Let's Change Customer Service This Year!

Well, I made up my mind to put some efforts in changing today’s bad customer service and will exchange all personal bad experience with my readers this year (anyway hoping not to have many).  We all are experiencing unsatisfactory customer service interactions here and there, but in most cases we keep our emotions to ourselves, thinking that nobody cares, or that it’s pointless to complain. In this way we let it slide without any punishment, make a mental note to avoid the company in the future, and that’s it.

My previous article was about airlines’ bad service, and today’s experience is related to hotels. Both services are very popular nowadays for many people who travel for both pleasure and business.

Recently I had an unpleasant customer service experience with a well-known hotel chain Citadines, a member of The Ascott - a Singapore company known as the world's largest international serviced residence owner-operator, functioning in 95 cities across 27 countries.
Citadines is one of its three award-winning brands which we liked during our vacation spent in Lyon last summer. As all loyal customers, we decided to spend our winter vacation in the same brand, but this time in Tbilisi, Georgia. It’s our neighboring country and it is usually a four-hour ride from Yerevan where I live.

So, without even imagining that we’ll have any force majeure, we booked a non-refundable family room for four people. When we heard the weather forecast with heavy snowstorms for the next few days, we sent an email to announce about the weather “surprise” we had, asking to cancel our reservation. Well, we “may” have reached Tbilisi in fourteen hours instead of four, but when you travel with kids, you try not to disturb them so much.

Soon we received a reply from the hotel representative asking for our phone number to speak to us. We called the hotel, and the lady told that when their management is back, they hope to refund our money back. Afterwards we received another email, saying that they cannot refund, instead next time when we book the hotel, they will make some discounts. 

I couldn’t imagine, that the “reputation” of a worldwide operator could cost 550$. Is this a huge amount for a hotel chain? Was it worth spreading the world about hotel bad experience? I am complaining not about Tbilisi, but the whole chain policies and normal human interactions.

My next step was tweeting to the company, and imagine, they have a “good” social care - the respond came the next day with the usual regretting tone for the bad experience we had, asking for the details of our reservation… Anyway they haven’t refunded. Later on we received an email, saying that they will try to make 50% discount on our next arrival. And what would you do in our place? Would you book the same hotel any more after all this?

They really had an opportunity to turn our negative experience into a positive one, an opportunity to make us remain loyal and not walk away. But reality is that they earned 550$ instead of maybe thousands of dollars, and which is more important – they could escape negative word-of-mouth. 

This is today’s reality and I am sure many people all over the world experienced such incidents. But time changes and we should express our opinion, tell about our poor experience in hope that one day we’ll really have a better service with better human interactions. We should build our future! Build it today!

Turn Your Website into Live Environment

The majority of website visitors become happy when they find live chat, especially when it’s their first visit to the website and they have lots of concerns. For sure they’ll get answers to most questions, but it will take quite a lot of time. So, the live chat button should be placed on the most visible part of your website.

What are the live chat benefits? There are lots of them; I never heard any negative feedback about "live chat "presence.

Sales Increase

It’s a proven fact that live chat increases sales. Imagine you visited a website and in the variety of choice you doubt which item to buy. You click on the live chat button and receive the needed assistance. You’re sure to make a purchase in case of a good customer experience.

Customer Loyalty

Most of the online shoppers prefer live chat to the phone. Not in all cases they can phone and speak to the rep. It’s easier and convenient to turn for help just clicking a few tabs, this can be done in most situations even then you’re at work. You have a chance of making your customers happy by offering the experience they want and in this way creating customer loyalty. Love your customers and they'll love you back!

“Customer loyalty is priceless”

Customer Service Improvement

Today customer service is a key component of your business success. If the customer is treated properly and in time, your business wins. If you're out of quality, you're out of business.

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echos are truly endless”

Competitive Advantage

Always remember that competition is one click away! Give customers the experience they expect and even more and you’ll keep them by your side forever.

