Despite loads of companies claiming to be ‘customer-centric’, I still observe a huge gap in customer experiences. I can confirm that by first-hand experience because I carry out Digital Customer Service conversation analyses for my clients on a regular basis. The fact is that today nurturing relationships means taking care of each interaction and it implies more investments and efforts.

Two Conversational Scenarios

Talking about customer service conversations, let’s focus on who starts them first and how the main aspects have an impact on the overall experience:

1. The customer has contacted you because they need information or assistance. That’s the typical situation where customer service agents need to use 100% of their active listening skills, especially in the first part of the conversation, to understand what the customer wants. That’s also the crucial moment to ask questions to make sure you have really understood the customer’s intentions, in order to prevent any misunderstanding.

2. You (your brand) have started the conversation for a specific reason. Some examples? E.g. to provide important information (relevant contract updates or useful tips on how to take full advantage of the product or service they’ve purchased). That’s the very moment where too many stumble, because they seldom proactively start the conversation with the customer – unless they try to sell them anything, of course. 😎

BONUS TIP: Customer Service is the place to consolidate the customer’s trust and provide empty door assists to colleagues in the commercial areas. Before they decide to leave you, make sure to nurture customer relationships in the best possible way.

💡 There is no marketing activity that can counterbalance disappointing experiences.

Over To You

If you want to nurture customer relationships in the long run, take care of both conversational scenarios, inbound and outbound. Especially when you are the one who starts the interaction, make sure to choose the right timing and clearly communicate with the customer. Otherwise, your proactive efforts may fail miserably. All in all, it’s about using attention to detail and common sense that you already use with people you really care about.

Hence the ultimate question: is your organization willing to do accordingly?

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

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