7 Ways to Deliver Awesome Customer Service & Build Loyal Advocates

How can some companies deliver awesome customer service while others get it so totally wrong?!

I want to share a personal story of disinterested client support with you this week. From it, I have drawn seven learnings for everyone wanting to deliver awesome customer service and build loyal advocates.

Let me start by saying that it still puzzles me why any organisation would have trouble offering superior customer service when there are so many great examples they merely have to copy. (JetBlue, Sainsbury’s, Amazon, Zappos) In fact, Mark Earls wrote a great book on exactly this topic, called Copy, Copy, Copy which I highly recommend.

This story is just one example of how some companies still struggle to accept that the customer is right, even when they’re wrong! Not that I was wrong in this case (at least I don’t think so, but I’ll let you be the judge of that).

However, the company concerned certainly gave me the impression that they believed I might have been trying to cheat them with the information I provided in my emails. They were never satisfied with what I sent, even when it was what THEY had specifically requested!

Perhaps they were just dragging out the process hoping not to have to “pay up”. You can see for yourself below, or just jump to the seven learnings at the end of the post so that you can avoid making the same mistakes yourself.

Background

Many years ago I bought a TomTom guidance system to help me navigate the streets of American cities.

I love to drive and feel just as much at home on a 26-lane Los Angeles highway as the two-lane Swiss autoroute system. (If you’re interested in which Californian road is 26 lanes wide, it’s the I-5/I-405 interchange.) However, after making many impromptu visits to unplanned US destinations I decided it was time to get a mobile GPS to use in my rental cars.

A few years on, I thought that it could also help me in Europe, even Switzerland, when trying to locate a new client or contact. (My car at the time was almost fifteen years old and wasn’t equipped with a GPS!) I, therefore, added Europe to my online account, since my model couldn’t keep both in memory at the same time!

Last May I replaced the European maps with my American ones as I was visiting Florida that month. When I tried to reinstall the European maps in September, they had somehow disappeared from my account. I contacted TomTom customer service to ask how I could get my maps back and this is how our conversation went over the pursuing three months – with their worst English mistakes removed or corrected for better comprehension, but their own font bolding left in. (!)

The Exchange with TomTom

Me: “Hi there, I contacted you in May about changing from European to US maps. I now want to change back and the maps are no longer on my account! Help please!!!”

TomTom: “Dear Denyse, … As per your account details (…), I am sorry to inform you that, I could not see any map of Europe being active on the account in the past. Hence, I am unable to see any European map details. Hence, if the map had come pre-installed with the device, I request you to please provide me the picture of the box (front face of the box) so that I can activate it on your account. If you had purchased the map of Europe, then please provide me the scanned copy of the purchase receipt of the map so that I can activate it…” (We already exchanged a few months previously and anyway didn’t they READ my email?!)

Me: “Here attached please find the invoice concerning my purchase.”

TomTom: “Denyse, many apologies, but it seems the purchase invoice is not attached in the correct format since I am unable to open it. Hence, I request you to please send me the scanned copy of purchase receipt in PDF format so that I will be able to view it and help you accordingly.” (They can’t open an email with an image when they had originally asked for a picture of the box?! OK, well it’s true it wasn’t in pdf format!!!)

Me: “Apologies for my delay in responding but I have been busy with trips – without my TomTom! As requested, I attach a PDF of the invoice.”

TomTom: “Denyse, I would require the purchase receipt of the map of Europe that must have been provided to you after you purchased it. If you are unable to find the receipt of the map, please provide me the picture of the box (front face of the box) to check the device details.”

Me: “Please find enclosed the invoice for the Europe maps that have disappeared from my account after replacing them with the US ones for a trip…”

TomTom: “Denyse, we are unable to find the invoice of the map on the attached documents. I would request you to take a screen shot of the entire invoice or the part which has the order number and the date of purchase and the details of purchase.” (They can’t read the email that THEY sent to me when I made the purchase and now want a screen shot!)

Me: “This is already what I attached to my previous email. Here it is again.”

TomTom: “Denyse, the attachment that you are sending us is the screenshot of the email that you have received from TomTom. I would request you to send us the invoice which is sent as an attachment in PDF format with the email. Kindly download the invoice on your computer and while replying to this email, please attach the PDF file on your reply.” (Isn’t a screenshot what they asked for?!!)

Me: “Is TomTom just trying to irritate a long-standing customer? I have replied to each email with the requested information and each time you come back asking for a different format. You have the order number, the date, the item and the relevant item code of the maps I purchased directly from you online; what difference does the format of the document have? This is how the attachment appears on a Mac, which obviously you are not aware of, so I resend you the attachment as a pdf.”

