This article appeared on Huxam’s website on Feb. 19, 2024.
There is a will to improve customer contact in many organizations. The plans are usually there too, but in the meantime, the phone needs to be answered, and it’s very busy. As a result, little or nothing comes from all those improvement plans. Such a waste! And the busyness isn’t the only challenge.
In customer services, you deal with a mix of challenges that I summarize under the headings people, processes, and pennies. If you know how to connect all these facets correctly, you have the ideal customer contact operation. I’ll first elaborate on those challenges, followed by 7 concrete tips for improving customer contact.
People challenges
Customer service is a psychologically complex situation. Employees often roll into this job, and usually, their motivation is the need for security and safety. There is less ambition in most cases. Therefore, you need to train and educate people extensively. Furthermore, there are often many different people on a team, and you also generally see high staff turnover and absenteeism. Thereby, customer service only exists because things go wrong in the organization.
And then we are not there yet. In addition, team leaders and supervisors lack seniority in terms of management knowledge, expertise, and leadership skills. (Read tips 2 and 3 later, especially.) So, the people challenge list is complete.
While technology can contribute immensely, you shouldn’t implement it blindly. Ask yourself: what technology is out there, how do you implement it, and where does it help improve your organization and customer contact?
Processes challenges
Processes are about efficiency, automation, and the technical side that comes with it. While technology can contribute immensely, you shouldn’t implement it blindly. Ask yourself: what technology is out there, how do you implement it, and where does it help improve your organization and customer contact?
A pitfall I see is that technology is sometimes implemented without understanding what it means for the employees. I am all for technology if it truly helps and makes life better, easier, and more enjoyable. But keep empathizing with your employee: what does technology mean for him or her? How would you experience doing this work this way all day?
Smart technology?
To answer customer questions, you can provide employees with template responses. With the help of technology, a suggestion is provided for which template to use. From a management perspective, you might think, ‘Wow, a nice saving of two seconds. That saves X amount of money.’ But what does that make you as an employee? A kind of glorified enter-button? Does this increase job satisfaction?
Sustainable Data
One that cannot be missing under the heading of processes either is data. If you want to sustainably improve customer contact, you want to make data-driven decisions. After all, you want to know you’re doing the right thing. It is a waste to burn hours with an entire team on a problem that occurs only once a week. So, you need the right data. And how do you get that? By setting up processes and systems correctly.
Example of unsustainable change
Every customer service department needs a CRM system. It is not unusual for the department to set up this system itself according to a best practice. It’s like wanting to buy a bunk bed, but … you want to save money so you opt for two separate beds that you stick together with tape. It might work at first, but after a while it squeaks and creaks on all sides. Not very durable.
This is what sustainable change does look like!
If you want a sustainable change, you don’t look at how you can improve the situation NOW; you first take a step back. You map out the process, ask yourself if it makes sense, and if you are happy with it. Only then do you check if the system supports the processes and what the data says. If you do this right, you won’t face the same challenges every few years.
Pennies
After people and processes, we still have pennies. As long as the customer service department stays within budget, there is generally little issue. Only when costs get out of hand does management wake up and want to improve. In many organizations, customer service occupies a low position and is still seen as a cost center. Freeing up budget is therefore challenging.
With the whole field I describe above, you might think that improving your customer contact is an impossible task. Fortunately, it isn’t!
Improve customer contact (7 tips)
1 – It starts with senior management and board
It is important that upper management and board recognize that there can be a win-win-win-win. That starts with recognizing that customer service is an important factor for your organization. So it takes a turnaround in the mindset of management: from a necessary evil to a differentiator – and yes, that includes investing. But believe me, a lot can go wrong if you don’t manage customer service properly, for example, in the event of illness, advancement or someone leaving the company. You want to prevent that. Getting customer service right is a win for the customer, a win for the employee, a win for costs and therefore a win for management.
2 – Expertise is the solution
It’s probably familiar to you: agent Barrie has been doing his job satisfactorily for years and is advancing to the position of team leader. What can you expect from Barrie if he is not supervised? Exactly. A lack of seniority in teams is a problem. The knowledge, skill and guidance is lacking, he needs psychological qualities to manage all the different people and then technology, data and processes are just around the corner. No wonder, Barrie feels a slight panic rising. After all, he’s no “superman. Fortunately, he doesn’t have to be.
Hook up the right expertise in the form of outside knowledge or partners you work with. No one is good at everything. Besides, if Barrie does go down or move on once, you want to be prepared as an organization and be able to ensure continuity of service.
Yes but … this costs a lot of money! If Barrie gets sick and he has to be replaced, it also costs money. A business case is often easy to make and gives you the insight for informed choices.
No one is good at everything. Besides, if Barrie does go down or move on once, as an organization you want to be prepared and be able to ensure the continuity of your service.
3 – Invest in Good Management
You need managers, supervisors and team leaders. The type of manager you bring in makes a big difference. Dare to invest in this. Free up budget for good coaching and facilitate them to the maximum, so that they can provide a safe place for employees. Never fall into the trap of saying to the marketing manager, “you do this on the side,” if, for example, the manager of the KCC drops out.
4 – Implement Technology and Stay Empathetic to Employees
He came up before, but this one is so important. Technology is great, but keep empathizing with your employees if you want to use it. Is it really helping? Does it benefit the customer, does it actually make employees’ lives more fun and easier? Engage in conversation and empathize. Or better yet, go work yourself for an hour or two in the customer service department and experience firsthand the impact of the changes you want to make.
5 – Implement Sustainable Changes
Often, decisions made within customer services follow the principle: cheap = expensive. Remember the example of the-with-adhesive-tape-CRM system above? Invest more in quality because it always pays off in the long run.
6 – Dates, dates and… dates
Time, money, people, and resources are valuable. You want to use them well. So improving customer contact is not something you do “just like that. It must be supported by data. By correctly setting up processes and systems, you collect data that you can (have) processed. This is your input for sustainable improvement.
7 – Connect the Facets: Technology, Processes, and Employees
As a customer service department, you want to be able to give the right answer all at once. If someone contacts you more often or through different channels, you want to be able to connect that. This requires the right technology and tools, a process-oriented mindset, and your employees. This is precisely why you need someone at the helm of your customer service who can connect all these facets. That’s how you achieve the ideal customer contact operation.
