the Internet of Things (IoT) offer a mutually reinforcing equation of excellent service:

1. AI helps brands personalize the customer experience

Hospitality brands are increasingly on the hook for personalizing customers’ experiences the way Amazon recommends purchases and Facebook recommends ads.

While the idea isn’t new–rewards programs for capturing customer information have been around for decades–what’s different is that consumers expect continuity between their online and offline experiences. Guests want an offer they receive on an app to be valid at checkout, to fix an in-person service issue by chatting with the brand on Facebook Messenger, and for hotels, taxis, and airlines to remember their preferences. Because private Social Messaging conversations are asynchronous and persistent, they tie guests’ pre- and post-booking conversations together so service agents always know their history.

It can take a lot of work to unify all that disconnected data, which is why hospitality brands are investing in data warehousing and algorithms to help them know guests better than they know themselves.

2. Virtual reality allows travelers to try before they buy

VR allows brands to do more storytelling. VR is often touted for its ability to get viewers to empathize with what they’ve seen to a greater degree than is possible in video or print. This is why tourism boards from Wales to Singapore have launched innovation funds and VR documentary series to tell their stories in ways that strike an emotional chord. You may have seen the virtual reality office videos from your doctor’s clinic straight to your laptops. The impact of VR in marketing is definitely transformative and imperative for all types of brands.

3. Integrating home life with travel life

Have you heard about the Internet of things? Yes, an idea that has changed the world. You can have access to your home appliances while you are traveling or at a remote location.

Today, AI, VR, and IoT in hospitality are all converging. More connected devices mean more data. That means AI algorithms are trained on better datasets and can perform more functions. And a greater understanding of guests’ interests, desires, and experiences means more interactive and engaging VR experiences before, en-route, and at their destination.

As customer expectations rise, technology offers an answer. The challenge for hospitality brands is investing in the right systems before it’s too late.

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All Customers Are Created Equal – Just Some Are More Equal Than Others

June 10, 2018

Are all customers equal? Loyalty programs promote perks, rewards, elite status and more, which might suggest that not all customers are equal. Now, I agree that loyal customers can receive some type of reward or discount for their loyalty. But, what about when it comes to customer service? What about how customers who spend more – or less – are treated? Should a frequent or loyal customer be given better customer service than a casual, once-in-a-while customer, or even a first-time customer?

The short answer is no. We’re not talking about perks here. Just about the way a customer is treated. Here’s what I recently observed. By the way, I’m sure this isn’t any different behavior that has been going on for a long time, it’s just lately I’ve been acutely aware of it. I was at a restaurant and noticed a guest was almost being ignored compared to another guest at the next table. I inquired about who that “special” person was getting the extra attention, and my server said, “He’s in here all the time.”

I notice the same type of behavior happens with airlines and hotels. It’s easy to spot the frequent traveler by the way they are treated by airline and hotel employees.

So, it appears that frequency might warrant a better customer experience. The same might go for how much a customer spends.

Here’s my take:

The way a customer is treated should have nothing to do with how much they spend or how often they buy. All customers should be all be treated with dignity, respect and the attention any human deserves. They should all be treated in a way that is consistent with your brand promise and the reputation you wish to be known for. Now, when it comes to the perks you might offer a loyal customer, you can differentiate. That’s different than the way you treat them.

But, isn’t it human nature to treat the regular and more profitable customers a little better? If that is what you believe, there is a solution. If you haven’t already done so, create a minimal standard of customer service. This standard should be so good as to garner high praises regardless of how much – or how little – the customer spends. It’s that simple.

So, remind every one of the standards you want to be known for. Remind them that applies to all customers, not just the ones they see more frequently. Do that and you may start to see more casual customers become repeat customers. You see, all customers are equal, just some are more loyal than others.

5 Tips for Building a Customer Interaction Management Team

June 4, 2018

Developing a great team of any type takes time, courage & patience. But, when it comes to taking care of the most important asset of a business (Of course people as customers), making sure you have the right people in place to manage these complex relationships is essential.

1) Look for excellent conversationalists – This won’t always show up on a resume, so make sure to interview potential team members in person to see how well they pick up and react to different types of language. Observe their reactions not only to what you say but also your body language and tone of voice. Non-verbal communication is just as important in business as what people say through words.

2) Lean towards prospects with a strong technology background – Even the best conversationalists are now expected to be well-versed across multiple communication channels. Being only a smooth talker on the phone with customers isn’t good enough anymore, employers now seek out team members who are concise yet thoughtful in text-based mediums including email, chat, and messaging apps.

3) Evaluate internal communication capabilities – One of the pillars of a strong customer interaction management team is actually having effective and efficient conversations with colleagues. Since many employees across various departments can interact with customers (especially in the B2B industry), it’s essential that two employees aren’t providing conflicting responses. Finding excellent internal communicators isn’t easy, but once you do you should hold onto these employees as the skill is rare and valuable.

