Matt Brewer
Contributing Writer
Success Academy Trainer
We have all heard the horror stories that come with poor customer service experiences. It usually involves customers stating that they were overcharged on their bills, the customer service representative was rude or kept restating policy and procedures. Typically we hear these stories coming from major corporations that have millions of customers so a few complaints doesn’t really hurt their bottom line, or does it?
I recently read an article that had me in total shock. I have been in customer service for 15 years, so I thought I had heard all the bad that customer service has to offer but man was I wrong.
A 66 year old man has his home of over 30 years burn down due to an electrical fire. His daughter was helping him get his affairs in order so she called his cable company to have the service cancelled. The customer service representative went through the typical protocol to verify his account so she hands the phone to her father and he proceeds to give the representative his name, address, and social security number. The customer service representative tells the man that this isn’t enough and that she would need his account number. Of course the customer doesn’t know his account number and any document that would have that number has burned in the fire. The representative states they can’t cancel the account without this information and proceeds to disconnect the call. Irate with the service she received the daughter gets in contact with a manager who bypasses the normal protocol only to notify the customer that an early termination fee would be applied to their next bill. Finally, after a letter to the president of the company, all fees were waived.
According to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, bad customer service reaches twice as many people as good customer service. However, with social media being a huge platform, that statistic will most likely increase over the next few years. The story above was picked up by news outlets all over the country and broadcast over the internet for everyone to read.
Companies go into every year expecting to have some churn. Most large companies go in with the expectation of 5{938cd9e8dae860e800efc538277d4f7684e6f6981618ba70d1c34357a53c2e1f} or less of their customer’s will move on to something different. Could you afford to lose 5{938cd9e8dae860e800efc538277d4f7684e6f6981618ba70d1c34357a53c2e1f} of your customer base? The answer is most likely no, so how do we prevent that from happening? We have to ensure that every time the phone rings or every time we are in front of the homeowner that we are exceeding all expectations that they have and become GREAT customer service reps.
The difference between good customer service reps and great customer service reps are that the great reps are willing to do what the others aren’t. This comes back to a few basic elements, genuine concern for the customer, becoming a customer advocate, and taking the training they receive and implementing this into their daily call taking.
Don’t take a shortcut when it comes to training. Customer service is the lifeblood to all organizations. You could have the best technicians in the business, but if the phone isn’t ringing then that skill is being wasted. Your technicians will become unhappy and potentially look for employment elsewhere. As a manager you have many daily responsibilities but the one action item that must be done on a regular basis is to inspect what you expect. Do regular monitoring sessions with your call takers, go through your technician feedback with a fine tooth comb to look for areas of improvement and provide timely feedback to those employees. If you create an environment of coaching and developing your employees, you have a better chance of avoiding poor customer service experiences and keeping those phones ringing. Success Academy can help you make sure that your clients don’t have those terrible customer service experiences.
Success Academy Trainer Matt Brewer has over 15 years of experience in training and managing for a Fortune 500 company. During that time he successfully implemented a mass change in coaching tactics to increase productivity for over 800 customer service representatives. When the change was adopted, the company’s productivity increased by 7{938cd9e8dae860e800efc538277d4f7684e6f6981618ba70d1c34357a53c2e1f}, as well as profits. Matt teaches sales and communication skills through Success Academy to contractors nationwide.