Last Updated on January 31, 2019
You’ll never have a product or price advantage again. They can be easily duplicated, but a strong customer service culture can’t be copied.
Jerry Fritz, Sales and Customer Service Author
It’s not a coincidence if this quote reminds you of last week’s post about the small business value proposition. Let’s talk in more general terms this time around. You see, there’s one thing we can count on whether we’re providing customer service on the phone, in person or over the internet.
Exceptional service is exceptional service and the basics are always the same. (That’s two things. Considered it value added.)
Take a moment and examine what you consider to be exceptional, loyalty-building customer service. Are any of these elements on the list?
- First time resolution – problem solved on the first call
- Rapport building – getting to know your customer and building the bridge of trust
- Active listening – understanding the customer’s need in depth
- Genuine care and concern – from the heart, you can feel it but you can’t teach it
- Voice tone and quality – audible, clear, evenly paced, easily understood
Good to hear. These key elements, along with others, lead to exceptional service through all communication channels. They are the backbone of an outstanding service offering that sets you apart from the competition.
Every contact we have with a customer influences whether or not they’ll come back. We have to be great every time or we’ll lose them.
Kevin Stirtz, The Amazing Service Guy
So therein lies the struggle. How can you be great every time with a team of customer service reps from different walks of life, with different motivations and different sets of skills? The power of observation, but not just any kind of observation.
Any supervisor can sit down next to a customer service rep and observe their phone calls. There’s no difference between the kind of service we offer when someone’s watching and when someone isn’t. Right…
There’s a far better way to monitor your customer service reps in real time. Through call recorder software and monitoring, you can patch into any rep’s line to listen in on their conversations while observing what’s happening on their computer monitor. What better way to ensure they’re executing on all the elements mentioned above?
The wonderful thing about call monitoring is the ability to provide real-time feedback once an observation has been completed. But there’s something else just as good or perhaps better because it allows a supervisor to prepare additional training or simply manage the customer service rep’s performance.
Call monitoring and recording software also lets you take learnings from a live observation and review previous recorded calls to identify trends. It’s easy to find out if poor rapport building with one customer is the sign of a bigger issue or just a bad day. Development planning has never been easier.
Customer service is just a day in, day out ongoing, never ending, unremitting, persevering, compassionate, type of activity.
Leon Gorman, CEO L.L.Bean
How true. With the best tools, it’s also a tremendously rewarding activity that pays great dividends for the company and the person who is challenging themselves to be better every single day. Versadial offers call recorder software and monitoring solutions for small to enterprise sized businesses. They’re affordable, adaptable and flexible to meet the needs of your growing business. For more information, call Versadial today.
Last Updated on January 31, 2019