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July 28, 2008
Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid... Of Your Customers
By John P. Joseph, TMCnet Voice Solutions Columnist
CEOs around the world are waking from nightmares drenched in a cold sweat. No, it’s not the slowing economy that has them shaking in their proverbial boots; the horrors facing these executives are their own customers. Customers like Vincent Ferrari. Remember him? A few years ago, AOL ( News - Alert) was caught off guard when Vincent posted a recording he’d made when calling to try and cancel his Internet service. The AOL customer service representative resisted helping him with his request and the resulting argument exposed AOL and their service policies. Vincent’s audio posting was heard 63,000 times in just two days and has been played nearly 300,000 times since it was first posted on YouTube ( News - Alert). He got his fifteen minutes of fame and AOL got blasted.
In the good old days — i.e., just five years ago — a bad service experience stayed pretty much between the consumer and the company. The customer might tell a couple of friends, and they would tell a couple of friends, and so on, but essentially it would end there. If it didn’t end immediately, it would simply take too long for word to spread, and the anger would die out before any real damage was done.
Those days are over. Issues can spread worldwide to tens of thousands of existing and potential customers within hours and a simple miscommunication between an agent and a customer can make your company and your brand a laughingstock around the world. Not only can this happen, but it’s being encouraged. Witness the seemingly limitless options available to disgruntled consumers; in addition to old standbys like the Better Business Bureau, there are also thriving sites such as eComplaints.com, Gripenet.com, and Baddealings.com, not to mention YouTube. The list goes on and on.
With the communication links improving between consumers, and a worldwide culture taking shape that encourages consumers to share their opinions, consumers are taking control like never before. Everyone now possesses the Power of the Pen. Past research had shown that companies lose six to nine percent of their customers per year due to dissatisfaction. But, that research was conducted a while ago – before people were empowered to bring down the Fortune 500. With turbo-charged word of mouth reaching around the World Wide Web, the consequences of negative PR are significantly higher than ever before in terms of both publicity and customer defections. Organizations, therefore, face higher costs just to continue to acquire new customers and battle the damage that disgruntled customers can cause with their postings.
The right solution though isn’t to simply spend more money to acquire new customers. One of the principles of total quality management is to identify the root cause of defects and eliminate them. In some cases, that requires going back to the drawing board on the product itself. In others it necessitates an evaluation of the customer service organization. In either case, these vengeful dynamics stress the need for an increased focus on customer service quality.
Every company that provides a product or service is going to encounter unsatisfied customers. Most airlines leave you wanting more. If your cable/phone/internet company is anything like mine, they probably have a less than stellar track record. Look at AOL: maybe poor Vincent just didn’t need their service anymore. So often these days, it isn’t the product or service that a company sells that causes the reputation damage but instead how they treat their customer in the aftermath. Think about it, you’ll become frustrated by a defective product, but when you feel mistreated after raising complaints, the frustration only increases, and soon that frustration turns to an anger only satisfied by sweet revenge.
When it comes to the call center, it comes down to few basic principles that can make or break the customer experience. At a minimum, customers expect:
- The ability to reach a human when they want to — organizations use IVR and other speech-enabled self-service systems to lower agent costs and to provide convenient services for customers that know what they want, but these systems shouldn’t be deployed as roadblocks intended to keep a customer from reaching an agent. Sometimes customers know they have a complex issue that requires the personal touch.
- Agents that are knowledgeable and/or have the tools necessary to solve issues — systems play a key role here, including such key components as CRM (customer relationship management) systems and CTI (News - Alert) (computer telephony integration) software that can show relevant data from the customer’s CRM record on the agent’s desktop in the form of a screen pop.
- Considerate agents — how many times have you encountered agents who seem like they WANT to argue with you (Can you say, “Vincent Ferrari”?). No matter how many times the agent may have dealt with a question or issue on any given day, for the customer it is the first time.
With the technology standards that have emerged over the past five years, such as VoiceXML ( News - Alert), and cost-effective outsourcing options, organizations have the ability to deliver on customer expectations like never before. That knowledge and a customer focus can help CEOs sleep a little more soundly. But, if you are a CEO that doesn’t think customer service needs to be a priority for your business, be prepared for a lot of sleepless nights. All the sleeping pills and soothing sounds in the world won’t stop the Vincent Ferrari’s and turbo-charged word of mouth from exposing your corporate secrets and policies for all the world to see.
(source: http://crm.tmcnet.com/topics/call-center/articles/35357-be-afraid-be-very-afraid-your-customers.htm)
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