This last exchange seemed to wake them up! Finally, they accepted that they had all the information they needed to confirm that I had indeed purchased the European maps, so they could once again reactivate them!

It took three months to get what I had requested, which could easily have been shortened to about three minutes if their customer services had had access to our previous email exchange – I am here assuming that they didn’t, because otherwise I would be extremely “disappointed”.

The Seven Learnings

This is a great case study, as it shows numerous errors that so many organisations are still making in terms of customer care.

You might want to consider these takeaways to avoid similar long-drawn-out – and resource-wasting – exchanges with your customers.

1. The customer is right and has a valid request. This should always be assumed until such time as it is proven otherwise. After all, this is the premise of the legal systems in most countries and for good reason. It is also an international human right under the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 11.

An piece in the Huffington Post questioned this well-known customer service quote, first coined in 1909 by Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of the Selfridges department store in London. In today’s fast-paced world, I believe that a customer’s satisfaction should always come first.

Sometimes, the customer does not have a valid request, and then he is clearly wrong. However, this should not stop the customer being treated with respect and the company doing everything possible to resolve the issue.

With more choices than ever before, the way a company treats its customers has become a key differentiator. In fact, 86% of buyers will pay more for a better customer experience. However, only 1% of customers feel that vendors consistently meet their expectations. (Source: CEI Survey)

2. Respond as quickly as possible. Time is of the essence in helping the customer to perceive the incident as positively as possible, especially after a negative experience with a product or service. According to Forrester, customers want companies to value their time.

71% of consumers say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with good service. Nearly half of them expect companies to respond to their email in less than four hours, 12% within 15 minutes or less. (Source: SuperOffice)

3. Take action as soon as you have the minimum information to enable you to do so. More than 85% of customers expect call centre reps to have all the information they have already provided, no matter through which channel.

They do not expect nor appreciate having to repeat themselves and explain the problem again. They expect conversations with a company to move seamlessly and in real time between channels.

If a call centre rep needs further details to complete a customer’s file, these can be gathered once they are happy and satisfied with the solution found.

The customer would also then be in a better frame of mind and more open to providing information than they might have been when they first made contact about their problem.

4. Use your customer’s language, not corporate speak. It is important that your care centre personnel speak and write the language of the customer as fluently as possible. Not just literally but figuratively too.

In the experience I share above, it is clear that the responses are from an offshore country using standard scripts.

This does not make the customer feel important let alone cared for. In my case, I was frustrated that I was not being listened to or understood correctly. Scripted replies make this even more obvious.

A better solution is to provide the staff with thorough training and then give them the autonomy to solve the customer’s problem, within guidelines of course.

This is far more effective than limiting them to pre-defined scripts that often do not meet the customer’s particular situation.

5. Authority to resolve issues. As I just mentioned, giving your customer services personnel the correct training and then allowing them to respond appropriately to requests, without the need for escalation or verification with managers, is by far the most effective way to satisfy complaining customers.

Working to “standard” procedures for every single case, often delays the customer getting full satisfaction as quickly as possible.

6. Resolution doesn’t mean satisfaction. Even when the issue is resolved, the customer can still be left with a negative feeling about the whole experience, especially if it has taken considerable time and effort on their side.

Remember that it is likely that they will share their negative experiences with far more people than they would have done, had the incident been dealt with in a speedier fashion.

Therefore, set guidelines on resolution speed, not just the number of cases solved. And always follow up to make sure the customer remains satisfied with your handling of the issue.

7. Aim to surprise and delight not just satisfy your customers. Although your customers may be looking for the resolution of their problem when they first reach out to you, there is an opportunity for you to surprise and delight them with much more. That is why I am often quoted as saying that “complaints are a gift.”

If they complain about a damaged product, don’t just replace it, provide a complementary sample of another product or a discount coupon for them to make further purchases.

If they are unhappy with your service, offer an immediate discount, not just a rebate on future services. The latter can be perceived by the customer as their being pressured into a further purchase, something they are unlikely to be ready to do at the time of the exchange.

According to McKinsey’s “The moment of truth in customer service” 70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated. Make them feel great!

So these are the seven learnings that I took away from this incident. Basic? Yes sure, but instead of just saying to yourself “I know this” ask yourself “Do we do this – always?”.

Perhaps one of these learnings might explain why your customers are not as loyal as you would like, or that you don’t get the recommendations you desire. It is surprising how many of the basic elements we forget to check as we advance in experience – and years!

If you’d like to optimise your own customer care service, contact us and we’ll assess your situation. Your organization’s success could be waiting at the end of our call.

This post includes concepts and images from Denyse’s book Winning Customer Centricity.

The article is regularly updated with the latest examples and statistics from around the globe and is part of our cornerstone articles. Why not check out our other popular posts?