Three Social Customer Care Trends You Can't Ignore

Note: This post was originally posted on LinkedIn. You can find more of my LinkedIn posts here.

Social customer service was a big topic at last week’s Contact Center Expo and Conference. (You can read my re-cap here.)

At the conference, Susan McDaniel from Execs in the Know participated in a panel on social customer care where she shared some interesting statistics that really captured the audience's attention. Afterwards, she was kind enough to give me a copy of the 2013 Customer Experience Management Benchmark Study that’s co-produced by her firm and Digital Roots.

Here’s a breakdown of three big trends revealed in the report. If your company serves its customers through social media, you'll want to know about these.


Customer Care Involvement

One of the most promising trends is that customer service teams are getting increasingly involved with social channels.

The numbers looked bleak a year ago.

The Execs in the Know benchmark found only 10 percent of customer service departments owned social customer care. A Ragan study reported this number at 19 percent. Regardless of whose study you follow, the number was ridiculously low.

That number has jumped to 36 percent in the latest report.

It’s a step in the right direction, but it’s also a clear sign that many companies still don’t get it. The majority of corporate social media is still controlled by marketing (42 percent).

Two things happen when marketing dominates social media and doesn't coordinate with customer care.

  1. Customer support issues go unanswered.
  2. Service channels offer an inconsistent experience.

Social media is social + media. It’s not just for marketing.


Impactful Customer Communities

Remember when everyone was talking about Web 2.0 being the next big thing? We envisioned a world of social interaction where communities of customers could help each other.

That was in 2004.

Ten years later, we may finally be getting serious, with 41 percent of companies hosting a community forum.

Customer service software providers like Zendesk are making it easier than ever to set up communities that put FAQs and customer-driven forums side-by-side. These communities can help customers get the answers they need quickly while reducing service costs.

The online student community at Penn Foster was recognized at the Contact Center Expo and Conference with an award for Best Use of an Emerging Channel. Two stats from their success story really jumped out:

  • Emails were reduced by more than 40 percent
  • Their cost per interaction has dropped an average of $1.06 per year since 2010

Reduced cost is enticing, but it's important to remember that costs were reduced by making a community that people actually found useful and engaging.


Companies Slowly Getting Serious

This last trend is really a collection of metrics that suggest companies are starting to take social customer service more seriously.

  • 82 percent of social media engagements are made by employees (vs vendors)
  • 80 percent have policies about what conversations to engage in
  • 66 percent provide social media agents with training

All of these represent significant increases over last year’s benchmark.

Of course, the one that really jumped out was ONLY 66 percent provide social media agents with training. Apparently, the remaining 34 percent are left to their own devices. Perhaps figuratively and literally.

If you’re not training your social agents, you’re asking for trouble.


What’s Next?

Social customer service finally seems to be maturing, but it still has a ways to go.

Facebook is 10 years old. Twitter is 8 years old. More than 90 percent of companies use these channels to engage customers.

It’s about time more companies figure it out. Key areas for improvement include:

  • Faster response times
  • Fewer ignored questions
  • Consistent service quality across all channels

The few companies that get it right can really stand out from the rest that don’t.

A Mind-blowingly Epic Post About Words

My friend Michelle and I recently had a conversation about the use of adjectives. It went something like this:

“I could really go for some ice cream right now.”

“That would be mind-blowing.”

“Let’s keep an eye out for a place. I'm craving some chocolate chip."

“Yeah, chocolate chip ice cream would be epic.”

“Ok, but what happens if one of us wins the lottery? How would we describe that?! We’ve already wasted mind-blowing and epic on chocolate chip ice cream.”

I’m pretty sure I ripped this idea from a comedian, probably Louis C.K., but the idea rings true. A lot of words get tossed around without much thought.

In truth, chocolate chip ice cream would have been really nice at that moment. But mind-blowing?

Here’s the definition of mind-blowing according to dictionary.com:

  1. Overwhelming; astounding
  2. Producing a hallucinogenic effect

I like chocolate chip ice cream but it doesn't rise to the level of overwhelming or astounding. And, I try really hard not to visit the kinds of places that would serve ice cream with hallucinogenic side effects.

