A few days ago, I had a problem with my Internet service. As is often the case, thanks to Murphy’s famous law, misfortune coincided with the date on which he had to present an important work. This incident allowed me to see firsthand the customer service of a major European company and, in passing, give me valuable information to write this article. Because you need to realize that you have to improve customer service.
Response quickly to the problems
Let’s go by parts. I have a problem that I need to be solved urgently. So I try to get in touch with customer service. But … how do I do it? Its website includes several sales numbers of its different services, but none to serve its customers. First error, the contact with the company must be clearly visible and available on their website. If a business hides the way to get in touch with them, it seems to be saying that they do not care about customers.
So I opted to dial one of the commercial phones. The worst thing that could happen to me is that they told me they did not take care of those matters in that department. The best, they told me how to find that exclusive number that I needed so much.
Be human
The fact is that nothing happened that I had planned. A robotic voice directed the switchboard. I understand that large multinationals use filters to redirect the multiple calls they receive per day, but it is a serious nuisance for those of us who want to ask a simple question and do not have a number assigned to those tasks. So I just pressed a number, hoping that this way I would achieve my goal of finding the information I needed. But, as I was already a client of that company, my call was canceled because they had no services to offer me and all this in five minutes.
The answering machines are great savings for companies but a tremendous frustration for customers. The options they offer assume the needs that the client may have. That is, they treat the client as if they did not know what they want. In some cases, the available options are too generic. In others, they are left without numbers offering particular situations that may not coincide with what the client wants. The art of a good telephone service resides in providing a quick response to the client, greeting him and being at his disposal to help him. And do not tell him what can happen to him, as an arrogant fortune-teller.
Understand customer needs
A while later, I managed to find the secret customer service number. It is possible that I may not be the most skilled person in the world when it comes to finding things on the Internet, I admit it, but I do not think that locating a customer service phone should be as big a challenge as it happened to me. Nothing simpler than putting it clearly visible on the website and even with a button that allows you to communicate directly with a person, either by phone or through a chat.
I dialed the number and, again, another robot. I was beginning to doubt if that company had any human on staff. This time it was a message that informed me that all the lines were occupied – taking into account the difficulty of finding your phone, I did not understand that jam – with loud music. The message was repeated cyclically every few minutes, which made me fear that the answering machine had broken down and entered into a cyclical error.
Seek and analyze customer feedback
But no, for my luck, after a while I was answered by a telephone operator who introduced himself with his name and then asked me the reason for my call. The treatment was personalized and not too unpleasant. However, the woman seemed to have been formed by the same robot that had attended my first telephone call. I explained what had happened to me and began to attend to me following the typical list of questions that are asked in these cases. As it had been some time since the problem happened to me to communicate with the company, I did not want to repeat all the logical steps I had already made on my own. I will not be the savviest person in the world when it comes to finding things on the web, but I am quite good at handling computer equipment, and I knew I needed a technician to replace the modem. The telephone operator remained silent and asked me to wait. And twice more when I answered your questions precisely, twenty minutes later, he informed me that someone would contact me to send a technician to my house.
Telephone service must honor your name and serve the client respectfully and professionally. When someone decides to contact the company, it is because they have a problem that they can not solve. In some cases, the person will know what has happened. In many others, you have to do a little research until you locate the cause of the problem. The person on the other side of the phone should act as a guide for the user according to their needs, with kindness and with the constant intention of offering a satisfactory solution to the client. That person must have adequate training and know well the different departments of the company in my case.
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