We all have the anecdotes, those stories we can roll out when the subject of customer service comes up, or more specifically when the discussion is about bad customer service…they’re easily remembered.
Try this little experiment the next time you’re with a group of friends. Ask them to talk about any recent customer service interactions they considered to be noteworthy for how good it was. Let the conversation naturally flow.
Now follow that up by asking everyone to recount any recent customer service experiences they’d put in the “bad” category. If you’re group of friends are like virtually every other group anywhere, the second part will have a lot more energy and content flowing.
Now whether this is because your friends have actually had more bad experiences than good in their recent day-to-day life is debatable, but they certainly put more emphasis on one over the other.
And if you run a company that relies on customer service, or you’re a customer service manager, 1) that’s probably not news and 2) obviously it’s important to address.
The impact of even one sub-par customer service interaction can have real implications. As a corporate training and leadership development company that works with clients around Dallas in the area of communication workshops, collaboration workshops (often blending these themes throughout one of our Team Building sessions), as well as focusing on customer service excellence workshops, we’re very aware of the importance of every interaction frontline personnel have.
A Forrester report, “Transform the Contact Center for Customer Service Excellence,” takes this from the anecdotal to the quantifiable…and as you might guess, customers are much more willing to punish a business for bad customer service, than they’re willing to reward good customer service.
And this has a tangible impact on businesses, from increased costs managing customers, to the inevitable loss of customers and revenue (and the sunk acquisition costs).
The good news is, you can improve in this area and make customer service a true differentiator.
We focus on creating authentic interactions that connect with a customer, as you problem-solve with them. For frontline staff to be comfortable embracing the unpredictable and thinking on their feet, not being stuck to a script regardless of what the customer is asking for.
Those genuine customer interactions are what takes someone from their initial contact with your company to a loyal customer to a brand champion.
Connect with us to see if our customer service workshops would be a fit your customer service team. Not only will they have a lot of fun together, but we’ll take them through a session that sets them up to consistently deliver an exceptional experience for the customer.
Send off an email to Alex at Alex@improvtoimprove.org or Kayce at Kayce@improvtoimprove.org
We also design customized team building sessions, as well as working with your team on becoming better presenters, and sales training workshops.