Customer Service by its very nature is a “reactionary” process most organizations create to solve customer issues. THIS IS NOT A STRATEGY.
Customer Service was created to handle issues, problems, complaints, and anything else that occurred when “things went wrong” with the customer. We needed someone to call…someone inside the company that could be a “first line of defense” before we deployed our most valuable talent. As a group, they are the front line for the organization to figure out what went wrong, determine the sense of urgency, determine the risk involved, and then, and only then, direct it to the appropriate group to engage.
Companies found early on that if the customer could call directly into tech support, or shipping, or operations, or accounting, or any other department, it would be a “distraction” for these people to do work. These were our some of our highest paid employees and we couldn’t waste this valuable resource fielding customer issues. Thus, Customer Service call centers and other groups were created…the first line of defense.
I have no argument that this was an efficient and effective solution…for the company…not the customer.
My question for any business leader is whether or not having a customer service department, as described above, is the right strategy. I don’t believe it should be a strategy…nor do I believe it should be a department that is fielding issue calls from customers. It’s admitting that the company is doing things that cause issues with our customers. Further, it is allowing our “most valuable asset” (our customers) to speak to what ends up being some of the lowest paid employees inside the organization…as our first line of defense against an issue.
The first question to answer is for yourself…do you personally enjoy calling most customer service departments? Of course not…it WASTES YOUR TIME! The company is essentially saying our time is more valuable than your time because we want to put you through our customer service group…a group that can’t solve our issue most of the time instead of allowing you to speak to the person that can solve your issue.
THIS IS A REACTIVE STRATEGY…NOT A PROACTIVE STRATEGY.
A proactive strategy says we are going to PUT THE CUSTOMER FIRST in everything we do and in every part of the organization. We are going to figure out what could possibly go wrong and put in processes and mechanisms to stop the majority of issues from happening. We don’t want any calls to our customer service group…it says we failed at preempting the issues and solving your problems before they are a problem or an issue.
THE GOAL SHOULD BE TO PUT THE CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENT OUT OF BUSINESS.
If we knew our customers well enough…if we had processes in place that stopped the majority of issues from every happening…we could virtually eliminate the customer service department. This might sound too good to be true, but ask yourself is it possible. It might be difficult, but is it impossible? I don’t think so…and your customer doesn’t think so either. Your customer hates this process…they hate talking to front line people who can’t solve their problem so they have to waste more of their time with your company. No matter what concessions you give, you can’t give back the most valuable thing to your customers…THEIR TIME. This is what they don’t want to lose…they want to have more of it.
Develop a strategy that is 100% about your customer…it’s called Customer Centricity (or being Obsessed with your customer as I call it). This is a PRESCRIPTIVE and PROACTIVE STRATEGY…one that help you virtually eliminate the need for customer service. It is also a strategy your employees and certainy your customers will love and get energized about it.
This is the STRATEGY OF THE FUTURE for virtually every business on the planet!
If customer service is a big part of your strategy…change it. Spend the time and resources to develop a CUSTOMER OBSESSED STRATEGY that will help you create significant differentiation and profitability well into the future.
We left the Industrial Revolution behind about a decade ago…now we are flying at Mach speed into what is now being called the CISTOMER REVOLUTION or CUSTOMER ECONOMY. Companies won’t survive this Customer Revolution by focusing on customer service…it is merely a reaction to something gone wrong.
According to Accenture Strategy, 64% of consumers switched at least one of their providers because of poor service in 2014. And here’s what makes it even worse…because of the mass adoption of social media…77% of customers, following a bad experience with a company, will tell others. In other words, not only did a bad experience with cost them 2/3 of their customers, but ¾ of their customers went out of their way to tell others about it. When you do the simple math, assuming each consumer has (conservatively) about 500 connections, friends, and followers, if you upset only 10 customers (a tiny number) you potentially had almost 4,000 people hearing about it…from only 10 customers.
The goal of any organization should be to avoid these numbers, not recover from them or build in departments or strategies to “handle” them. The goal should be to eliminate them and reduce them down to zero. While it might not be completely attainable, it’s the right goal to shoot for and strive to achieve.
If you want to eliminate the reactive aspects and grow your business faster you need to switch from Customer Service to being CUSTOMER OBSESSED. If you think you are, here are 3 simple questions you should ask yourself and your leadership team…
- Do we have a reasonable investment in our customer service program and a team supporting this function?
- Are our processes throughout the organization built around the “customer first” strategy where everything is designed to make the customers life better…ahead of any benefit to us?
- If we interviewed 100 of your customers and asked them a simple question, “Do you feel this company is obsessed with delivering you an incredible and remarkable experience more than their focus on delivering their products/services?” If they give you a resounding yes, then you are more of a customer obsessed company than you are a product/service company that provides customer service.
Take the challenge and ask the questions. It will help enlighten you to what strategy you really have around your customers. If it is a strategy based on customer service, you may be more at risk than you think…it is time to rethink your strategy for survival into the future of the Customer Economy. This is the time to take advantage of an incredible opportunity for you and your company that could put you on a trajectory of differentiation, more growth, and profitability.
Think about “proactively eliminating” customer issues before they happen by being completely obsessed about your customer instead of building departments that have to “react” to issues. It’s a completely different way to look at your organization…but it is the way your customers look at your organization every day.
