True Customer Service is Enhancing Customer Experience

Customers are not always RIGHT but they always have the RIGHT to be treated RIGHT.

I needed something like this favorite personal quotation of mine to take off from in order to set the tone and the substance of what I'm going to talk about.

This is one wisdom that I always share every time I facilitate a customer service training or when a company consults with me in this regard.

In my arguable opinion, Customer Service is the most, ironically, downplayed aspect or function of a business when it is those at the frontlines or anybody else who deals with customers directly that could make or break a company's reputation.

This has, of course, a direct bearing on the branding and profitability of a company, which can possibly be tarnished if the customer service employees don't have the right knowledge, skills, and attitude to treat their customers well.

As a matter of fact, I've even always believed that correcting, replacing, or improving customer service knowledge and skills is not sufficient to enhance the company's market share, vis-à-vis customer satisfaction, and to better the customer's overall experience.

That's just one side of the equation - those who give customer service. How about those who receive it?

Efforts to accomplish this goal must be incorporated with understanding and factoring in what the customers think, how they behave, where their behavior comes from, and how they act and react before, during, and after the customer journey.

In other words, the Customer Service department must perform a reverse analysis and trace in the sequence of events what could have triggered the customer's unpleasant behavior during the interaction and, proactively, what would prevent any inconvenience, dissatisfaction, or negative feedback within the same steps in the future.

The areas for improvement might not even lie in the actual stages of the customer interaction but in prior circumstances as far back as when the service or product was purchased or experienced and anything else in between.

It is in doing this that any company is able to not only spot the root causes of a customer's anger, hatred, sadness, frustration, etc. but improve the touchpoints of the whole employee-customer encounter as well.

Let's have, as an example, a usually likeable person who ends up shouting at a phone agent at the onset of the call and immediately asks for a supervisor around.

For sure, there is no way a naturally gentle individual would just treat an employee, who is just doing his job, like that for no reason at all.

It could have been how the agent greeted him at the opening of the call or the tone of voice that comes with it. It could also be how long he had to wait in the queue before finally getting a hold of somebody. Waiting might not even be the problem after all. The customer might just be in a hurry, simply hates the background music or the Interactive Voice Response (IVR), or the absence of it.

The point here is that there's always a reason why customers behave and respond the way they do and it is in looking into the complete customer service experience that revelations are made or interesting discoveries surface.

Even if our customer service staff are equipped with the competencies of world-class communication and customer service, they are useless if they fail to understand where the customer is coming from and how their experience has been so far.

Going back to my quotation, it's true then. Customers may not always be RIGHT but they always have the RIGHT to be treated RIGHT because they are 'paying' customers. Part of what they pay goes to the employees' salaries and other business expenses while the rest becomes the company's revenues.

If employees just take it from what they think they see, feel, or hear and not take into account the root causes of it all and what went on or still goes on at any point of contact between now and then, it is no surprise why customer service providers still continue to have challenges improving their customer service scorecards.

Great customer service is good but an even great customer experience is better. What makes customers stay permanently and buy some more is not how efficient, kind, or accommodating a company representative is. Most people believe it's plainly meeting expectations because they are just doing what they are being paid for. Instead, it is experiencing those feel-good moments in which they have an impression that they are valued, important, and needed that wins the competition and wins people's hearts.

Ergo, enhance your customers' experience. That's true customer service.

About the Author

Myron Sta. Ana, one of the top professional speakers and training consultants in the Philippines, is the CEO of Myron Sta. Ana Training and Consultancy Services. He is the developer of the following theories:

• I.M.P.A.C.T.™ - the modern-day framework or model in assessing, assembling, applying, and appraising correctly the most corresponding interventions to employee performance gaps
• H.A.V.E.F.U.N.™ - the new approach in solving problems and overcoming challenges
• A.D.A.P.T.™ - the five-principle approach in managing people through organizational change
• etc.

He is widely known as The Corporate EnterTrainer in the country and provides corporate training, motivational and inspirational speaking, consultancy services on talent development; small business; and leadership, team and team culture building, and corporate event hosting. His mission is to educate, equip, encourage, empower, and escort people to success (The Es to Success)

You can follow him on Twitter, like him on Facebook, and connect with him on Google+

Other articles you may read from one of the top Filipino professional speakers, trainers, and consultants in the Philippines:

Just Do It - a write-up that talks about one important key to success, "Just Doing It" and not getting stuck in planning and 'analysis-paralysis'.

Four Things My Father Taught Me About Legacy - a write-up that shares the four wisdom that he learned from his deceased father.

The Seven Es to Leadership and Management Success - a write-up that talks about the seven components or essentials of being an effective leader and manager.

If you are interested in having him facilitate Customer Experience Enhancement as a corporate training program for your Customer Service department, please get in touch with his team at inquiries@myronstaana.net or by calling +6325847428.