That ice-cream was mind-blowing.

That ice-cream was mind-blowing.

Marketers, journalists, and bloggers use these types of adjectives like they’re going out of style. Try Googling "Mind-blowing ________" where you fill in the blank with your topic of interest. Then prepare to be moderately informed. Your mind will definitely not be blown.

It’s not really their fault. Many of us (myself included) use these types of hype-laden words in everyday conversation without really giving them much thought.

This is a problem with meaningless words in customer service too.

Consider these common customer service questions that have lost virtually all meaning from rampant overuse:

  • How are you today?
  • Did you find everything alright?
  • Is there anything else I can help you with?

The cashiers at my local grocery often ask “Did you find everything alright?” It must be part of the script, because they ask it nearly every time. I sometimes say “No.”

That leads to awkwardness. (Clearly, I’m supposed to say “Yes.”) There's stunned silence or a small grunt of acknowledgement before the cashier returns to cashiering.

Once in awhile, an adventurous cashier asks for more information. “What weren’t you able to find?”

“You were out of frozen chicken breasts.”

More awkwardness. “Oh. Sorry.”

Why do we bother asking these questions? Like the over-hyped adjectives mind-blowing and epic, we’ve stopped thinking about them. We just say the words.

There are other customer service pet peeves when it comes to words. Many customer service managers tell me they cringe when they hear one of their employees say “No problem” to a customer.

The feeling is it sends the wrong message, as if serving the customer might have been a problem, just not this time. 

The problem with “No problem” is that it’s used instinctively. A client of mine once shared the “No problem” challenge with me and then unconsciously blurted “No problem!” in response to an unrelated issue just two minutes later. 

 

So, what can be done?

My suggestion is to think more clearly about what we’re trying to accomplish with our words. 

  1. Save adjectives like mind-blowing and epic for times when they really apply.
  2. Never ask questions we don’t want the answer to.
  3. Be thoughtful about the words we use with customers.

It's not easy, but it would be amazing if we could do better. 

Here's Your Next Level Customer Service Action Plan

You sense an opportunity to improve customer service.

Not that your team’s customer service is bad. It’s pretty good, actually. It’s just that it could be better. 

The promise of taking customer service to the next level is alluring. Happier customers equals more referrals, increased customer retention, and ultimately more revenue. It costs less to serve happy customers. It’s also a lot more fun.

But, where do you start?

This is a common question for customer service leaders. There’s a whole universe full of ideas out there. You can find customer service blogs, books, and videos galore. Everyone has advice and much of it makes at least some sense.

Distilling this information down to a few key actions isn’t easy.

That’s why I’ve compiled this action plan to help. It contains essential steps that you can take to elevate your team’s service. Links to tools and resources are also included. 

 

Next Level Customer Service Action Plan

Step 1: Define Outstanding Service

The first and most important step is to define outstanding customer service. Every employee must share the same definition and be able to describe how the definition applies to them. You can use my step-by-step guide to help create your definition.

 

Step 2: Measure Outstanding Service

You have to be able to measure something if you want to improve it. Setting a SMART goal for customer service will allow you to track progress and can help motivate the team. Here’s a worksheet you can use to help you set SMART goals. 

 

Step 3: Align Your Team Towards Outstanding Service

This step involves making sure your basic functions are all pointed towards outstanding customer service. Like a car that's out of alignment, it's difficult to keep your team heading in the right direction when parts are misaligned. You can use this Customer Service Alignment Check to review your team.

 

Step 4: Look for quick fixes

A lot of customer service challenges can be solved very quickly if you know where to look. Use the Quick Fix Checklist and diagnose the root causes of customer service problems. 

 

Step 5: Analyze Voice of Customer Data

Your customers can help you pinpoint a lot of problems, but having a customer satisfaction survey isn’t enough. You need to make sure you’re asking the right questions and then extracting meaningful insight from the results. 

