After the week I’ve had with the most shocking customer service I’ve had in a long time, prepare yourselves for a rant.
I got talked into moving my mobile phone contract. Due to utter incompetence at the new provider’s end (rhymes with tree – you have been warned…), they applied the PAC to a data card sim I had rather than to my phone sim. This took five hours out of my day when I think I ‘chatted’ to pretty much all the operatives at their call centre. Each one utterly incapable of resolving my problem or having access to my details so that I had to continually repeat the issue.
After disconnecting me from chat for the last time at 8 pm and I was no closer to a resolution, I did the sensible thing and went back to the original provider. But in the meantime, I lost access to my mobile phone number for ten days!
What incensed me almost more than anything else was that each new operative started off by asking me how I was. Being polite I began with ‘I’m good thanks’ but degenerated over time to ‘Please read the chat thread and then have a think about how I might be’ and latterly ‘You’ve got to be joking, right?’.
Outside of businesses that have call centres, what are the things you can do to avoid losing good customers?
‘86% of customers will stop doing business with you after a bad customer service experience’
1. Transparency over your fees
A client of mine got an invoice for four times the amount they were expecting. The supplier in question was promptly ‘sacked’.
How to avoid this:
- Before you start work, have a clear, up-front agreement on pricing which includes what’s not covered as much as what is. I know it can be uncomfortable to talk about money, but it’s best to get it all out of the way and signed for, then you can stop worrying about it.
- If you need to charge more, have a conversation with the client in advance explaining why you think you need to charge more and only proceed if they agree. If you don’t and you put in the extra charges without checking, you will lose their trust in you and they are likely to walk.
2. Open communication
It’s important to keep your client updated with what you’re doing. Particularly if you’re on a retainer where they might start wondering what you’re doing for your money.
Agree with them upfront how often they would like to be kept up to date and what information they might need. By demonstrating your value and asking for feedback regularly, they will be happy.
Actively seek issues
Too many people are afraid to ask if their clients have any problems – but my experience is that if you can find out about a problem before it escalates resulting in them leaving, you can do something to resolve it. And if they are having a problem, it’s possible other clients are having the same issues too but are too polite to say so and will just quietly leave.
And if you realise you’ve cocked up – own up immediately (with a plan for how you’re going to sort it out).
3. Consistency and training
If you have multiple people carrying out the work, it’s important that they are all working to the same standards.
There’s nothing wrong with multiple people working on one client and it’s how you scale. But…
- Let the client know in advance who will be doing the work if it’s not you
- Have one person responsible for the account
- Train your staff properly on how to do the job
- Have the right systems and processes in place which will ensure everyone is working in a consistent manner
- Make sure there are clear client notes so that anyone can pick up the work and give a seamless service to the client
- Empower your team to make decisions and encourage escalation if issues arise
And in the immortal words of Dr Seuss:
‘Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not’