Last week I presented you with some shocking stats about customer service; the lesson to be learned was that less is so much more. While viral stories make customer service professionals believe customers want their expectations exceeded, the research shows that customers simply want their problem resolved as quickly as possible, with the least amount of work. They want what CEB calls the effortless experience.
How to create an effortless experience
Creating an effortless customer experience is not an effortless task; it requires changing your mindset. The following are some key takeaways from the customer service survey and the infographic below further illustrates these points.
Reduce options
Channel switching is a huge driver of disloyalty. Every time a customer has to switch channels to get the help they need, there is a negative impact on loyalty – so stop giving them so many channel options.
There are not “phone people” and “web people”
There are just customers. Customers value self-service just as much as they do phone service. In fact, nearly 58% of a company’s inbound call volume comes from people who were on the website first. Think about it: you are paying for a customer to be helped twice AND become more disloyal.
Improve your self-service option
Make your self-service option amazing or don’t have one. Customers who attempt to self-serve but are forced to pick up the phone are 10% more disloyal than customers who were able to resolve their issue on their first choice channel.
Ron Swanson said it best, “never half-ass two things; whole-ass one thing.” Customers prefer a low-effort experience to options.
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