Here are a series of blog posts that provide step-by-step instructions on developing an effective Voice of the Customer (VOC) program:

If you have access to LinkedIn Learning, you can check out my course, Using Customer Surveys to Improve Service. Here’s a short preview:

Step 6: Find Hidden Obstacles

There are a lot of hidden and even counter-intuitive obstacles that can make it hard for employees to deliver outstanding customer service. My book, Getting Service Right, reveals ten of the most common obstacles and provides practical advice for overcoming each one. 

 

Step 7: Provide Customer Service Training

Notice that training is number 7 on the list, not number 1. This isn't an accident. A lot of problems can be solved without training.

Sometimes, employees do need new skills to take their service to the next levels. You can access training-related posts on my blog or take my Customer Service Foundations course on LinkedIn Learning.

 

Step 8: Constantly Reinforce Outstanding Service

Taking your team’s service to the next level isn’t just a one-time project. It’s an ongoing process that needs constant reinforcement. Here’s a blog post I wrote on ten ways to reinforce outstanding customer service. 

You can also sign your employees up to receive my free Customer Service Tip of the Week email.

Five Reasons Why Customer Service is Hard

Note: This post originally appeared on LinkedIn.

 

Customer service is hard. Anyone who tells you otherwise is in denial, bad at it, or both. The notion that serving customers is easy is something I’ve referred to as the Biggest Myth in Customer Service.

There are many reasons why customer service isn’t easy. These obstacles range from poor corporate strategy to ineffective leadership to our own limitations as human beings.

Here are five common examples:

 

#1 It’s not instinctive

There are many situations where our natural instincts result in the wrong customer service move.

For example, if you encounter an angry or upset person, your “fight or flight” instinct will kick in. This is a natural urge to either fight the danger (verbally or physically) or flee the danger. Neither is acceptable in customer service, so employees wind up struggling against their own instincts when they try to make the upset customer happy again.

 

#2 Our customers see what we don't

People tend to get locked in to a certain perspective, but this perspective may not match our customer’s. This can cause us to be blind to a customer's need that might be obvious in hindsight.

The classic nine dot puzzle provides an example of how this naturally happens.

  • Connect all nine dots using just four straight lines.
  • You can't lift your finger off the screen

If you get stumped, click here to find the solution.

 

#3 It's sometimes hard to be friendly

Customer service employees are supposed to be friendly, but what happens when an employee doesn’t feel friendly?

It takes effort to outwardly project a feeling you don’t really feel. The worse you actually feel, the harder it gets to pretend you're in a good mood. This effort, called emotional labor, can leave people physically and mentally exhausted.

To add insult to injury, research shows that customer service employees don’t get paid very much for their emotional labor.

 

#4 We aren’t good at multitasking

Multitasking is a requirement for many customer service jobs. Unfortunately, we’re not very good at it. The end result is multitasking hurts service quality.

That’s because our brains can only process one conscious thought at a time. When we try to do more, we’re really just rapidly shifting resources between various thoughts. The inevitable result is we operate slower and are more prone to making mistakes.

 

#5 Directed Attention Fatigue

All of this chronic multitasking causes a condition called Directed Attention Fatigue. It comes from overusing the part of our brain that focuses attention.

Here are a few of the symptoms:

  • Distractibility
  • Irritability
  • Impatience
  • Indecisiveness
  • Difficulty starting and finishing tasks

Obviously, none of these symptoms are good for customer service. You can read more about it in a blog post I wrote called “How detoxing our brains can improve customer service.”

 

What can you do about it?

Start by embracing the fact that customer service is difficult. If you want to serve your customers at the highest level, you have to work at it every day.

Next, slow down and focus on one customer at a time. The obstacles described above get exacerbated when we get anxious and try to do too many things at once.

Finally, learn from experience. When you encounter a challenging customer service situation, think about what you'll do differently next time to get a better result.

2014 Contact Center Expo and Conference Re-cap

ICMI's newly re-branded Contact Center Expo and Conference came to my hometown of San Diego last week. More than 1,500 contact center professionals were in attendance to network, learn, and share ideas.

This conference was particularly important to me since I was a newly minted member of ICMI’s Advisory Board. This group is responsible for advising ICMI on the conference content. The Contact Center Expo and Conference was the first event I had been a part of.

