Customer service teams face numerous challenges when dealing with customers and keeping them happy.
For this reason, it is crucial for management to understand these challenges so they may be able to address them to prevent risk exposure for the whole organization. The top four process risks that customer service teams should be aware of include disgruntled clients, insufficient information systems, training, and warranty. Here is a detailed review of these risks.
- Disgruntled Clients
If an organization cannot meet the expectations of its customers, the customer service representatives should find a way to rectify this situation. This may be through discounts, bonuses, or other incentives. Therefore, an organization should track the number of unhappy customers, the duration, and the processes necessary to deal with them.
This will further help management identify the reasons for customer dissatisfaction and allow them to create action plans to avoid the same issues arising again.
Customer service teams should familiarize themselves with the Net Promoter Score to help them assess customer satisfaction with an organization’s products or services and measure a customer’s loyalty to that company. Companies are scored on an index scale of -100 to +100.
NPS benchmarks vary depending on the industry and region. A score that is more than 0 is good, while one that is above 50 is excellent. Therefore, a positive score is an indication of a high number of loyal and satisfied customers.
How Is NPS Calculated?
When calculating NPS, customers are required to respond to one single question. They will be asked to state whether they are likely to recommend a company’s product or service to a friend or colleague on a scale of 0-10. Respondents are divided into three groups: promoters, passives, or detractors.
Promoters are those who scored your organization 9 or 10. There are loyal customers who love your products and are passionate about telling others about your products.
The passive respondents are those who scored your organization 7 or 8. While they are pleased by your product or service, they won’t recommend your organization to someone else. If you fail to nurture these customers, they could easily be swayed by your competition.
Detractors are the ones who scored your organization six or lower. These customers may not purchase your product again and can ruin your brand by spreading an unfavorable report. Thus, your final NPS is derived by subtracting the percentage of promoters from the percentage of detractors.
NPS can be used to meet your organization’s goals by identifying opportunities to turn detractors into promoters through excellent customer service. According to research, promoters are likely to give a company a second chance after having a bad experience.
- Inadequate Information Systems
Nowadays, customers expect to get products and services round the clock. If a company lacks the infrastructure to meet these expectations, it will likely lose its clientele to the competition. It is important for customer service representatives to understand their company’s limitations with regard to supporting their customers. This is why organizations should have a risk management plan to help them understand and control risk and make effective business decisions regarding their limitations. Some of the limitations that customer care representatives may face include:
- Difficult To Use Technology
Systems such as customer forums, instant chat, help desks, and wiki pages should be part of your company’s customer experience. However, suppose customers find it challenging to gain assistance when using these systems. In that case, this increases the time required to resolve a customer’s issues, adds an unnecessary workload, and could lead a customer to the wrong place for assistance.
- The Threat Of Technology Disruption
Since passives and detractors are likely to switch to a competitor, you should focus on them. If your systems go down when they experience a problem and you have no continuity plan, there are chances that they will spread negative news regarding your products and services.
- The Human Factor
While customers may not be clear about what assistance they want, sometimes a customer support team may not know about a particular issue. To prevent this scenario, it is crucial to have regular training classes for customer service representatives to ensure they know how to resolve issues quickly and effectively.
- Training
Training is one way to ensure your customer care staff will succeed in satisfying your customers. First, the representatives should know how to use your products. Customer service representatives cannot assist your customers with using your products if they do not use them frequently. It is also useful for your customer service team to have dummy customer accounts to identify the weaknesses that customers are experiencing. This equips them to address any significant issues that may arise.
While training is vital for customer care staff, they should also possess some traits to improve their service delivery. This includes:
- Patience And Empathy
When customers approach a customer service representative, they are usually frustrated and impatient. A good representative should be patient enough to listen and understand their problems before offering them a solution.
- Communication Skills
Communication has many facets: listening, questioning, writing and talking are all important. But the real key to good communication is understanding the client’s problems and acting on that information. To do this successfully, you must have an approach that allows you to work with your clients and not against them. You need to make sure that you are not just listening to hear yourself talk but also to find out whether your clients’ needs are being met and how they feel about your services.
- Analytical Skills
Customer service representatives should be capable of reading between the lines when faced with a problem. Some minor problems are a sign of a more significant underlying problem that should be solved. Therefore, a customer representative should be able to undertake root cause analysis of a customer’s query.
- Warranty
Many organizations use warranties to increase customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. When you offer a warranty on your product, this proves that your company is confident in its brand. However, organizations often make the mistake of not communicating significant changes in warranty policies. This leaves customer service teams incapable of resolving customer concerns regarding warranties.
In Conclusion
Customer care staff play a crucial part in the success of any organization. When customer care representatives know how to relate to customers they can effectively resolve complaints and increase customer satisfaction and retention. Identifying the risks facing customer service teams is the first step towards strengthening your customer care services.
