Your company prides itself on its stellar customer service and support. But lately you’ve been having some problems. Customer satisfaction is down in certain areas. What’s the problem, and how can you fix it? It can be a difficult task, especially since customer support now occurs over so many different channels. So here are four steps to unraveling issues across those channels and getting customer satisfaction up to where it needs to be.
- Assess Consistency. First, look at all of the different channels where you might provide customer service. There may be more of them than you think. You’ve got phone transactions and transactions on your website, but don’t forget social media as well. Often people turn to Twitter or Facebook to get help or information from a company. Are you being consistent across all these channels? Is one channel more reliable than the others, or is there one that you don’t get to as often? Make sure your customers can readily access the support they need no matter what channel they choose.
- Interview Customers. A recent survey revealed that 44% of executives think customers are dissatisfied, however 69% of customers are! So how can you tell how your customers really feel about the support your company provides? There are all sorts of ways to gauge their satisfaction, but the simplest is this: just ask them. Interview your customers in depth to find out what their experience was with customer service, whether it was positive or negative, what they feel was done well, and what they feel could be improved. Then, analyze the results and look for patterns in people’s responses that may reveal where the problem areas are.
- Map All Inconsistencies. It’s important that everyone who interacts with your company gets the same positive experience and comes away from it feeling that their needs have been met. So when looking at the results gleaned from your interviews, as well as any customer satisfaction surveys, figure out where the inconsistencies are. Map those inconsistencies. What channels are they occurring on? How often, and in what areas? This way, you can see clearly which areas and which channels most need your attention.
- Present Findings. Once you’ve analyzed your results and determined a clear source or sources for the inconsistencies in your customer service and support, it’s time to do something about it. Present your findings to the executive team, showing them your strengths and weaknesses across all of your different channels. Using this information, they can then take steps to improve consistency across the board.
No matter how much they pride themselves on customer service, every company has problems at times. The trick is not to let that pride hinder seeing the problems and doing something about them. The key to maintaining consistently high quality customer service and support is self-awareness. Always keep your finger on the pulse of what your company is doing and how it’s being received. That way, you can pinpoint problems immediately and fix them, before they develop into habits that are more difficult to break. If you follow these steps for unraveling issues, you’ll be able to maintain channel consistency and support and deliver high quality customer service and support consistently.
