A business starts failing when it stops solving its customers’ problems.
The primary focus of a company must be to solve the customers’ problems. If a customer’s problem is not solved, there must be an avenue in the company where she can get help. To provide such help, companies create Customer Support departments or Helplines.
But, in some cases, these arrangements don’t really support or help. In fact, they irritate, harass and frustrate the customers – contrary to the purpose of their existence. Listening to customer complaints or grievances and solving them may be an unpleasant experience. It demands patience, commitment and sincerity. Sometimes, companies create complex layers in their processes intended for providing support to customers. But these layers unintentionally create a web in which customers’ interest is lost. Customer is not actually supported or helped.
All of us have experienced the hair splitting frustration we go through when we have to call a customer support number of our mobile service, DTH TV cable, bank, credit card or any other service. Firstly, they put us through a formidable and completely inhuman computerized Automated Voice Response System (AVRS) which tries its best to block the customer reaching a human operator. I think, these one dimensional voice prompt systems are designed by machines because they hardly make sense to a human being.
After you steer through that formidable AVRS, you are greeted by an human operator who is trained to be equally mechanical. Their voice, tone, language, volume make it difficult to understand what they speak. Sometimes, ask so many questions and put you through so much of harassing delays, that you helplessly consider giving up getting that support altogether. And, if due to any reason, if the call gets disconnected, you have to go through the same punishing man-machine maze again. Most of the times, the experience is frustrating. Customers hate being subjected to such harassment. They may continue working with us as long as there is no alternative. The moment they get an alternative, they switch. Perhaps, that is the best punishment (within their control) they think our brand deserves.
This must be avoided, if we want to grow.
Our customer support must support. Really. It must be more human than mechanical. We must make sure that our company solves customers’ problems and does not increase their problems. This can be done by checking all our customer support activities from a customer’s viewpoint. We must test each process and system by becoming a dummy customer. We must check the practical problems our customers may face by checking all the computerized systems which interact with the customers.
We should not hide behind call centers. We must support our customers more humanly.
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