The 3 Building Blocks of Quality Customer Support, Part 1

By C Care BG Comments Off

Did you ever think that the way you view the quality of your customer support is probably completely different than what your customers and clients think of it? How to narrow that gap?

80% of companies say they deliver “superior” customer service. In the mean time only 8% of people think these same companies do so.[1] Let’s think. Why this huge difference in perception of the quality of customer service between those who provide it and those who receive it? How can we narrow that gap?

To begin with, here at Customer Care BG, we think that successful businesses differ from the rest is their understanding that met targets and fulfilled KPIs* and SLAs** do not necessarily bring customer satisfaction. A successful business focuses on people, not only figures. Don’t get me wrong, figures and stats are also important. It’s just that good business results are the RESULT of a job well done, the result of having happy customers and clients who feel good about your business. In this train of thoughts, your company success and the improvement of the quality of your customer support function start with considering the human factors, not solely targets, KPIs and SLAs.

Let us now go deeper and see what the 3 building blocks of quality customer support are.

#1. Attitude

Almost every business that utilizes a contact center has set up a call duration target. Anybody would agree with the importance of it and it is common sense that the sooner a customer service rep is done serving one customer (be it by phone, e-mail, chat or social media), the sooner the rep would be available to serve the next one. But instead of stressing your team about the call duration target, you should work with them on improving their attitude on the phone. We have a saying here at Customer Care BG:

“The more one focuses on finishing a conversation with a customer or client, the longer the conversation lasts.”

It is the co-operative attitude that makes calls shorter – not to mention the amount of addition trouble created during the course of a bad customer interaction that the right attitude saves your reps. Less additional trouble leads to shorter time on the phone, hence reduced call duration. Co-operative attitude, in addition to this, helps improve your first-call-resolution ratios.

#2. You don’t need a team that HANDLES calls!

Okay, let’s look at team culture and the understanding of individual and team purpose. Customers and clients should not be the report figures or ticket numbers logged in the system that management analyzes in order to later impose even stricter rules on the customer service reps. Reps should not understand the purpose of their job as meeting targets. Instead, management should promote the right mindset – the customer service team has to be willing to put the time to really understand the person’s issue and then SOLVE that for them. Nobody needs a team that handles calls, but a team that efficiently solves people’s issues. That’s what customer service is about. Your reps should partner with your customer or client in finding the best resolution for that same CLIENT OR CUSTOMER. This is how you are going to improve your first-call-resolution ratio and at the same time make your team’s calls shorter. And this, subsequently, is how you meet your KPIs and SLA targets.

Author: Yavor Popov

Stay tuned for Part 2

[1] That’s one of the findings of the “Customer Service Hell” by Brad Tuttle, Time, 2011 and it is still pretty valid today.