The Customer Service Survey
VocaLabs' weblog providing news and commentary on the challenges of providing good customer service.
Disconnected Call Center
Friday - October 28, 2005 03:44 PM in
In a lot of companies, the call center is the primary (and sometimes only) point of direct contact between customers and the company. As such, you would think that the call center would be one of the most important sources of intelligence and information about what customers want and need.
But more often, the call center is disconnected from the rest of the organization. In many companies, customer service is not consulted when product or marketing decisions are afoot. In a few companies, customer service is lucky to be informedwhen an important new marketing campaign begins.
There are exceptions, of course. A handful of companies make everyone from the CEO on down take the occasional customer service call. But those companies are rare (and not coincidentally tend to have great customer service).
But think of how valuable the call center can be to the rest of the organization. Imagine the intelligence which could be gleaned if agents inserted just one market research question into the occasional call:
We're developing a new version of the product you're calling about. Do you have any suggestions for new features or changes I can pass along?
or:
We're trying to better understand why people switch to our service. I see you've been a customer for only a few months. Why did you decide to switch to us?
The call center is transformed from a disconnected island, cut off the rest of the company's decision-making apparatus, to a central source and clearinghouse for information about what customers want, why they like or dislike the product, and how new customers can be attracted.
Even more important: simply asking the question in a way that makes the customer feel like his or her opinion is valued forges a bond between the customer and the company. When people complain about bad customer service, it often boils down to one simple fact: they don't feel like the company cares.
And if the call center isn't viewed as a core piece of the customer relationship, then odds are the company doesn'tcare.
Posted by Peter Leppik
There are exceptions, of course. A handful of companies make everyone from the CEO on down take the occasional customer service call. But those companies are rare (and not coincidentally tend to have great customer service).
But think of how valuable the call center can be to the rest of the organization. Imagine the intelligence which could be gleaned if agents inserted just one market research question into the occasional call:
We're developing a new version of the product you're calling about. Do you have any suggestions for new features or changes I can pass along?
or:
We're trying to better understand why people switch to our service. I see you've been a customer for only a few months. Why did you decide to switch to us?
The call center is transformed from a disconnected island, cut off the rest of the company's decision-making apparatus, to a central source and clearinghouse for information about what customers want, why they like or dislike the product, and how new customers can be attracted.
Even more important: simply asking the question in a way that makes the customer feel like his or her opinion is valued forges a bond between the customer and the company. When people complain about bad customer service, it often boils down to one simple fact: they don't feel like the company cares.
And if the call center isn't viewed as a core piece of the customer relationship, then odds are the company doesn'tcare.
Posted by Peter Leppik
Posted at 03:44 PM by | | | |