3 myths about customer support
We recently met with a survey of specialists from the Corporate Executive Board Co., who interviewed 400 companies and 90,000 customers to find out what quality service really means and how to achieve it. We will share with you some of the findings of researchers who refute most of the generally accepted notions. Forget everything you knew before about service support.
What a myth. Service must be outstanding, every time you need to jump above your head. 83% of managers believe that superior service leads to loyalty.
Where it came from. The shelves are full of books “excellent service”, “towards customers”, “customer forever yours”, where the strategy to surprise the customer is presented as the only correct one. The trend of quality service is set by the market giants' wow cases: you probably heard a story about a giraffe vacation in Joshi Ritz Carlton or how Morton's restaurant delivered a steak directly to the airport at the request of the client on Twitter. One after another, services appear that bet on service as the main advantage among competitors.
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True. The best turns out to be the enemy of the good. In fact, the race for the ideal exhausts and devastates the wallet of companies. At the Ritz Carlton, every employee has the right to spend $ 2,000 to help a client if something went wrong. But only a few companies can afford it. Dear employees, training programs, integrated systems, discounts, compensations - the cost of “outstanding” service grows up to 20% in polls and is not worth the profit that discouraged customers will bring.
Cases of genuine admiration are very rare and cannot be a regular occurrence, 84% of the clients surveyed say that from expectations not only were not exceeded, but they were not justified. According to the study, clients most of all need the problem to be solved without effort. Moreover, there is virtually no economic difference between customers facing outstanding service and those whose expectations were simply met.
What a myth. To meet customer expectations means to solve a problem the first time. Therefore, if the majority of customers receive an answer to their question when they first apply, companies believe that the support service is effective.
Where it came from. The easiest way to find a figure that reflects the quality of the contact center is to divide the number of calls solved the first time by the number of all calls. For surveyed companies, the FCR indicator was on average 76.7% - that is, the problems of 77 customers out of 100 were resolved on the first call or letter. Not bad, but what if the same question is asked by the clients themselves?
True. Only 40% of the lucky ones said they only needed one contact with the company to solve the problem. Where does this discrepancy between company data and actual customer experience come from? Researchers consider companies to be the main mistake in that they take into account only the direct problems formulated by the client. But after the customer hangs up, he may have additional questions. Let's say the client specified whether the payment was successful, you answered - yes, everything is in order. It seems to be answered from the first time. However, the customer calls back and asks - and when will the goods be delivered? You answer again, you already have two checkboxes in the statistics, but for the client these are related questions and he needed to call you twice to get an answer.
Researchers advise companies to look at a client’s question as an event rather than a single problem, to take into account related, hidden problems, so as not to force clients to turn again. The more effort the client spends on the decision, the less he is satisfied, even if he gets the right answer for every single question.
What a myth. There should be a lot of communication channels: phone, mail, skype, twitter, contact, facebook.
Where it came from. Companies believe that in doing so they give the client freedom: he chooses and appeals, as it suits him. 80% of surveyed companies are planning to add new channels of communication to the site in the near future.
True. A paradox works: the abundance of choice binds the client and it is more difficult for him to make a decision. 84% of clients prefer a simple solution to problems, rather than the freedom to contact you via Skype or Twitter. This does not mean that you should deprive a client of his freedom of choice at all, but researchers recommend “lead the client by the hand.” The researchers give an interesting example of the company Lynksys, where they completely refused e-mail, having found out that the cost of it is 2 times higher, and the effectiveness of solutions is 2 times lower than by phone.
It is best to tell the client which channels are effective for solving his particular problem. The standard question can be answered in the chat, and it is better to discuss the more complex problem with a lot of details and clarifications by phone.
In order to work through several channels, you need to be able to at least at each: monitor the problems, save the history of requests, keep statistics. Often, companies simply do not have a tool for this. We in Usedesk added the ability to communicate with clients on Twitter, Facebook and Contact. The appeal on the wall or a personal message falls into Usedesk and the specialist handles it as a normal request. This will help avoid client forwarding from one channel to another, the answer in Fesbuch is “write us to the mail” - your client will not see it anymore.
