Email UsHas The "Customer Is Always Right" Motto Gone Too Far?
Carl Adkins, Founder of Infinity CCS
Rare is the business, or industry, that doesn?t encounter its share of criticism from disgruntled customers, whether in the consumer or B2B world. However, it is arguably those businesses that rely on contact centres to manage much of their customer interactions that fare worst. This is often typified by financial services, telcos and utilities industries who can find themselves pilloried in the press for their apparent lack of customer service.
Is this really fair? It is easy for the press to position this as a David and Goliath fight between the consumer and the business, but does all of the blame really fall with the businesses or are consumers just expecting too much?
We all know what a good deal looks like ? value for money for the consumer and good business sense to the establishment who is selling. However, with increased accessibility and consumer choice the focus is on price yet the expectation is that there is no reduction in service.
The following is not a real example of an on-hold message, but I think the sentiment behind it will be well understood. ?Your call is important to us but offering pensions advice requires highly skilled, regulated and expensive people. You chose the cheapest service from us so we estimate you will have to wait 5 minutes for your call to be answered. Our premium service customers pay an extra ?100 a year to be answered in less than 30 seconds so if you?d like to upgrade, please discuss this with your advisor.?
Some organisations have started to go down a similar route between live agent and web-based transactions. Booking a flight over the telephone now comes with a premium that the consumer can elect to accept for the comfort of a live agent rather than a functional browser. So how do we get consumers to distinguish between premium service and budget cost?
Not everyone wants, or needs to be, a premium customer of their bank. Premium usually comes at a fee that few are willing to pay. But have those same people a right to complain if the cash-point machine isn?t working, or about waiting three minutes on the telephone before speaking to someone? Perhaps peoples? memories are too short. For instance, long gone are the days when you?d have to spend your entire lunch hour queuing in a bank to withdraw some money or pay in a cheque. Thank goodness for self-service and automation which we?ve embraced so readily and gratefully.
If people opt for cheapest, there can be a flipside that many find unacceptable. But how can business continue to drive down cost without this being detrimental to the service that they provide?
I strongly believe that the next evolution of customer service has to be around transparency, expectation and a generally more balanced and interactive transaction. Excellent communication will be paramount for helping to achieve this ? after all, you can only deliver what you know the customer wants and they can only fulfil their side of the deal if they fully understand their commitment. If we are focusing on a price competitive offering to our customers, then we need to be clear in setting the customer expectations of the service we are offering, and more importantly what service limitations they will have to ensure they get the best price.
Secondly, I think that organisations have to become smarter in the way they segment both their customers and the services that they offer. When First Direct was first launched, they talked about not having the costs of a branch network being a benefit to the value they could offer their clients. We now have to expand this into multi-media products or different class of products.
Low cost car insurance offered to internet customers only. The budget priced personal computer but with support only offered through a premium rate telephone number or low cost airline tickets only available as e-tickets.
It is back to precise positioning to targeted consumers, but most importantly, it is about clearly setting the expectations up front. It is defining the additional premium for each level of additional service and then giving the consumer the choice of what they want and what is only a nice to have.
It is definitely time for both sides to come together more effectively. Businesses must continue to provide excellent service but the customer also needs to understand their part in this deal.
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