Here’s a re-cap of some of the conference highlights along with links to additional resources.

 

Conference Overview

You may want to start by familiarizing yourself with the conference if you didn’t attend.

ICMI’s Erica Strother also put together an excellent daily re-cap of the conference:

A special thank you is also due to Voiance Language Services for giving away copies of my book, Service Failure, in the Expo Hall. 

 

Conference Highlights

There were a few aspects of the conference that really stood out.

Matt Dixon’s Keynote

The third day of the conference kicked off with an outstanding keynote presentation from Matt Dixon from CEB. 

In his keynote, Dixon shared compelling research from his new book, The Effortless Experience. Dixon suggested that preventing service failures was better a customer service strategy than delighting customers. That's because negative service had nearly 4 times the impact on loyalty than outstanding service.

Thought Leader Panels

These were short, 20 minute panel discussions in the Expo hall. This popular feature was a hit at last year’s conference and I’m glad ICMI brought them back. It was a great way to get insight on a particular topic from a cross-section of experts and then network with them immediately afterwards. 

Look for ICMI to post videos of each panel discussion on their YouTube channel in the coming weeks.

Contact Center Awards

ICMI hosted the second annual Contact Center Awards banquet at the conference. The awards recognized excellence in a broad array of categories, ranging from best contact center agent to contact center of the year. 

I had the honor of being one of the judges for the Best Contact Center Supervisor award. It was great to be on hand when Brock Faucette from the AICPA heard his name called.

 

Will you be there next year?

The conference will be in Orlando, FL next year May 4 - 7. My calendar is already marked!

The Most Important Customer Need Is Often Overlooked

Note: This post was originally published on the AMA Playbook Blog.

Customers have two types of basic needs. Unfortunately, it’s the most important need that often gets overlooked when dealing with these customer needs.

The first need is rational. A rational need is the specific service a customer is requesting. For example, a customer might call a software company for technical support because they can’t get their software to work properly.

The second need is emotional. An emotional need is how the customer feels about the situation. They might be frustrated that the software isn’t working. Perhaps they’re anxious because the problem is preventing them from getting important work done.

Customer service reps are usually good at spotting rational needs, but emotional needs are easily missed. That’s because the rational need is connected to action. Helping the customer fix their software is what the technical support rep does. The rep doesn’t feel the customer’s emotions, so they’re more difficult to spot.

Here’s the rub

 It’s the emotional needs that can make or break the customer’s experience. If the technical support rep can successfully validate the customer’s frustration by empathizing with them and then reassure the customer that they can help them, the customer will likely feel better. On the other hand, the customer won’t be happy if their software gets fixed but they’re annoyed and frustrated by the process.

Research conducted by Bård Tronvoll at Hedmark University College in Norway reveals that 97 percent of service failures also result in negative emotions for customers.

These negative emotions must be addressed since it’s ultimately how customers feel about your service that determines whether or not they’ll come back. For example, a survey of airline passengers whose flights were cancelled showed that how the cancellation was handled had more than twice the impact on customer satisfaction as the cancellation itself.

Spotting and reacting to customers’ emotional needs can take a little practice. Here are three techniques that can help you develop your skills.

  1. Tune in. Many people miss their customers’ emotions because they’re just not looking for them. Try to be mindful of the emotions your customers’ might be feeling. Pay close attention to their body language and tone of voice to find clues that reveal their emotions.
  2. Prioritize emotional needs. How customers feel about your service is ultimately more important than the actual service you provide, so make emotions the top priority when serving customers. Let an angry customer vent before solving their problem. Reassure a confused customer before helping them out. Share a laugh with an upbeat, light-hearted customer before getting down to business.
  3. Refocus on solutions. When there is a problem that makes a customer angry, try to avoid focusing on blame. Dwelling on the source of negative emotions often makes them even worse. Acknowledge your customers’ emotions to validate their feelings and then refocus the conversation on finding a solution and making them feel better.

Identifying and taking care of your customer needs emotionally isn’t always easy, but it’s a skill that can help elevate your customer service and leave a lasting impression.