“If you’re not serving the customer, your job is to be serving someone who is”

Customer Feedback

While contacting with your customers, you can ask for a feedback. I have no doubt if you satisfied the customer, he’s sure to give you an innocent feedback, which is the most valuable thing for your company. Build real relationships with your customers, focus on your customer's needs, requirements and questions and your company will benefit!

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning”

The Traditional Support Channel Persists!

As a confirmation of my last post about call centers continuing to be the center of reliable and customer-friendly communication, I’d like to share an Infographic with some great facts and statistics by Zendesk:

• 79% of customers still prefer to use the telephone to interact with a customer service center and only 12% prefer to use web chat (though that number continues to climb!)
• 72% of companies are aware of their customers’ preference and place value on their call centers.
• An interesting fact about agents’ gender: 71% of agents are female and only 29% male.

Clearly call centers will continue to play a big role in many companies’ success, driving high customer satisfaction scores and ongoing customer loyalty.

Ultimate Customer Service Starts with YOU

Nowadays it is becoming increasingly complicated for entrepreneurs to find people well suited for customer service roles. Experience is not the only essential component. In most cases the customer cannot see the rep he is talking to, so a smile and positive attitude must reflect in spoken or written words. Not an easy task,especially when you recognize the importance of every single customer.

“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises; he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.” Mahatma Gandhi

The more you interact with your customers, the easier it will be to define areas for growth and future improvements. As long as customers are actively engaged, your service team has the opportunity to ensure long-term loyalty; if they leave dissatisfied, chances are they have now already become some other company’s customer. Only about 4% of dissatisfied customers complain.  96% just go away.  (Harris Interactive, 2011 Customer Experience Improvement study). So why let it happen?

To clarify the most significant aspects of delivering customer service satisfaction, I’ve listed below some “must have” skills and strategies along with relevant quotes, which can help you form your company’s success story.

Be reachable, if you want to succeed in your business!

One of the most common mistakes begins from the homepage of a company’s website. You search for a way to contact someone for help, but cannot find it. Sometimes even after a long search throughout the whole website you find only a “Contact Us” form which can take a long time to answer. As a customer, I have dealt with this frustrating experience many times. In such cases, I often think that perhaps the company doesn’t want people to reach them, as they are afraid to fail in giving a proper answer.

Be polite and make your customer feel at home
“Politeness is the art of choosing among one’s real thoughts” - Abel Stevens

After reaching the customer service team, a customer should feel at ease. A quiet, friendly tone has never made anyone upset. Your reps should give full attention to the person they are speaking with, be polite and make them feel as if his problem is their own problem. And then they should do their best to solve the problem as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Be patient and understanding
“Patience is the companion of wisdom.” –  St Augustine

It’s natural that in dealing with people of different characters, situations will arise that can push the limits of one’s patience. Communicating over the phone or through chat can introduce many challenges. Some customers may not even know what exactly they want or need. Train your team to keep calm and try to understand every single word; listen and give a simple answer to every question in a friendly tone.

Be happy and make your customer happy 
Happy staff = Happy Customers = Happy Business!

Be accurate, complete and reliable, and you’ll make the customer happy. People are happy when treated positively. Besides answering the customer’s questions, your customer care team can introduce other products or features, making sure to communicate the value to the customer and a commitment to ensuring all of their needs are met.

Be an expert on your product!  
Make sure the customer is confident that you know the product inside and out!

If your reps don’t know your product well, the risk of miscommunicating or failing to solve the customer’s problem is huge. Ensure your customer service team is well-trained, with a deep knowledge of the product and the company so they are ready for any question.

Be confident and never say “no” 
“With confidence you have won before you have started” – Marcus Garvey

Encourage your customer service team to pronounce every word with confidence even in cases where they are unsure and need to get additional help. They should always avoid using the word “no” – it’s not a word any customer would like to hear.

Be the face of your company 
“First impression is the best impression!”

People form an impression of your company based on a single call or chat with someone representing the company. Your customer service team is often the face of your company, so train them to represent you well.

As John Freshney said: “There’s nothing clever or complicated about delivering excellent customer service, but there is something magical about achieving it!”

It’s important that companies commit to doing their best to make customer service a pleasant and effective channel!