Empowerment in customer service has never been more important. This article explores ways that you can empower your employees to provide even better service..
It never fails to amaze me how many companies have employees who are empowered to offer former customers wonderful incentives to lure them back, yet their customer service representatives have the ability to offer virtually nothing to convince an unhappy customer to stay.
Powerless, these CSRs often actually ignore customers' requests and declarations of their intent to leave, even encouraging them to seek out another company!
They often repeat the few phrases they're allowed to say over and over again, further infuriating the customers.
I recently interviewed the CEO of a mattress company who told me that customer complaints never reach him because his employees are empowered to, within reason, give the customer what will keep him happy. His employees are happier too because they believe the company trusts them to make sound decision.
Sadly, that company is one-in-a-million today. If others would follow his example, there would a lot less need for those employees who call former customers because there would be far fewer former customers to begin with.
When I worked in fast food as a teenager, giving an unhappy customer a free apple turnover and having her leave happy was commonplace. Today, fast food employees, like others in customer service, are allowed to honor only coupons and deals for which there are pre-programmed keys on their registers.
It seems that companies today would rather lose loyal customers for life than allow their foot soldiers in customer service to toss them an apple pie.
Recently, we had just such as experience with our satellite dish company. After more than four years as a loyal, paying customer, we noticed a problem with our reception. We asked to have someone come take a look at it, and we were told it would be $100. That is the only option customer service was empowered to offer. We announced that we could get brand new satellite equipment for free from the company's competitor, and we were told to go ahead and switch, which we did.
After we switched, the first company called to ask why we left, and we told our story. The employee agreed that "after four years, we should have fixed it for free." Too late. We've signed a new one-year agreement and we couldn't be happier with our new, free digital video recorder.
On the flip side, we have no unresolved customer complaints at our business because, very simply, we do our best to keep our customers happy from the beginning. Sure, we make mistakes and we run out of things, but we always do what it takes to make things right, plus a little extra something for the customer. That attitude builds long-time, successful customer relationships. Here are some tips for empowering your customer service department:
1.) Depending on the nature of the complaint, arm your customer service employees with the ability to offer incentives to unhappy customers to encourage them not to leave. Allow them to offer at least half what the people who call former customers can offer.
For example, if you normally charge for a service call, but you're facing the prospect of losing a 10-year customer, allow the customer service representative to offer half off.
2.) If your company screwed up, and your customer calls you on it, allow your customer service people to admit that a mistake was made, apologize and offer something to make up for it ? a free month of service, a coupon for a discount on a future order.
Nothing is more aggravating than having someone apologize without admitting any wrong doing (i.e. "I'm sorry you feel that way." Or "I'm sorry you're upset about that.") Let them say, "I'm sorry, we were wrong. What can we do to make it up to you?" What ever happened to the motto "The customer is always right"?
3.) Toss the scripts. Giving customer service people lists of things to say to unhappy customers turns your people into nothing more than robots. With today's voice recognition technology, you may as well use an automated response system.
Train your customer service people how to act like human beings. Provide them with the kind of conflict-resolution training they need to turn unhappy customers into people who at least believe your company cares about their problem and wants to help them.
4.) Offer incentives to customer service people who retain unhappy customers.
For example, tape your calls, and once a month give an award to the customer service representative who does the best job turning angry customers into happy ones.
5.) Don't' wait for the customer to insist on speaking to a manager. If the customer service representative's authority to offer a solution is not enough to retain the customer, it should be standard procedure for the representative to request time to consult a supervisor and possibly bring them into the discussion.
About the Author
Anne Brady is a freelance editor and writer with more than 20 years writing experience who, while working for Dow Jones Newswires, was frequently published by the Wall Street Journal. She and her husband own Brady's Homebrew http://www.bradyshomebrew.com which sells home beer brewing and wine making equipment and supplies.
