In business, as in just about everything, it is always about the relationships we build. But in business those relationships are often with people we don’t even really know, our customers. We want to be sure they are happy with whatever service or product they buy from us. We want them to talk well of us to others so that we get new customers from their recommendations.
But most of all, we want to be able to make them happy again when something goes wrong. When our relationship with our customer looks like it is “going south” because of some real or imagined problem, we need to find a way to fix it fast, and make them see us not as bad guys but as their friends, ready to resolve the problem.
Good customer relationships start with good intentions, and smart training. It helps if you also have smart software to aid your customer service reps such as the Microsoft dynamics 365 we see in many of the top business customer service centers. But these days they also start in our social media, where more and more customers are turning to vent their frustrations.
Is there a way we can turn this around to our advantage? There is, and it goes beyond the software training and agent attitudes. It is based on the latest technology that marries up our best and brightest in the tech side of our business with our best people skills in our customer service department. Here is a good example of how it works.
Solving Problems Socially
Many of our clients these days will go to social media first to try and solve a problem. Let’s say a customer bought a product from you that didn’t work almost as soon as they took it home. They are frustrated and want to know if someone will be willing at your company to solve this problem. One of the first places they may head to is your website, and that can often lead them to your Facebook page. In fact, many companies are telling their customers to let them know on social media what they need help with, and they respond through social media.
All well and fine, but what if the problem is not easily solved? When you have a customer that is not happy with you, do you really want them publicly complaining? My guess is, only if you know you can solve the problem quickly and keep that customer happy. This is where the latest software comes into play. It not only tells your customer service rep that you have a complaint on social media, it directs them to it so they can answer it in real time. But it goes beyond that to finding the right person to solve the problem for that customer.
Bringing in the Big Guns
Every company has that collection of experts in their products. They might be the tech guys that work at solving the problems along the way. They might even be the folks that worked at designing the product in the first place. But if you are a company that stands behind your product, you will have several product experts that can handle the thornier problems that show up on social media and your customer service help line.
Bringing them in via special software to tackle the bigger problems makes your customer service people look good, you look good and your customer goes away happy that you took his or her problem seriously enough to bring in the big guns. All because they contacted social media and you had the software to know on it and act.
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