How often do you pay attention to the competition? Is it something that’s fun to watch because you know you have them beat, or do you ignore their activity as you don’t want to be sidetracked from what you’re trying to accomplish? Either approach is actually the wrong approach as your competition has something to tell you. Are you listening in such a way so as to benefit?
This is an important question if you’re in the business of leveraging customer support software. A blog posted recently by customer support software provider, TeamSupport, examined why paying attention to the competition is good for business. In fact, the blog offers five things you can learn from the competition. Let’s examine this list and see if it makes sense for adoption in your own environment.
Don’t Let an Issue Remain – it’s too easy to believe an issue has been resolved just because you didn’t hear back from the customer. In fact, Gallup suggests that 60 percent of B2B customers don’t feel they have achieved resolution when they contacted customer support. When this happens, it’s not uncommon for the unhappy customer to let others know on social media platforms. The competition can easily mine for that information and then strike when the iron is hot.
Provide Support – while this should be a given, most customers don’t feel like their business is valued when they are interacting with a company. It’s not uncommon for respect to be lacking in the interaction if the customer is unhappy, but that isn’t an excuse for bad service that benefits the competition.
Evaluate Churn – are the clients you want to work with leaving the competition? If so, why is this happening? If you don’t know, you’re not ready to jump in and save the day. Remember, there has to be a reason they left and you have to be able to provide something better. If this isn’t worked into your customer support software strategy, will you commit the same sins?
Use the Right Channels – if you see reports on social media that your competitors are creating unhappy customers because of the difficulty of connecting with the support desk or the customer service department, that’s your opportunity to do something different. Customers want access to you to be easy and seamless with their lifestyle. A failure to do so could leave your company name on the complaint list.
Always Be Improving – many say it, but how many live it? This should be a constant focus within your customer support software efforts if you truly want to stand apart from the competition. Watching the failures of the competition is a great way to understand where you need to change the game.
Your competition has a lot to say through unhappy customers. If you’re not listening, you’re missing some great opportunities.
Edited by Maurice Nagle