TMCnews Featured Article

Is your customer service vanilla? That may sound like a safe option that everyone will like, but what it really means is that you simply blend in with your surroundings—and your competition. You’re not doing anything especially great that makes an impact with the customer, and you’ll very quickly look like every other mediocre company in the market.

For many an organization, improving the customer experience means an investment in customer service software. This may be an important step, but without a clear understanding of the path you need to take to get there, it may not be money well spent. The key is to put a strategy in place and then outline the tools you need to carry out that strategy. This was the focus of a recent Business2Community article.

Of course actually designing that strategy is tricky. If you don’t start with the customer and understand what they need, you could be setting yourself up for failure. Getting to the heart of their true needs is always a challenge. After all, customers are quick to complain, but like to take their time when it comes to recognizing exceptional service.

This reality is one of the reasons why companies struggle to know for sure what the customer wants. It’s easy to assume that the quiet customer is the happy customer. No complaining is a good thing – right? But if your service isn’t standing out as exceptional, and you don’t know that it is or isn’t without customer feedback, you could be heading straight for obsolescence. To avoid this destination, you have to introduce excitement and exceptional quality.

The key to reaching this level in quality customer care is to truly understand what the customer wants. Customer service software can help your call center track customer demands and trends. The goal is to capture interactions and store information according to the things you want to know. Is your script working? Does your IVR perform according to customer expectations? Are agents getting confirmation on satisfaction before they hang up the phone?

If you put yourself into the shoes of the customer, it’s much easier to understand where you need to start when it comes to service delivery. After all, we all serve in the role of customer at some point. What expectations do you have when you make a purchase, place a call or get online? If you apply the same expectations to the channels offered to your customer base – are you missing the mark?

These are the questions you need to be able to answer and your customer service software can help you gather the information you need. In doing so, you’ll be on your way toward creating the kind of customer service environment that not only makes your customers happy, it also introduces a much more satisfying flavor.