译文:
给客户提供多一点再多一点的服务，完善客户服务
完善客户服务从未如此重要过，这篇文章列出了几种能让员工提供更好服务的方法。
很多公司的员工采用一系列激励措施，希望能挽回以前失去的客户，但另一方面客户服务代表却没有能力来维系这些争取回来的客户。
客户服务代表通常忽视客户的要求，当客户声称不希望再次合作的时候，他们都无动于衷，有的甚至还鼓励他们去找另一个公司。
他们只是重复那几句背的滚瓜烂熟的台词，这又再次激怒了客户。
最近和我一家床垫公司的CEO交谈了一番，他告诉我，客户的抱怨从来不会传到他的耳朵里，因为他的员工已经被赋予全权处理的权利，在合理的范围内，让客户高兴干啥就干啥，他的员工也因为公司对自己的信任而同样感到自我价值的实现。
但是可悲的是，这种公司已经是凤毛麟角了，如果真有人采取折衷方法，那么就没有必要让那么多员工花时间和精力去挽回原来的客户，因为如此完善的客户服务根本不可能流失多少客户。
我年轻的时候在一家快餐店打工，经常给心情不好的客户免费赠送苹果派，让他们高高兴兴的离开。然而今天的快餐店员工像其他客户服务人员一样按部就班，只有持有优惠券或登记在册的重要人物才能获此“殊荣”。
看来现在的公司宁愿失去忠实客户，也不愿他们的员工扔一个苹果派给客人。
最近，一家圆盘式卫星电视天线公司让我深深体会到了这句话的含义。在做了4年忠实“粉丝”后，有天发现卫星的接受有点问题，于是我请人来看一下，结果说要收100美元，我说其他竞争者可以免费提供新型的卫星设备，结果检修人员居然对我说：“那你去找他们好来。”…结果我确实这么做了。
当我头也不回的离开后，那家公司又派人来问为什么不用他家的东西，然后我就说了我的遭遇，那个员工保证：“四年后，我们也会免费修理的。”太晚了，我们已经和另一家公司签订了1年的合同，免费的新型卫星设备让我合不拢嘴。
床垫公司CEO继续说道，他们公司没有一个未被解决的客户投诉，原因很简单，他们从一开始就尽力保证每个客户都满意，当然在此过程中也犯过错误，也用处理不当的时候，但是他们一直以来朝着正确的方向前进，给客户提供多一点再多一点的服务。这种态度造就了长期成功的客户关系，下面是一些帮助客户服务部门改进的方式：
1. 根据投诉的性质，采取不同的激励手段。让客户服务人员知道如何激励有不满情绪的客户，不要让他们成为别人的客户，给与他们一定的处事权利。
例如，通常情况下服务电话是要收费的，但当面临可能失去一个10年忠实客户的情况时，赋予员工收取一半费用的权利。
2. 如果客户对你所犯的错误抱怨不断时，客户服务人员要承认自己的过失，并道歉，同时提供弥补的方法，如一个月的免费服务，或是优惠券什么的。
如果光认错，却没有意识到自己到底错在哪里，这确实是件挺让人恼火的事情（如，“你这样说我很抱歉”，或者“我很抱歉让你心烦了”），应该这么说：“抱歉，我们错了，我们能做些什么来弥补我们的过错吗？”听过这句话么“顾客永远是对的。”
3. 千万不可照本宣读。如果给客户服务人员列一张表格，告诉他们面对有不满意情绪的客户应该说些什么，这样会把他们个个都培养成机器人，更不可使用自动回复系统。
把员工培养成训练有素的客户服务人员，给与冲突解决方面的培训，至少让客户知道公司非常重视他们的问题，并且也想帮助他们。
4. 对于那些成功安抚有不满情绪客户的员工，应该给与一定的奖励。
例如，把所有的来电都录下来，每个月奖励工作出色的客户服务代表。
5.不要等到客户要见经理的时候才意识到问题的严重性。如果客户服务代表提供的解决方案无法使客户满意，那么他必须征得客户同意，让他们等一下，在和主管商量后再给他们答复。