Ever notice that customer service seems to be a topic that is often complained about? Often for good reason, unfortunately. We all have a story or two about that one bad phone call to that company we’ll never do business with again, right?
As a business owner/manager with your own customer service experiences, we know that you are working hard to avoid providing your customers with a less-than-favourable experience when they call into your business. Fortunately, you’re about to learn about the most common customer service complaints and how to avoid them, so that you can better focus your efforts!
They are:
- Long wait/hold times. When a customer calls in, it’s obviously not because they’ve got nothing better to do and thought they should catch up with your business… of course, the complete opposite is true. They likely found a 5-10 minute break in their schedule and called in for what they are hoping is a quick fix. Therefore, spending 5 minutes on hold before speaking to a representative is a big waste of time. Pay attention to your queues and have (and implement) a peak call volume plan to help keep your customers from waiting.
- Reaching a robot and not a person first. No one wants to listen to an entire list of all of the possible departments to be transferred to, often only to be unsure of which to choose and having to listen to them all again. Ugh. Whenever possible, have an actual person greet your customers when they call. If you must use an automated system, the fewer the options, the better! A warm and welcoming greeting will go a long way.
- Asked to repeat themselves. Let your customer service team know just how important it is to practice active listening with every caller. Asking customers to repeat themselves is a great way to annoy the customer by wasting their time, and also shows disinterest in their patronage.
- Transferring to another department. If, after listening to an issue your caller is experiencing, they must be transferred to another department, have your staff connect with a warm transfer where they describe the issue and the reason for the transfer to the new representative, saving your customer the trouble of telling their story several times. Better than that though would be to empower your customer service team to be able to support even complex customer issues, so that a transfer can be avoided altogether.
- Broken promises. This may be the worst of the customer service complaints. Stress the importance of follow through with your customer service team. Customers will definitely share the story of the time the company they trusted to resolve an issue simply did not. Keeping promises, meeting deadlines, etc – all will ensure that your customers have nothing but glowing reviews about your business!
Need help resolving these, or any other customer services complaints? Tell us about it! Connect with us today.
