The Right Way to Deal with Customer Service Problems Part 2
TeleworkPH
Published: February 16, 2021
Check out part 1 for the effects of poor customer service to your business.
Some customer service problems are easy to understand. However, there are several complicated problems that have unexpected root issues. Nevertheless, these problems certainly pose challenges to businesses. So, we’ve gathered the most common customer service problems you need to be aware of. We’ll also share actionable resolutions should you encounter these issues in the near future.
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Common Customer Service Problems and How to Deal with Them
1. Lacking Real-Time Support
Customers are always on-the-go these days. They want instant transactions and gratification. This goes the same for customer service. In fact, 90% of customers expect to get an immediate response when they have queries. To address real-time support requirements, the solution is easy. If you can’t afford a 24/7 support team, you can simply get a live chat or a chatbot program. Live chat and chatbots are automated AI programs that can deliver real-time support to your customers. So if your customers need guidance or have queries, these programs can promptly answer and satisfy customers at any time.
2. Failure to Give First-Time Resolution
Another common problem is the failure to provide a first-time resolution. In the customer support industry, FCR (First Call Resolution) is an important metric for support professionals. It measures the support team’s ability to resolve a customer issue from the very first contact with no follow-ups required. Of course, no customer support professional can resolve every issue, the first time around. To address this, you’ll need a collaboration tool to let your support team work together to solve the issue. You’ll also need an integrated FCR framework that your team can easily follow.
3. Long Waiting/Queueing Times
It’s been stated that customers want answers to their issues, and they need it quickly. So, putting your customers on hold for a long time might not be ideal. In fact, 15% of customers drop the call after being on hold for only 40 seconds and that’s not a lot of time for your support team to look into the issue. The solution? You’ll need an integrated customer service tool that will allow you to have an overall view of the customer’s complete information and transaction history. The tool should also let you manage the customers in the queue. This way, your support team can have one look at all the information so they can quickly get back to the customer.
4. Lacking Proper Customer Service Training
Your frontline customer support team should reflect the company’s values externally. That’s why they need to have the proper training to handle customers respectfully. Here are some of the skills needed to develop customer service:
- Clear communication
- Proper etiquette in addressing customers
- High EQ (Emotional Quotient) and empathy
- Proactive in resolving issues
5. Inefficient Customer Service Team
An inefficient customer service team can severely affect business operations. There can be a couple of root causes to this. If your team is unproductive, they might not have the proper tools and training to resolve customer issues. So how do you improve upon this? You need to give them regular training and keep them updated with all business information. Another factor that can help is to build an efficient workforce management system. WFM (Workforce Management) is proven to increase employee productivity and operational performance.
6. Failure to Get Customer Feedback
Customer feedback is a vital factor in improving your business. Without getting customer feedback, you’ll run blind and you might not give your customers what they need. To solve this, you need to practice getting customer feedback regularly. The perfect time to collect feedback is after a successful transaction or after a customer support conversation. Then, consolidate the feedback to evaluate and analyze areas for improvement. You can also share the data with various departments so they can each make an action plan and execute it.
7. Failure to Monitor Customer Service KPIs
Your business is at a loss, your team is unproductive, and your customers are distant. You don’t know how to address these issues because you don’t have any evaluating system, to begin with. This is critical for how can you measure your business or team’s performance without any metrics? Metrics or KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) should be in place so you can gauge the overall business performance. At the same time, you can also be aware of your customer’s experience with your product or service. Here are some of the most common KPIs to measure customer satisfaction:
- Customer Satisfaction Rate (CSAT) – The rate to measure how your customers are satisfied with your products or services.
- First Call Resolution (FCR) – This measures the support team’s ability to resolve a customer issue from the very first contact with no follow-ups required.
- Net Promoter Score (NPS) – The rate at which your customers are likely or not likely to recommend your products or services to a friend or colleague.
- Average Handling Time – This measures the amount of time that an agent works on each customer’s case.
- Churn Rate – The level at which your customers stay with your business.
- Overall Resolution Rate – The number in which your team can resolve issues at a given time.
Businesses that are customer-forward definitely experience positive effects on their overall growth and profits. By providing excellent customer service, not only will you get an increase in sales, but you’ll also build loyal and happy customers for a lifetime.
To learn more about how you can further improve customer experience, read this next post.
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