The Customer Service Survey
Ten Dumb Things about Customer Service
Mon - March 12, 2007 03:42 PM in
Companies do a lot of inexplicable things when it comes to running their customer service operations.
Here are ten common practices which industry outsiders often don't believe can possibly be true (in no particular order):
Posted by Peter Leppik
- If you hear "this call may be recorded for quality assurance," you can be assured that nobody ever listens to the vast majority of call recordings.
- Most recording systems aren't even capable of recording the entire call, and only catch the live agent portion.
- Many call center agents are paid more to hang up on you than to take care of your problem.
- Most automated customer service systems are never tested for ease-of-use, even after customers complain.
- Most companies at least review satisfaction survey results, but very few ever make any changes based on the feedback in the survey.
- In many companies, the call center does not communicate with other departments: Marketing doesn't inform customer service about new promotions or ads, product development doesn't hear about customer complaints, etc.
- Many companies view customer service as a "weed-out" department, where inexperienced employees are either quickly promoted (if they show promise) or fired (if they don't). Few companies have a meaningful career path which stays inside customer service.
- Senior management is often genuinely surprised to learn that the front-line customer service representatives are inexperienced, unqualified, and/or unmotivated.
- The vast majority of corporate executives believe that their company provides above-average customer service.
- Live agents and automated customer service are usually managed completely separately, even though a typical customer involves both. Nobody ever reviews an entire call from end to end.
Posted by Peter Leppik
Posted at 03:42 PM | | | | |