Customer service: people are better than robots

Recently I went to the cinema, and at the exit from the cinema there was a pretty girl. She quickly thanked everyone for leaving the room for visiting and invited them to come again. For a couple of minutes, she pronounced this stereotyped phrase, probably 50 times. I wondered: does it even work? Someone will come again just because the girl uttered this boring memorized phrase?

Once I wrote to my mobile operator: I said that I was going to Nizhny Novgorod and asked for advice on the correct option for roaming. In response, the girl dropped into the chat a list of all possible options and a list of all the regions for which they operate. That didn't help me very much, to be honest.

I meet the same story when I write in support of online stores, come to a dental clinic or a bank. All questions are answered by the script and they smile politely.

Now I realize that I did client service in my projects exactly the same. And I'm ashamed.

What is the problem

I used to think that it is very important to provide a stable level of service. And what if the support "blurt out" something without thinking? It will damage the company's reputation! I also thought that only a cool product was important, and it was enough for the client service to be cheap and “consistently” high-quality.

I think that in large companies they hold the same opinion: client interaction scripts are written on the main situations, workflows are regulated, vacancies are opened with a minimum rate. And there is a routine there, you need to quickly train people: the scripts are made very detailed so that “any fool” can cope.

In small companies, they also do this, because every small company wants to look like a big one. And in vain. I'm not doing this anymore.

Man to be human

The user often turns to support when confused in the interface. He does not understand whether he is on the right path in solving his problem. Least of all at this moment he wants to knock out the information he needs from the next “automaton”.

Man differs from the robot in that he can empathize. And he can help to find a solution to the problem, because he is able to understand it. A support employee armed with scripts does not empathize - he walks through the script, from one branch to another. Reacting pattern phrases. Not trying to help. And this is our fault: we gave him a script and forced him to follow.

Now we do not write scripts for support service. Instead, we learn to help users together: we understand how to understand a problem, how to find solutions, learn to talk about them. Together with the scripts, these template templates are gone. “Hello, this is the operator Ekaterina, how can I help you?”

This is what the chat with users now looks like:

To trust people

I used to need scripts to be sure that people would not make a mistake. I thought it would be better to make a mistake in the script than to “invent” something. And this is bad: this approach creates a turnover of personnel. No one likes "monkey" work.

Now I trust support service, and she makes mistakes. Mistakes do not bother me as long as we really want to help the user and do everything we can for this. Users respond reciprocally: they are calm about problems that arise and help us in finding solutions.

Give opportunity to help

Still terribly annoying when support is not able to help. The girl nods her head, sympathizes, and asks to wait until the application is examined by the “sour soup” department. This means that the bureaucracy will start later, the user's problem will not be solved, and he will lose a lot of time.

The support guys need a real opportunity to help: fix a user’s something in their profile, change their password or correct a typical error. At the worst - to compensate for the "inconvenience."

We do not have a “first” and “second line” of support now - we are not shifting responsibility.

Sometimes we notice a problem that affects more than 5% of users. In such cases, we develop manual assistance tools first and foremost, and pass them on to the support service. And then we fix the product itself. This approach does not always work, but a couple of times he has already rescued us - support tools are easier to develop and test faster.

Users feel cared for right away, rather than waiting for a release with bug fixes.

Keep knowledge

It is good when typical problems of users are described in a special reference section. This reduces the number of template responses from support and allows them to spend less nervous energy on copying replicas from neighboring tickets.

For many, writing to customer support means recognizing your defeat in the battle with the interface. The self-determined answer is an independent victory. Another knowledge base helps to train new employees: it will find answers to typical user questions.

The knowledge base can not just sit down and do. That's right, when it is gradually filled with the guys from the support based on the real questions of real users.

Study problems

A good customer service does not solve all the problems of the product. He helps with some of them and complements the product with his “human face”. Therefore, it is imperative to study the problems of users and improve the experience of interacting with the product.

When the support service begins to sincerely and honestly talk to users, it becomes not just a user retention system, but also an excellent communication channel. Studying the chat rooms and talking with the guys from the support, you can learn a lot of interesting things about your product.

Something can be learned by indirect signs. When support actions are performed too often, this is a reason to seriously study this part of the product. And the important thing is not that support is heavily loaded - more importantly, not all users ask questions. Some of them just go to competitors.

A good customer service prevents the outflow of users and helps to improve the product.

To become better

I am convinced that turning people into robots is bad. That the script answers according to the script are of no benefit to anyone, and people in the customer service are needed to help other people: honestly, not hiding behind corporate politeness.