Keeping the Human Element in the Customer Relationship

Every company with customers – at least, every company that has long-term plans to stay in business – addresses the issue of customer care on a regular basis. The goal as generally stated in business textbooks is to improve the customer experience in order to deliver increased sales, retention, loyalty, cost optimization, compliance and profitability. Easy, right? Not so easy. Within that short sentence is about a thousand moving parts that aren’t so easy to figure out.

Simply defining “improve the customer experience” is a tricky one. Customers like self-service, so feel free to implement great self-service. Don’t do it at the expense of live help when the customer wants it, though. Knowing when enough is enough for self-service is hard to get right, as evidenced daily by companies that add so many menu choices to their IVR that customers give up in frustration and rest their tired, button-pushing fingers to zero out for an operator.

Too many contact center organizations today spend too much time focusing on minutia such as scripting, process adherence, average handle time (AHT) reduction, risk avoidance and contact deflection and compliance. Much less time is spend on figuring out how to maximize the real opportunities presented in the human element of interactions, according to a recent blog post by third-party remote call monitoring company BPA Quality.

“Every conversation with a customer is a lot more than just saying words and phrases – it’s an opportunity to make a real connection, to build the human element,” wrote the BPA Quality blogger. “As humans, unlike machines (chatbots), we have the ability to be creative, intuitive, show genuine empathy, feeling and understanding; to connect on a human level.”

Some of the things that humans can do that automated systems will never be able to include building a relationship, showing empathy, ownership and understanding; and ensuring that the customer feels like an individual, not a number. Human agents can also show they are engaged and dedicating to solving the customer’s issue with first-call resolution, and actively follow up to show the customer that the company cares. It’s also a great way to learn from your customers.

“Every interaction, whatever the duration, represents an opportunity to discover valuable information about your customers, identifying their challenges, wants and needs,” wrote BPA. “This knowledge, once identified, can provide you with actionable insight and intelligence that can be used to guide the conversation and help build more effective human connections.”

Cutting out the human element in order to save money and reduce costs may seem like a tempting thing to do. Customers like self-service, right? While a strong self-service channel is critical, recognize the limits of what self-service can and can’t do, and remember that the human element is irreplaceable with digital technology.

“In our rush to automate everything, push customers online and reduce expensive human contact, we must not forget the value these interactions bring to our business. Significant focus should be placed on developing the effective skills, behaviors and coaching programs designed to maximize this great benefit to customers.”

Edited by Stefania Viscusi

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