4) Leverage a system to archive customer information – No matter how good your customer interaction management team is at creating engaging and impactful dialogue, they simply can’t remember each detail of every single conversation. A customer interaction management system that also acts as a repository for customer information is essential for ensuring conversations are frequent and effective. In addition, an archive of customer discussions is great for transitioning accounts should an employee get promoted or move to a different department.

5) Seek to hire people with different backgrounds and opinions – Most companies have a diverse customer base, meaning you should also have a diverse customer interaction management team. Try to find employees who are not only a good fit with your culture but also have unique perspectives created by their personal background and history. While lifelong “local” employees may be less transient, they also can sometimes have difficulty relating to customers from other areas of the country or even the world.

The article is sourced from Team Support. Thanks for reading. Please share it with your colleagues and friends.

The ultimate guide to improving customer service in your company

May 26, 2018

What is customer service?

Before we begin, let us clarify what we mean by customer service. The term refers to the way a company interacts with its customers and encompasses everything from the initial contact, presentation of a product, closing of a sale, provision of a warranty and the handling of complaints and problems. Whenever there is direct contact with a customer, we are talking about customer service.

While this is the basic definition, the fact is that the concept has much wider implications for the whole company. In recent years, the term “customer experience” has become a buzzword; it refers to the entire customer journey and the creation of a unique experience in their relationship with the company. A host of companies all over the world are striving to enhance this experience in order to build their reputation, increase customer loyalty and drive sales. Indeed, when asked about the company’s main competitive advantage, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was quick to define it as:

“Creating a customer experience superior to anything my competitors can create.”

Tips for creating a successful customer service strategy

1 – Demonstrate that the customer is important

2 – Establish fast and user-friendly customer service processes

3 – Hire professionals that care about the customer

4– Use new technologies

5 – Measure, measure, and measure again

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Killer Words of Customer Service

May 4, 2018

There are customer service ramifications of eight commonly used words and sayings that we’ve designated as Killer Words. These eight phrases are normally used with good intentions, yet they are damaging to customer relationships. Let’s look at how we can avoid the Killer Words and see that it’s not how you perceive the phrases but how the recipient interprets them.

#1—Killer Words of Customer Service: “CALM DOWN.”

When a customer contacts you about a problem, they generally are not happy. So, it’s not a good idea to say something that might make them more unhappy. Let’s listen in on a customer phone call.

Jessica: Thanks for holding support. This is Jessica.

Customer: Yeah, your company promised me delivery on Tuesday. It’s now Friday and it’s still not here. Do you have any idea what kind of problems you’re causing me?

Jessica: Ma’am, please: Calm down!

Customer: Calm down?!? Calm down??? Don’t tell me to calm down!!! Thanks for the advice, but if your company would have done what they promised, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation!

Did you see what happened here? Instead of handling the customer’s concern immediately, Jessica chose to change the subject. Rather than dealing with the complaint, she sidetracked it into telling the customer what to do, and all of a sudden it’s an argument. The customer went from upset to furious. This can be handled much better.

Jessica: Thanks for holding. Support This is Jessica.

Customer: Yeah, your company promised me delivery on Tuesday. It’s now Friday and it’s still not here. Do you have any idea what kind of problems you’re causing me?

Jessica: My apologies. That’s got to be very frustrating. If need be, we can overnight your order so it’s there Monday. Now please tell me exactly what happened and I will get to work on fixing this.

Customer: Yes OK. Thanks. …

That was much better. Jessica apologized and focused her efforts on solving the problem and that’s what the customer wanted in the first place. Telling a customer how to act is never a good idea.

#2—Killer Words of Customer Service: “CAN I BE HONEST WITH YOU?”

Chris: Parts. This is Chris.

Customer: Yeah, Chris. This is Darius Jones. We spoke last week and you asked me to call today to arrange installation of the new pump for our hydraulic press.

Chris: Hello, Mr. Jones. Um, regarding your new pump, can I be honest with you?

Customer: No, I want you to lie to me. Yes, of course, you can be honest with me!

If ever there was a useless saying, it’s the Killer Words “can I be honest with you?” The customer assumes that you’re always going to be honest with them. They expect that. There are several variations of these words that needs to be dropped as well, such as:

Let me be perfectly frank.
You want the truth, right?
Look, I’m going to level with you.
Can I be candid with you?

Always choose correct words so that your customers can be fair and polite to you as well! If you liked this blog post, please share it with your friends! Thanks

Customer service in the era of the Internet of Things

April 25, 2018

The Internet of Things (IoT) is already a reality in the commercial world and it’s getting bigger by the minute in the consumer space. The number of devices connected to the internet continues to grow closer towards the 20 billion connections that research firm, Gartner, predicts there will be by 2020.

