Service Extras
During my customer service workshops I often facilitate an exercise called “Value Add or Extra Mile for the Customer”. Since it is easy for support organizations to slip into a status-quo mindset, this exercise can help renew enthusiasm and help reengage the team to provide knock-your-socks-off service. The output of this workshop are service-specific practices that could potentially be put into action, company wide, the next day! The specifics actions vary depending on whether the company is a health care call center, an IT help desk, an on-line ordering center, etc. But in general, here are a few things that usually surface:
- Respond to the customer faster (whether phone, email, physical mail, IM, fax, or in person)
- Resolve the issue faster
- Follow-up better and faster
- Make sure the customer considers the matter closed and a success
- If the customer was ticked off from a previous service encounter, make up for it! Give them something extra!
- Solve an additional problem they have on the same call.
- Provide them some free information or advice relevant to their situation.
- If the issue is over your head, warm-transfer your customer to an expert and solve their problem in real-time.
- Survey the customer on-the-spot. “Is there any part of our service that you think could be done better?”
- For the support staff: train, train, train! Become experts at resolving issues!
- Keep reevaluating and improving the service - continuously!
If we don’t do these things, then the service might as well be outsourced to India and then we will all get what we deserve: polite but probably awful or at best, mediocre service for our customers.
