Ring the bell! School’s
back in! Educating your “confused” customer the right way.
Isn't CustomerWorld just lovely? Don't you want to live there too?
Source: weheartit.com
Your customers live in a magical, bluebell-sprinkled world
called “CustomerLand”. The Internet is free, or 9.99. Money grows on trees, their word is law, and everything written in promotional brochures about customer-centric focus is literally true. HA HA! Poor customers.
They have some ideas that, shall we say, are hindering
you in providing them with the best service. What are those common beliefs and
how can we educate our customers without angering them or talking down to them,
and making sure they listen and understand?
Formula for success:
1: Sympathize with
the belief, no matter how nutty or misguided.
2: Taking your cue
from clues the customer has given you, choose your education approach.
3: Educate the
customer and if applicable, offer them choices or a compromise to help ease the
transition from CustomerLand to the Real World.
Belief 1: The Internet is a natural resource like air or water.
Since I can get it “free”
at places like hotel lobbies, airports, and the library, why should I pay your
company anything more than the barest minimum for an internet connection?
The Reality: Where
to start? Free wifi is a “hidden cost” that you “pay” for with the cost of your
coffee or your plane ticket. Some free wifi comes from your tax dollars, your
retail taxes, school taxes, etc.
The Internet is never free, but wily businesses make it look
‘free’. If you want high quality, reliable internet connection for your home,
you’re going to get what you pay for, just like most everything else in life.
How to explain this
to your customers without a blow up:
Choice 1: Just one
steelworker blue collar person to another
“I know, it’s crazy, right? Everything seems like it costs
so much more nowadays. But you know what, when you pay for quality, you get
quality. You get [whatever features and benefits they are paying for: warranty,
truck rolls, 24- hour- access to help, etc]. So I know it’s a bit of a pinch, but
you’ll have peace of mind knowing you’re getting a quality product.
Choice 2: Tour guide
dishing on state secrets
“I know it seems a little high, but the thing is, it’s all
about what the market will bear. It seems like some people are willing to pay
pretty steep prices for unlimited data, so that’s where the prices are set
right now.”
Belief 2: If only we
could go back to the “good old days” when there was no outsourcing. If customer
service reps were all “Americans”, we wouldn’t have any service issues.
The Reality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EokF_4MGjqI.
This USA DMV employee sharpens pencils while a room full of people wait for her
to call their number. One of many, many videos about American employees doin’
it wrong. Point is, bad service is not
limited to, nor does it originate in, outsourced call centers.
How to explain this
to your customers without a blow up:
Choice 1: The Warren
Buffet
“I know some call centers haven’t given our customers the
service we’d like. But outsourcing some of our most common calls allows us to
keep our prices low for everyone. If we sourced all of our work onshore, you’d
be looking at much, much higher costs.”
Choice 2: The Mother
Teresa
“I know, it’s hard to deal with outsourced centers
sometimes. But you know, we’re really doing a wonderful thing giving people a
job and a leg up out of poverty with these call center jobs. Sometimes we just
have to look at the big picture and help our neighbors.”
Belief 3: Yes I did!
(send that check, rebate form, item back to the warehouse)
This is a hard one. It’s very hard to argue something in the
negative. You can’t “prove” that you don’t have something. However, the upside
is, rarely can they prove they actually did do what they most likely didn’t do.
Reality: No they
didn’t. (Or you have no record of it, which is pretty much the same thing).
How to explain this to
your customers without a blow up:
Choice 1: That was
then, this is now.
“Gosh, I wonder what happened. Well, the bad news is we don’t
have the item, and we don’t have a record of it. So, your choices are….”
Choice 2: Hate the
game, not the player.
“You know what, I gotta tell you, I just hate these new
computer systems. Things are getting lost, not logged in, you name it. There’s
always a chance it’s a glitch in the system. But what we need to do for now is…”
Remember, the customer lives in a world where there is one
red phone on your desk, and he’s the only person you’ll deal with today, or her
call is the only one in queue. Don’t break their fragile butterfly dreams, just
gently guide them back to earth.
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