Paolo Fabrizio
December 7, 2021

Get Your Digital Customer Service Fit and Uniform

Digital Customer Service Fit

When we are not in good shape we avoid our mirror because we don’t won’t like what we see. Because we don’t want to face the truth: we maybe put on some unwelcome weight. I know that this is not a fair starting point, but as we’re just a few weeks away from Christmas, it’s the perfect metaphor. In a similar way, when your organization is not digital customer service fit, bad consequences may well knock at your door soon. Here are two situations I’ve observed during the last few months. Do they sound familiar?

1. Scattered Digital Customer Service Adoption

Picture this: An organization has started delivering support over one or more digital channels such as social media, live chat, and messaging. However, they have started without setting up a clear strategy, including setting clear major steps and goals. Such a partial adoption leads to partial (dis)satisfaction both internally and externally because:

  • Brands do not enjoy quick wins that would lead to further ad hoc actions / investments, lacking a predefined road map. As a result, they come to wrong conclusions, such as, ‘digital customer service doesn’t work in our industry.
  • Brands being poorly equipped to manage digital conversations – typically due to lack of an omnichannel platform or up-skilling programs for the front-line team dealing with the customer.
  • Accordingly, customers perceive a treatment mismatch between channels, which they find confusing. E.g. they perceive accountability and proactivity over email but then experience a worse approach over live chat.

Related: how to bridge any Digital Customer Service gap you may have.

2. Scratching on the Shiny / Rusty Surface

When it comes to developing Digital Customer Service road maps, I get fascinated reading many Company posts on social media. Why? Most of them pride themselves on digitalization and omnichannel wonderful achievements. The reality is a bit different though. In fact, if you scratch the surface a little, it’s easy to observe many clear contradictions.  I recently wrote a LinkedIn post about this phenomenon highlighting 7 obvious contradictions. I suggest that you read it!

That’s not just a lack of coherence, it’s something that inevitably affects overall customer experiences. As we’re all customers, once we perceive a mismatch between a brand’s promise and the reality, we feel ‘betrayed’. Thus, we question the trust that we have granted them. That’s why I suggest that you think about your current values and how they are really perceived by the customer. Do your actions and behaviors really reflect them when dealing with customers? To help you out, I’ve prepared this brief video (1:30 mins). ↓

Over To You

How about the two examples I shared with you? I’d love to read your experiences around them, so please leave a comment.

Meanwhile, as the end of the year is just around the corner, you’d better get your digital customer service fit for the next challenges.

Have a Merry Christmas with your loved ones, and have great conversations.

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Paolo Fabrizio

Digital Customer Service Consultant, Trainer, Author, Speaker. Paolo has been helping companies to harness digital customer service as a business driver. Founder of CustomerServiceCulture, author of books and speaker at conferences in Italy and abroad. Lecturer at the Bicocca University of Milan