ARE we catching up or ignoring our capabilities?

ARE WE CATCHING UP OR IGNORING OUR CAPABILITIES?

A few statistics about customer service:

·         According to Microsoft researchers, globally, 96% of consumers say customer service is an important factor in their loyalty to a brand (2019)

·         When asked, customers reported that their level of trust in a company is impacted by the company's customer service (Dimensional Research, 2019)

·         Globally, 54% of all consumers say they have had higher customer service than they did in previous years (Microsoft, 2019)

·         72% of consumers say that when contacting customer service, they expect the agent to know who they are, what they purchased, and insight into previous engagements (2019)

·         89% of consumers have switched to doing business with a competitor following a poor customer experience (Harris Interactive, 2018)

Acknowledging that the statistics are more than five years old, they still offer a glimpse of what those figures might be today. Global consumers are most likely to show higher brand loyalty when customer service is strong. Customer service probably ranks higher in terms of engagement, trust, and CS agents’ knowledge of the customer's purchasing history. This information can make or break a company. To ignore it would be at one’s peril.

Some companies recognize the strong influence and impact that customer service has as an entity within the organization. Many companies have spent thousands of dollars designing customer service strategies, efforts, and policies that emphasize the importance of the customer and the customer experience. One such advancement is the rise of CRM (customer relationship management) software, which is designed to house customer information and generate a ‘customer portfolio’. CRMs essentially enable organizations to tailor the customer experience to each specific customer. However, it must be noted that a company’s CRM is only as good as the information it retrieves, inputs, and uses.

Past employment as a customer service representative showed me how such software could make or break a company. For instance, I could see past contacts, purchases, special notes, and contact information, but this history was only useful to a point. An incorrect email address could cause the business to lose its customer base, as customers are unaware of sales, discounts, or events. Misspelling names could enrage customers or be perceived as disrespectful. Wrong identifiers can confuse similarly named customers – what makes one customer differ from the others with the same name? So much information left unutilized can create a nightmare for both the consumer and the company. There’s also the potential for for theft or misuse of customer information, and, for the company,, a potential doorway to liabilities. There’s only so much a company needs to create positive customer experiences.

Acknowledging that information is now the currency of the realm, unlike previous forms of currency, it has a broader impact on influence and power. Information is intangible, vague, autonomous, and has longevity beyond one’s lifetime. The image that comes to mind is the movie Minority Report (2002), in which Tom Cruise’s character runs through a shopping mall, bombarded with pop-up ads tailored to his past purchasing behavior. Apart from the ads being for the original owner of the eyeballs, switched with Cruise’s, I was confident that this technological form of customer service would not be that far from reality. While being a company’s dream advancement in customer service, it could easily be a customer’s nightmare.

This raises the question for those of us in the service field: are we catching up on how to develop positive and enriching customer experiences, or are we ignoring what we are capable of by misusing those advancements? For example, in the movie Minority Report, recall that I stated Tom Cruise’s character had someone else’s eyes; well, the customer experience was not good because he was only receiving advertising based on the previous owner of the eyeballs’ purchasing history. It’s an extreme example, but it demonstrates that certain advancements in customer service are not fail-proof. We should take care to examine all the pros and cons of progress or new developments in service before implementation. Of course, it is weird to consider that someone would sell their eyes or have them stolen, but in the movie's time period, it was a real possibility.

I recently learned from my daughter how easy it is for KIA cars to be stolen due to advancements in ignition systems. The technology that no longer requires a key to start a car has been around for a while and was cited as an anti-theft mechanism. However, there is one aspect of the push-start technique that apparently the R&D, designers, and executives ignored-how the cars could be stolen. I don’t want to educate anyone on how to do it; if you know, you know, but for others who don’t, I will just say that it is a simple product everyone has. In shock, I could not believe that all the people involved in the design, development, and research of this advancement did not consider how someone could steal cars in this manner. All that college education and work experience has landed the KIA auto company in a class action lawsuit that could have been easily avoided. Trust me, the individuals stealing the cars are not college-educated, nor would they have years of work experience building cars. Had at least one person involved in creating the ignition system questioned the pros and cons from a customer perspective, the design mishap could have been avoided.

The impact of customer service should be regarded as paramount for organizations. As such, there should be careful consideration when implementing new techniques, policies, and technologies designed to improve engagement and interaction in customer service. Often, this consideration is free and requires no extra time. We just have to be considerate of things and situations that are beyond our control. We need to be aware of our biases and our organization’s biases. I understand that it is a very competitive work environment for keeping abreast of new developments in service, but I would rather catch up than ignore the ins and outs of certain capabilities.

 It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, how you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what will set this one apart. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident, and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it will continue to evolve, and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

By Nick Higgins

Dimensional Research. (2013). Customer service and business results: A survey of customer service from mid-size companies. Retrieved from https://www.d16cvnquvjw7pr.cloudfront.net/resources/whitepapers/

Harris Interactive (2018). Customer service research report. Retrieved from https://www.harrispoll.com

Microsoft (2019). Global state of customer service. Retrieved from Microsoft.com

Minority Report (2002). https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181689/