Share in the comments what myths about quality service you came across and what metrics you think are useless.
1. Exceeding expectations
What a myth. Service must be outstanding, every time you need to jump above your head. 83% of managers believe that superior service leads to loyalty.
Where it came from. The shelves are full of books “excellent service”, “towards customers”, “customer forever yours”, where the strategy to surprise the customer is presented as the only correct one. The trend of quality service is set by the market giants' wow cases: you probably heard a story about a giraffe vacation in Joshi Ritz Carlton or how Morton's restaurant delivered a steak directly to the airport at the request of the client on Twitter. One after another, services appear that bet on service as the main advantage among competitors.
')
True. The best turns out to be the enemy of the good. In fact, the race for the ideal exhausts and devastates the wallet of companies. At the Ritz Carlton, every employee has the right to spend $ 2,000 to help a client if something went wrong. But only a few companies can afford it. Dear employees, training programs, integrated systems, discounts, compensations - the cost of “outstanding” service grows up to 20% in polls and is not worth the profit that discouraged customers will bring.
Cases of genuine admiration are very rare and cannot be a regular occurrence, 84% of the clients surveyed say that from expectations not only were not exceeded, but they were not justified. According to the study, clients most of all need the problem to be solved without effort. Moreover, there is virtually no economic difference between customers facing outstanding service and those whose expectations were simply met.
2. FCR as the ultimate truth
What a myth. To meet customer expectations means to solve a problem the first time. Therefore, if the majority of customers receive an answer to their question when they first apply, companies believe that the support service is effective.
Where it came from. The easiest way to find a figure that reflects the quality of the contact center is to divide the number of calls solved the first time by the number of all calls. For surveyed companies, the FCR indicator was on average 76.7% - that is, the problems of 77 customers out of 100 were resolved on the first call or letter. Not bad, but what if the same question is asked by the clients themselves?
True. Only 40% of the lucky ones said they only needed one contact with the company to solve the problem. Where does this discrepancy between company data and actual customer experience come from? Researchers consider companies to be the main mistake in that they take into account only the direct problems formulated by the client. But after the customer hangs up, he may have additional questions. Let's say the client specified whether the payment was successful, you answered - yes, everything is in order. It seems to be answered from the first time. However, the customer calls back and asks - and when will the goods be delivered? You answer again, you already have two checkboxes in the statistics, but for the client these are related questions and he needed to call you twice to get an answer.
Researchers advise companies to look at a client’s question as an event rather than a single problem, to take into account related, hidden problems, so as not to force clients to turn again. The more effort the client spends on the decision, the less he is satisfied, even if he gets the right answer for every single question.
3. Multichannel
What a myth. There should be a lot of communication channels: phone, mail, skype, twitter, contact, facebook.
Where it came from. Companies believe that in doing so they give the client freedom: he chooses and appeals, as it suits him. 80% of surveyed companies are planning to add new channels of communication to the site in the near future.
True. A paradox works: the abundance of choice binds the client and it is more difficult for him to make a decision. 84% of clients prefer a simple solution to problems, rather than the freedom to contact you via Skype or Twitter. This does not mean that you should deprive a client of his freedom of choice at all, but researchers recommend “lead the client by the hand.” The researchers give an interesting example of the company Lynksys, where they completely refused e-mail, having found out that the cost of it is 2 times higher, and the effectiveness of solutions is 2 times lower than by phone.
It is best to tell the client which channels are effective for solving his particular problem. The standard question can be answered in the chat, and it is better to discuss the more complex problem with a lot of details and clarifications by phone.
In order to work through several channels, you need to be able to at least at each: monitor the problems, save the history of requests, keep statistics. Often, companies simply do not have a tool for this. We in Usedesk added the ability to communicate with clients on Twitter, Facebook and Contact. The appeal on the wall or a personal message falls into Usedesk and the specialist handles it as a normal request. This will help avoid client forwarding from one channel to another, the answer in Fesbuch is “write us to the mail” - your client will not see it anymore.
Share in the comments what myths about quality service you came across and what metrics you think are useless.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/299906/
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