High-Tech Customer Service
Customer service is crucial to a successful business and it’s an area where small business can compete effectively with big business. One solution is to incorporate technology in providing this customer service. But it must work.
There are two words in customer service-customer and service. So the focus must be on the customer and service provided.
Frequently businesses employ technology to reduce costs. This is acceptable if that’s your goal. But don’t mistake cost reduction for service.
Telephone technology has been abused. How often have you heard an introductory phrase “In order to serve you better……”. These are the dreaded words that tell you that the business has incorporated some facet of technology to cut their costs, not to “serve you better”.
I have just read an article in the newsletter Bottom Line/Personal, Jan. 1, 2006 where Paul English discusses how consumers can avoid talking to a machine on the telephone. His suggestions include: avoid pressing 0 (companies have eliminated this option because consumers use it), use a menu option for opening or canceling an account (sales are important so you get a human), and press nothing (you may get a live person). He then goes on to list the way to reach humans at 39 major companies.
These techniques include Pressing 00, 00#, saying “agent”, keep pressing #, pressing 3 then 0, and pressing 4.
Is this customer service? I don’t think so. At one company, AIG, mercifully, a human actually answers.
Here is where small businesses can compete. Make it easy to talk to someone who can help. Show the customer you care by supplying a human voice.
Have you ever encountered a list of “FAQ’s” (frequently asked questions)? I don’t know who frequently asks these questions but it’s not me. Again, another substitute for customer service.
Websites are another area where technology can be misused. Let’s first be clear. Good websites are worth their weight in gold. They provide quick information, make transactions easy, and are available 24/7. However, ones with too much graphics that load slowly, ones that use industry-specific acronyms, and ones that lead you through a maze of pages are nightmares to use.
Email can be useful but is frequently misused by having huge attachments and is frequently unsolicited (a definite no-no in business email).
What’s the solution for small businesses? Like anything else related to the customer, ask them how they like your technology. Market research applies here as well.
Try it your self. Good business owners are always phoning their own business to see what happens. Maybe your system’s broke and you don’t know it. Go online with your own website frequently. Play the customer.
Customer service is not about being warm and fuzzy, saying please and thank you. Of course you need to be courteous, but you need to produce. Do all you can to get it right the fist time but follow-up to see if you have. Have a system that asks the customer if all is well. This especially applies to technology.
Telephones, websites, and emails can provide this rapid response for the customer but only if you know it’s working.
In this age of technology, many new bells and whistles are added to products because they can be added, not because they are needed. Sometimes the bells don’t chime and the whistles don’t blow. Businesses owners need to decide what’s needed, not programmers and hardware salespeople.
Using technology wisely, small businesses can provide better customer service than big business.
This article was written by Seattle SCORE Chapter member Fred Parkinson for the Kitsap Sun in Bremerton.