As companies increasingly invest in user satisfaction and increasing their NPS, contact centres and customer service agents often maintain a negative image, especially among dissatisfied users.
Why? Because in addition to their initial bad experience is the frustration of feeling little, bad or even not at all accompanied. The result is an increased risk of disengagement from your brand, and frequent bad publicity among their entourage or on social networks. However, even a dissatisfied customer can be transformed into a true brand ambassador, provided they receive the right support. And this accompaniment is delivered by a human being!
Too often perceived as a simple source of cost, customer service agents must become (again) a strategic asset, whose mission is to maximize your users’ satisfaction and strengthen their commitment to your brand.
“We're doing our best to process your call as soon as possible. Your waiting time is currently estimated at eight hours, twenty-two minutes and 35 seconds“. Have you ever had the impression that you are gradually going mad by dialing the support number of your Internet service provider, your insurance company or that e-commerce site on which you purchased a defective item?
The risks of a bad customer service for your brand image
This type of frustrating experience is a real danger for brands and companies. Indeed, when one of your customers decides to contact your customer service, it is because he has a request or a problem. Sometimes already frustrated that he could not find the answer to his question on your site, he now wants to talk to an advisor in order to be listened to and obtain a solution.
So what happens if he can’t reach that person without having to wait, sometimes, for more than 10 minutes? If the call is automatically rejected because “all our advisors are currently in communication“? What if he feels like he’s talking to an agent in a hurry, unflexible or incompetent? In all these cases, your customer will be increasingly frustrated and dissatisfied with your service. They will therefore have an increasing chance of developing a negative perception of your brand, and of withdrawing from your products or services in order to turn to the competition. According to a ThinkJar study, two-thirds of clients explain their disengagement by a bad experience.
But in addition, the dissatisfied customer will often tend to talk to those around him about his bad experience! Nearly one in five users report complaining about their bad experiences. And in times of social networks, a testimony following a negative experience can quickly become viral, and harm your brand image even more.
With the right customer service, every dissatisfied user can be transformed into a brand ambassador
However, it is possible to turn dissatisfied customers and users into true ambassadors for your brand! But how? The answer seems simple: by offering them an exceptional experience when they turn to you to solve their problem. And to provide an exceptional customer experience, Hubspot believes that three elements must be brought to the customer: first, to solve the problem. Secondly, to be proactive and provide sound advice that goes beyond the simple solution: the objective is to exceed expectations. Finally, throughout the exchange, adopt an honest and authentic posture, capable of making the customer feel that he is considered unique – and therefore important – by your brand.
But how can your company offer such an experience to its customers? After all, managing a contact centre is primarily an economic issue. Teleoperators who respond to customers all day long are essentially a cost centre, whose productivity must first and foremost be optimized…
… No ?
Well, no! Because if you formulate the question differently, you have to ask yourself if the objective, when one of your users turns to your brand, is for them to leave satisfied…. Or not?
The solution seems clear: the priority of customer service must be consumer satisfaction. For him, the teleoperator embodies the company’s voice. And it is therefore he who must be able to support him in solving his problem, and to answer all his requests!
One might think that these dissatisfied users represent only a marginal part of your customers, and that it is futile to make them a priority. And yet, these few customers who decide to engage in a privileged dialogue with your company are a real opportunity. Each of them can become a true ambassador!
At a recent roundtable discussion on customer experience, one of the speakers said, “Have you ever needed to call Vente-Privee.com’s after-sales service? It’s so pleasant to deal with them that you almost want your next order to be lost, just so you can call them back! ». This is proof that even a bad experience can bring your customer closer to your company, if they feel that you have done everything possible to solve their problem. And as a dissatisfied user, he will then be ready to become an ambassador!
A strategic mission assigned to customer service
In short, you will have understood it: your company’s customer service is not just a compress offered to unsatisfied users; it is a real pillar of the growth of your NPS (Net Promotor Score). Your contact center should not be a cost center, but a real strategic asset of your company, intelligently exploited as a tool to build customer loyalty.
As for the teleoperator, his workstation can now more than ever create added value. Because it is the empathy, intelligence and creativity of your agents that will allow your customers to feel listened to, considered and supported.
So, what challenge remains to achieve this objective? It seems that the crux of the matter is not money, but time. The more time your teleoperators have, the better they will be able to support and advise your customers. In 2020, the role of the contact centre manager is therefore to provide his team with the necessary means to gain in productivity and free up time.
Technology, the key to restore customer service agents’ credentials?
And to improve this productivity, several methods are emerging today. The most effective of these are based on technology. Thanks to the many advances in digital technologies, your company now has the opportunity to support each customer in a more efficient and personalized way… Without your costs exploding!
Thus, today, more and more innovations are saving contact centres time and resources, and giving teleoperators a new role: that of federating your community of ambassadors, and advancing your NPS. So, more than ever in 2020, it is time to give this profession their credentials back!
