Yes, the situation is still complex but it’s not the same as one month ago. While one month ago most organizations were stuck on ‘what shall we do now’ many of them have already moved on and that’s good news. Meanwhile, a large number of consumers all over the world have sought assistance through digital channels – many more than during business as usual. This behavior has led to strong demand for Digital Customer Service that brands struggled to handle. Let’s see the main critical aspect when it comes to delivering excellent support via social media, live chat, or messaging apps.
The Human Factor
Talking about Customer Service means taking care of your external communication but nowadays that’s not enough. In order to meet customer’s high expectations you also need to be able to be:
- Quick. Customers use digital channels to instantly deliver their queries because they are not willing anymore to wait for the ‘first operator to be available‘. Consequently, they expect much faster responses compared to traditional support channels such as email.
- Transparent. Whether good or bad, tell me truth from the beginning! What this sentence sums up is that customers do not want to discover a different truth in due course. And they certainly don’t need surprises when facing an issue (e.g. no access to a service or a product malfunction). Not by chance, this is one of the most frequent reasons for complaint that I’ve observed over public channels, social media, and online reviews sites when I carry out assessments for new clients.
- Clear. Simple, short, phrases. Your customer shall easily understand your responses regardless of their age or education level.
- Empathetic. Your front line team to be able to detect customer’s sentiment then crafting their reply accordingly showing their emotional side. That’s crucial – especially over digital channels where neither visual nor listening sense are involved, thus misunderstanding is just around a corner, or a click if you prefer. sut.voice
- Resolutive. When it comes to handling simple queries, you need yo be able to fix the issue with very few interactions. That’s why First Contact Resolution is one of the most relevant KPIs to be measured, especially as for such simple questions (i.e. 1° level support).
The sum of all the above requirements leads us straight to the second factor just like a thirsty man towards the water.
The Skills Factor
OK, I know you’re ready to shoot these questions: ‘how can we get or apply all these traits?’ We’re talking about new ways of dealing with customers to be synchronized to specific digital channels new skills are required. The price to pay for those who do not rapidly adapt is high: inadequate and unsatisfactory answers that generate poor customer experiences. Consequently, instead of consolidating the relationship, it rapidly deteriorates.
To respond to this urgency felt by more and more companies, I wrote the e-book Digital Customer Service Personas© – the skill set model for digital customer assistants with my colleague Maurizio Mesenzani.
It’s the framework that identifies the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to turn representatives and agents into Digital Customer Specialists. It is the result of the work we have done in recent years with client companies that have successfully embraced Digital Customer Service. Feel free to download it here ↓
Join the Customer Experience Virtual Summit
That’s really just around the corner! On May 6th over 50 speakers will join the Customer Experience Virtual Summit. These include Shep Hyken, Matt Dixon, Adrian Swinscoe, Annette Franz, CCXP James Dodkins, Jeanne Bliss, CCXP Jeff Toister, CPLP, PHR Nate Brown Mary Drumond Gabe Larsen Bruce Temkin, CCXP Anne Raimondi, and many others. I’m so thrilled to be amongst them and I’m sure will take this opportunity to learn from such a wealth of expertise from various industries and verticals.
>> Register now.
Have great conversations!
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Paolo Fabrizio
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