Last week, I attended a monthly meeting of my trade body – the Professional Speaking Association – and enjoyed a solid and reliable talk on customer service and its importance in modern business. The chap’s talk was thought-provoking, with dozens of examples and references pre-pandemic.
On my way home on the train, I thought about customer service standards since the Pandemic. I now wonder whether we have collectively “taken our eye off the ball” with customer service as so many distractions begin to dominate the business
- Hospitality is empty of staff; blame what you like – Brexit, the Pandemic or the minimum wage – the pure fact is they lack staff and many are closing.
- Hospitals are struggling with staff retention and illness, amongst many other challenges.
- Automation is everywhere – millions are invested in the next shiny gadget to replace a human.
- AI is the new electricity. It embeds itself into every aspect of business life with plenty of money behind the push. It’s almost impossible to call businesses, as they lack staff to take them. Instead, they triage you to a chat box operated by Milo, Alfi, or Mimi – cute names for AI language models.
- Even my doctor’s surgery implores me to use their app to fix an appointment using a “decision tree” algorithm to triage me. Then, the next phone call appointment is three weeks away.
- Possibly, the younger amongst us are not used to dealing with the phone to talk, preferring WhatsApp or IM. But is that their preference or the customers? Social skills may have waned in young employees, and companies are reluctant to train them on these as they collectively cut costs with a recession on the horizon.
I’m not saying any of these factors are wrong or inherently destructive – they are all prevalent and appear to be a perfect storm to take our attention away from customer service.
So, think about your business. Have you forgotten good old customer service?
So, think about your business. Have you forgotten good old customer service? Have you fallen into the trap of indifference towards your customers? As the speaker from last week stated, most of us don’t start the working day wanting to be rude or put customers off buying. We just get distracted, trying to increase efficiency and automation and may inadvertently begin to appear indifferent to customers.
I know I’ve been guilty. On the train last night, I thought about this. Have I been active in keeping existing customers engaged? Do I respond to customer contact promptly? Do I answer my phone or rely totally on voice mail? Do I use my customer’s preferred communication method or mine? Am I outsourcing far too much with little responsibility for the outcomes for our customers? The list goes on.
I know what I should be doing, and so do you – customer service skills are not alien to us. We know what the ingredients are. And if you’re in the financial services sector, you’ll be acutely aware of Consumer Duty. It is all about good customer outcomes and the need to communicate well, help them understand, and provide excellent customer care alongside your efficient yet customer-oriented processes.
Sounds good in theory. How about you? Have you drifted into indifference?
