QAQNA

Join Me at the ICMI Call Center Demo Feb 25th in Miami

I'm going to be presenting a half-day pre-conference workshop at the ICMI Call Conference Demo in Miami on Building a Successful QA Program. The workshop will be 8 a.m. until noon on Wednesday, February 25th. I would love to have you join me for the workshop. It's always a pleasure and privilege to meet QAQnA readers.

The workshop will be great for anyone who is working on structuring a new QA program as well as those who would like to find new ideas for restructuring or improving their existing programs.

I hope to see you in Miami!

What's Your Customer Service Responsibility to Foolish Dead People?

I ran across an interesting article by David Sims over at Customer Think. It seems that there's a buzz down under about a young man who was killed and buried in an avalanche. The boy was driving a rental van he wasn't authorized to drive, in a restricted area where he wasn't supposed to go, after the renters refused to take out the renters insurance on the vehicle. The keys to his rental car were buried with him in the remote location, and now the car rental company is charging the boy's parents for the cost to go get the car. If they'd paid for the renters insurance it would have been covered.

The situation has caused a maelstrom. Many people, including New Zealand's Prime Minister, have vocalized their opposition to the rental company for being heartless. Others support the rental company, who maintain that, while they empathize with the family, it should not bind them to eat the costs. The rental company doesn't feel they should have to pay for the tragedy of a customer who broke the rules and refused to pay for the insurance which would have covered the costs.

What about you? Where do you stand on the issue? Do you take the financial loss and avoid the PR nightmare, or do you stand on principleand weather the storm?

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and Gary Simmons

Have Fun With CSR System Training

Learning is always more enjoyable when you have some fun with it. Connie Smith over at Envision blog posted a great tip for making on-going CSR training more fun, courtesy of the call center at Nike.

Angry Customers - Part 4: Do the Opposite

Angry customers will often come at you with a negative tone and accusatory language. They are convinced, before they even picked up the phone, that you aren't going to be helpful. They are expecting to have to claw, bite and fight for any kind of resolution. Usually, by the time the customer has reached this point, it's because our service delivery system has already failed them, perhaps multiple times.

While it's hard not to react to the customer with the same attitude, the fact is that a similar response is only going to escalate the customer further. If the customer starts the call by being snippy and accusatory and we respond in an equally accusatory or snippy manner, the customer thinks, "Aha! I was RIGHT! They ARE going to be difficult to work with. I have EVERY RIGHT to get ticked off and yell at them!"

We can't control how a customer is going to react or respond to us. We CAN control how we react and respond the customer. By refusing to respond to the customer in a similar angry, snippy, accusatory manner, we will often give the customer no place to emotionally go with their anger. They want to get angry, scream and yell, but if we refuse to respond in a like manner, the caller will often begin to calm down.

But, we're not done.

There's an old proverb that goes like this: "Bless those who curse you, and in so doing it will be like heaping burning coals on their head." In other words, if you act the opposite of the customer by being extra nice, friendly, helpful and attentive - you will frustrate their desire to be angry. The customer begins to think, "I'm going off on this person, but they're being nothing but kind and helpful to me!"

I've heard many calls through the years in which a CSR calms and angry customer and turns them around. It is almost always because the CSR refused to react in anger, and instead they proactively "killed 'em with kindness" by being appropriately friendly, empathetic and helpful.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickrand louisa_catlover

Angry Customers Part 5 - Empathy Resolution Statement

I have written on different occasions about the importance of both empathy and resolution when the customer's expectations have not been met, and about the importance of an apology. When dealing with an angry customer, it's important to focus on resolving the issue at hand, to the best of your ability. However, if you don't show any empathy or acknowledgment for the customer's frustration, you still aren't going to provide an optimal customer experience.

I hear many CSRs say, "the customer tells me 'I don't want your apology!' so I never apologize." I have heard customers say this (though data shows it is far less seldom than usually reported), and whenever I hear the statement made it is almost always followed with something like: "I want my issue resolved!"

The problem is not that the customer wants no empathy, the problem is that the customer feels that all he/she has received is empathy and no one is fixing the problem. When the customer says, "I don't want your apology!' it should be a red flag telling you that empathy/resolution is out of balance and you need to focus on resolving the issue.

To avoid getting these out of balance, I recommend what I call a "empathy resolution statement." You offer a simple apology for the problem followed by a statement of what you are going to do to resolve it. Once done, you can usually move on to focusing on resolution knowing that you've adequately expressed empathy.

"I'm sorry that (describe the unmet expectation). What I can/will do is (describe what action you will take)."

For example:

Customer was supposed to receive a call back and didn't.
"I'm sorry we didn't call you back. What I will do is pull up your account and find out what I can do to resolve this for you."

Order didn't arrive.
"I apologize that you didn't get your order as expected. I can check the order for you and let you know what the tracking information tells us."

Customers called several times with the same issue and it hasn't been resolved.
"I'm sorry we've let you down on this issue. I will do everything in my power to get this resolved."

A simple empathy resolution statement will provide the customer with a balanced approach that leads to focus on resolution, but doesn't completely ignore the customer's need for empathy. As with all service skills, each CSR needs to find ways to make the statement conversational and incorporate a wording that is natural and comfortable. If both the empathy and resolution portions of the statement are clearly communicated, you will often set yourself up for a successful service experience.