In the enterprise space, machine-to-machine (M2M) communications are one of the biggest growth areas in information technology, with the car industry one of the biggest adopters. However, the rampant growth of IOT holds significant ramifications in the consumer space, particularly when it comes to customer service.

People increasingly have to deal with objects – things – as well as other people. When that interaction goes wrong, or when people need assistance or simply more information, traditional customer service channels are not always up to scratch.

With all the improvements in customer service in recent years – improved contact center technology, chat lines, automated response systems and the like – consumer satisfaction with service levels have been dropping. A new report from research company Ovum, commissioned by LogMeIn, has identified a significant disconnect between what today’s mobile and always-connected customers have come to expect from customer service and what contact centers are delivering.

According to Ovum’s research, 48 percent of customers surveyed believe that the ability to reach the right representative has worsened over the last two years and as a result, 76 percent have stopped doing business with a brand following a bad encounter.

The findings also highlight that IoT technologies have a potential for helping with the technical resolution of customer issues. While the technology is not well understood by customers, they are evidently willing to use it if it means solving technical issues quicker. This presents a number of opportunities.

When asked whether they would be willing to connect their devices to the internet, over 50 percent of customers said that they didn’t believe it to be necessary, or that they would not be comfortable with connecting their devices. But 25 percent said they would be keen to do this if it would resolve their customer service issues faster.

On the useful benefits of connected devices, 63 percent of customers said that they would like to improve resolution rates for technical problems. Although not all of the surveyed customers are aware of what the IoT could mean for them, they all want to be able to resolve problems faster.

All of the surveyed contact center managers said they are aware of how the IoT can be beneficial to their organizations, and they understand that remote technical diagnosis is potentially a significant advantage. When asked about benefits of connected products, they stated that being able to optimize field service, chat directly to customers on a device, and carry out remote updates are all advantages that they would hope to gain.

Today’s highly mobile customers are empowered to seek out support from multiple touch points and have come to expect a response through those channels in minutes. It is possible, for example, to use a customer’s mobile phone to resolve problems in real time by sending images to the contact center representative, showing them exactly what the customer sees. It is an example of how the IoT is part of the solution to better customer service.

Such real-time visualization technology has the potential to shorten support times and greatly reducing product returns which end up with ‘no fault found’, which affects retailers’ and product manufacturers’ profit margins – consultancy Accenture estimates the cost of such returns is as much as US$9.4 billion annually.

Technology is constantly evolving. So is customer support. The IoT trend adds a new layer of complexity to customer support, but it also has the potential to greatly assist in the resolution of customer support issues.

6 secrets about customer service training that will boost your team’s results

April 4, 2018

While training and preparing your employees is clearly the first step taken by a good management team, it is nevertheless advisable to focus on what type of training they need and how to implement it. Below we will give you 6 secrets that will help you improve your customer service training and provide a significant boost to your business.

1. Train ALL your employees

Customer service is something that interests and concerns the entire company, not just a single department. In one way or another, the work of all your employees resonates with the end customer. For this reason, it is essential to provide customer service training instruction to your entire staff: not only will they be prepared to meet (or exceed) the expectations of users, but you will also be transmitting a consistent message across the company regarding the importance of customer service.

2. A coherent message: the customer comes first

While customer service training could include numerous technical aspects and personal skills, the essential message should be loud and clear: the customer comes first. These few words should waft throughout the organization as if they constituted a religious mantra. If your training is built upon this principle (which should be repeated until exhaustion), the foundation you are laying will help everything else run smoothly.

3. Practice, practice and continue practicing

If you want successful training, you have to commit to practice. Numerous studies confirm that experiential learning and learning by doing increase brain activity and the ability to memorize knowledge. Have your employees practice everything that they are learning so that they will never forget anything.

4. Exercise attitudes, positivity, and empathy

Many customer service training programs forget to teach the basics: kindness, empathy, positivity and courtesy. While many of these skills could appear naturally, the reality is that they must be reinforced and fostered throughout the company. Make sure that your courses drive home the need to be positive, smile, refer to the customer by name, remain calm, have patience and walk in our users’ shoes. Never assume that your employees are capable of doing all this in their day to day tasks.

5. Personalize your training

Every company is its own universe, and every customer support service is different. For this reason, if your company has some particular processes that you want to implement (welcome greeting, presentation of a product, packaging, closing a sale, returning an article, etc.), it is worth investing time into personalized training that satisfies the needs of your company and business.

6. Ongoing training: reinforce, reinforce and continue reinforcing

Customer service training should be a never-ending learning experience. Running a course during a month or two will neither significantly impact your staff nor improve your business’s figures. Employees (just like everyone else!) forget what they have learned and easily fall back into their old habits. It is thus essential to hold regular training courses (e.g., changing formats) to continue shoring up all the new knowledge and skills learned.

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Tag: Customer Support Services