Stereotypes and misconceptions are masking the true purpose of customer service, and James West says it’s time we ditched the comfort blanket and instead focused on what contact centres are really for.
If you follow customer service on Twitter (search #custserv) you’ll notice a cloying trend; an abundance of content which focuses on how we can motivate contact centre workers - “top five tips for revving up your team” and statements such as: “on the phone, customers can hear you smile” for example.
You might not see anything wrong with this type of messaging and choose instead to write me off as a cynic. However, there is a reason for this vitriol. This reductive view of customer service - this woolly, fluffy, let’s-be-nice to-our-customers approach that so many commentators in the industry support with their messaging - is cheapening the important role that service providers play.
In short, if we portray customer service as a cuddly bunny, how can we expect other business professionals to take what we do seriously?
Delivering cost-effective service that inspires customer loyalty and helps build a business is a difficult, nuanced issue. It is a company-wide challenge which demands a bold vision driven by strong leadership at all levels of the business, plus constant reviewing and focus from all departments to ensure that goals and changing customer demands are being met.
Trying to distill this complexity into a pithy motivational speech is patronising for the recipient and therefore pointless. If you really want to engage and motivate staff, ask them what problems stop them from doing a good job. And then tell them what you are doing to fix the issue; to change the antiquated scheduling system, to reduce reliance on rigid performance metrics and feedback, and telling them why the IT team can’t fix a system that forces them to wait 20 seconds after every click to load a screen.
The contact centre and customer service industry is now too important to the success or failure of any business to be treated with kid gloves. As an industry we must talk about the real issues, work together to find solutions, demonstrate how we provide value and how we could get even better with increased investment. Sorry bunny, but it’s time we moved on.
James West has written about the customer service industry for more than 12 years, editing titles such as Customer Service News, Call Centre Focus and now Customer Service TV.
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@nataliecalvert
James, I feel your pain! It's frustrating to hear the kind of self-serving platitudes some of the industry old-guard are putting out. But I have to say, most of the best practice centres I've visited or participated in setting up over the past year are a million miles from fluffy bunny land. There can be no doubt arcane operational business practices are being replaced with customer loyalty driven processes and measures. Great customer service is being delivered from great centres - cool places people want to work in. Agents are becoming empowered - motivated and rewarded for delivering exceptional customer experiences and technology is a true enabler supporting the customer and the agents with a consistent experience across touch points. OK, it's not happening everywhere, but its happening!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your feedback Paul. Great to hear you are seeing good work being carried out by contact centres distancing themselves from the practices I highlighted in the blog post. However, this simply underlines the importance of commentators adjusting their terminology and practices to account for how the industry is changing.
ReplyDeleteMy issue is not with contact centres - I believe the majority are doing a sterling job under difficult circumstances - my problem is 'experts' talking about customer service like they are naive team leaders being allowed to manage 10 call centre staff for the first time and trying to make the right impression by using horrible buzz phrases. If, as you confirm, the industry has moved on, isn't it time we did too?
James West