Each day you're probably faced with a barrage of stories providing tips on how to grow your business or how to tap into your sales force's earning potential. You can't click through Facebook or Twitter without seeing stories from different news outlets that have been framed to teach you a lesson.
Well, after coming across an amazingly ridiculous experience of a Comcast customer, I just had to put a piece together in hopes that people learn exactly what not to do in order to keep your business running successfully. Have a listen (and try to restrain your frustration) as this Comcast subscriber tries to cancel his service:
Customer service is the focal point of most organizations today. In fact, if your business is not focused on customer service, it's safe to say that you need to read the rest of this article.
Customers make or break you. Word-of-mouth referrals drive business — which direction they drive your business is up to you. According to a recent Fox Business article, the second-most important thing you need to spur positive word-of-mouth is incredible customer service.
The tricky part of this is that customers now have a much more useful sounding tool at their disposal: the Internet. Therefore, your customers can report positive or negative reviews about customer service experiences with your company pretty much instantaneously. With a quick post to Facebook or Twitter, your company can be put on blast, and you're sent into damage control mode.
With that in mind, let's take a look at a few helpful hints of what not to do, learned from the Comcast nightmare call.
1. Do not badger your customer into submission.
This seems like common sense to most, but you’d be surprised at how often customer service calls get out of control and quickly become heated. From a company standpoint, it is understandable to push to a certain point to reach your goal, but you have to know where that breaking point is. If you push too hard, you may not only lose the customer, but you may build a reputation for being a bully.
2. Do not treat your customer like the most mind-numbingly ignorant imbecile on the face of the planet.
If they've reached out to you, they most likely already have an idea of what they're looking for or what they're hoping to accomplish. Maybe they don't know the ins and outs of exactly what you have to do to meet their request, but you can generally assume they aren't completely oblivious to the depth of their request, suggestion or question.
3. Do not let the drive to make the sale (or upsell) ruin the relationship with your customer.
The ability to make customers happy while accomplishing something positive is definitely ideal. If you think you can make the sale, it makes sense to try different angles to reach your goal. But again, you have to be aware of the breaking point. No matter how long you have been in business with or had a working relationship with your customer, one bad experience can ruin that in an instant.
4. Do not forget that voice recording is a two-way street.
While it's typical for companies to have a policy of recording customer calls for "training purposes," it's not as typical for customers to record the call as well. But it happens. With the growing desire to get the next cutting-edge viral video/story, consumers are wising up and are starting to record the calls to publicly make their case. Don't fall victim to this. Be smart. Be respectful. Be aware.
Now, don't get me wrong. My suggestions are not to completely give in to whatever your customer wants. I don't necessarily think "the customer is always right" applies to all situations. I simply encourage you to think about how your customers see things, and adjust your approach accordingly.
Making the sale is great. Turning that "no" into a "yes" is an awesome feeling. But if your customer service skills are lacking, you could possibly do your company more harm than good.
