You too will probably regularly send packages to your customers via a parcel or courier service, whether or not as part of your service provision to your customers. This is also my experience. My company sometimes sends training material to customers with a well-known parcel service. In this way I place the quality of our service provision in the hands of another party. Then you probably immediately understand why a customer care department, or customer service, is important in retaining customers.
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| Ron Eman ISA Training & Coaching |
So it went wrong for us. The package was initially lost, later found damaged and we had our customer on the phone several times asking where the package was. The customer service of the parcel service cannot help us or our customer, because they have no idea either. "Oh, you sent it uninsured? You shouldn't do that next time". With this I felt completely misunderstood by the 'customer service' of the parcel service, because I am not (yet) concerned about the financial damage. I was concerned about the problem that our customer is currently having, but that interest was not there with the customer service. The thought of 'what kind of business is this?' quickly comes to mind: 'do they also represent my company'?
To get customers to come back, it is wise to prioritize customer friendliness. This is evident from a 2018 study conducted by SAMR Marktvinders in collaboration with the University of Groningen. According to the study, a high level of customer friendliness significantly increases the chance of retaining customers. So a customer-friendly customer service department can ensure customer retention and therefore a good customer service department should be a priority within every company. Because in this day and age, in which products and services are quickly becoming commodities, customer service is one of the few places in your company where added value can be provided to the customer.
Are you customer friendly?
When are you customer-friendly? Being customer-friendly is about the degree of interest in the customer. This starts with the attitude that someone adopts as a person and the will to help the customer. For example, really listening is important to ensure that the customer also feels heard and understood.
Being customer-friendly is therefore anticipatory and practical in nature. The tricky thing within a customer service department is that the employees are usually driven by protocols and (call) scripts, which means that the people of this service are mainly occupied with these protocols and scripts in their heads instead of paying full attention to the customer. In addition, they are also directed and, for training purposes, monitored in the way in which they deal with the protocols and scripts.
In other words, the attitude that you automatically adopt as a customer service employee is of a task-oriented nature, which often makes a customer feel misunderstood. The result that lurks is that the process has been followed correctly, but the patient has died. That you as a customer ask yourself; what is this tent? And start looking for another solution.
I am convinced that people with a customer-friendly attitude are able to touch the customer from personal strength and make him or her feel understood. You do not need to give these people cheat sheets in the form of protocols or scripts with "yes, I understand you", or "I understand that this is annoying for you".
A customer-friendly customer service does mean something for the recruitment policy, namely that more questions and tests can be conducted on how customer-friendly the candidate is. In addition, there is the managerial challenge of placing the right people in the right place and creating an environment in which it is fun for people to give the customer the attention that the customer deserves: it's all about me here!
Customer expectation
With high customer expectations today, on every channel and during every touchpoint, it is good to think about the role of your customer service department. To get customers to come back, to retain them and to sell more to them, it is wise to prioritize customer friendliness within customer service. The financial benefit? Lower costs for not having to find new customers all the time.
Of course, we have outsourced the sending of parcels again. To another parcel service, admittedly. Now we monitor their customer friendliness, because we have experienced that our customers can easily lose confidence in us as a company due to the customer service of the parcel service. That is the last thing a company wants; that you lose a customer due to the actions of a third party.
How is the customer friendliness in your company and that of the crucial 'partners' of your company, for example the parcel service? Do these partners represent your company well? In what areas can it be improved?
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