This is part two in a two-part series. Read part one here.
In part one of this two-part blog series, we discussed questions to ask your answering service or phone support team to better determine if they were up to par with your customer support goals.
The second part of this blog series is all about getting your goals in alignment. It sounds easy, but it can actually be fairly challenging, especially if your phone support team is completely disconnected from your store or office team. However, it’s not an unattainable goal.
Your customers deserve and expect to be treated the same way on the phone as they are in your physical location or in your online store. Keeping your brand image consistent is key, even when it comes to less obvious branding efforts like your customer support. It’s not marketing, as such, but customer service says so much more about your brand than your marketing team ever could.
Establishing Consistent Customer Care Across Channels
When your customer care teams are totally separate, like when you’re working with an in-house sales team and an answering service, it’s vital that everyone is on the same page about customer care. Keeping the in-house team on point is easier because they’re within arm’s reach, but you can have the same level of control over your answer service, too, if you work with your phone team to establish quality control goals long before launch.
These tips can help you keep your customer service machine well-oiled:
Establish KPIs that matter. Digging through piles of useless KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) can be frustrating and end in your not spending any real time focused on KPIs at all.
Instead of wasting time on useless KPIs, focus in on the ones that really matter across your entire business. Vitals like time spent on hold/time spent in line and first call resolution are classic, but don’t forget to define other KPIs that are specific to your business and your customer service goals. Try to limit your KPIs to around 10 very meaningful items so they’re easy to evaluate at a glance.
Develop achievable goals. There may be no humanly possible way for your in-house team to never miss someone who needs service, or completely eliminate lines at the register, but you can set a goal that limits the time these people wait for assistance. Instead of the average two-minute wait customers currently experience, aim for a minute. You may need to test the waters to see what is actually achievable in your industry and with your market, but the goal should be to always be improving.
Chart your progress. Customer service is a process, and in being such, never really has an end goal. You may want to get your telephone resolution times under five minutes, but to get there you’re going to need to increase the time you spend on training. Once you’ve done that and your team is consistently meeting their goal, you can set the bar even higher and provide the support they need to meet that goal. By changing one variable then charting the progress of your team, you can see which tools are the most effective for the type of change you’re trying to affect.
Your customers will respond when your customer experience is seamless no matter where they go for support. Whether they need to make a quick call, pop into your shop or check your social media account, it’s a small thing to for you to provide your customers the best service around and earn their loyalty for years to come.
