How To Fix Customer Service Errors

There is a great debate across the entire customer service world that discussed the various customer peeves that a customer service representative comes across and the best way to rectify these issues.
An almost unanimous response was that being put on hold was one the most pressing issue. Putting your customer on hold showed them that you do not value their time, every minute after that is a slippery slope leading downhill.
There is a simple fix to this issue, and all you have to do is use a little bit of common sense. All you need to do is find out the reason behind doing something and ask yourself why you make your customers go through that. After that, you will just need to take a little bit more time to get to the core of the matter.

Training is key
Although everyone is well aware of the fact that your employees need to update their training regularly. However, there is a surprising lack of training even after companies being aware of its importance. When your agent needs to put the client on hold or if they need to direct them to someone else there is a definite sign of insufficient training. It is even more evident at times when the customer is so dissatisfied with your service that they need to talk to the supervisor. If subpar training is conducted the agents, who help customers do not have required knowledge about every subject and thus are not able to perform their duties efficiently.
Another point to remember is that your agents may be the customers first point of contact, but they are not the only ones who need the training. Even managers and other employees need to ensure that their training is updated from time to time.

Having realistic goals and promises
There are times when the target of the agent is higher than humanly possible. This results in the agents overpromising and underdelivering. This is a common problem that has recently come up after the Comcast disaster. Most readers who came across this debacle were fast to side with the agent as they themselves had experienced demanding managers setting unrealistic goals.
Along with over promising another issue arises with the quality of the customer service provided. This causes a lot of stress among the team, giving them more realistic goals can help them get a bit of breathing space and ensure that they leave every single customer satisfied and not oversell your product.

Having a “the buck stops with me” attitude
Most of the time an agent is fast to palm off a difficult problem up to someone else. This shows a lack of responsibility on the part of the agent. There is a major flaw in the system if an agent does not do their best to solve the problem presented to them and sends it to someone else. When the overall attitude in the office is changed, and the agents are given higher levels of freedom and responsibility there will be a higher level of commitment you will be able to achieve. You need to foster an internal culture where teamwork and accountability are essential. When the agent has a “the buck stops with me” attitude they will do their best to solve the problem at hand, and there will be a considerable decrease in the number of queries that get forwarded or fogged off to someone else. Each agent will have a sense of ownership for that specific query.

Go off script
Your customer has already gone through a series of prerecorded numerical messages that did not solve their problem. That was why they had preferred to talk to an actual living breathing human rather than a robot. But imagine their frustration when the human themselves sprout out company lines and stock messages similar to a robot. It explains the churlish behavior of the customers.
A customer who is already facing an issue and has come to your customer service representative for help needs to talk to someone who can empathize with them. They need to speak to someone who speaks their own language. This doesn’t just refer to their mother tongue. Your customers would be more comfortable with someone who listens to their problem and empathizes with them before trying their best to find a relevant solution rather than someone who is just giving them lengthy pieces of really unhelpful advice by just saying I understand but. The need of the hour for your customer is to get their issue sorted out in a workable fashion, using standard statements may just annoy them even more and result in greater dissatisfaction.

Ensuring that your agents have the required customer service skills and the tools that they need to help your customers is key to fixing some of the most common customer service errors that businesses make. Whether it is consciously or unconsciously you too may be making these simple errors, and you need to evaluate your current services and find ways to update them to give your customers the best possible customer service they have ever experienced.