How to Address Common Customer Frustrations

Your day job may be a business owner, call center manager, or customer service specialist. But all of us are also customers.

And we know what it’s like to be treated rudely or deal with an uninformed staff member. Or struggle to reach a live agent for help. Or wait for what we consider an unreasonable amount of time. Or repeat what we just shared with some other contact point at the same organization.

Bottom line: We don’t like it.

And we need to remember that our own customers don’t like it either.

In fact, we need to do more than just remember it. We need to take steps to actually do something about it.

The good news is there are lots of solutions and services available that help organizations deliver good – sometimes even great – customer experiences.

Want to avoid rude agent syndrome?

Keep attitude in mind during your recruitment and interview process. Emphasize the importance of being kind and professional during agent onboarding. Use call monitoring to ensure agents are treating customers with care and compassion. And coach or remove agents who are not.

Want staff to provide fast and professional service?

Inform your customer service professionals about your expectations upfront. Keep them updated on your portfolio and the tools they can use to get customers the answers they need. Leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to serve up that data more quickly. Employ chatbots and other automated options during off hours and when you need to supplement live personnel to address demand. Create a knowledgebase workers can access to find the information they need to help customers. Offer customers self-service options to find answers and offload work from your busy agents.

Want to build customer loyalty?

Use smart routing to connect people with customer service representatives who are best positioned to meet their needs, or who have similar personalities. Leverage technology that allows you to employ remotely located subject matter experts, so customers have access to people who can understand and respond to their sometimes complex concerns. Map customer journeys and then leverage information about where customers are in their relationship with your business to provide the right communications at the right times. Leverage analytics and automation to serve up personalized experiences and offers. Adopt omnichannel solutions that provide customers with seamlessly experiences regardless of channel interaction.

Edited by Maurice Nagle