The customer is king. The customer is always right. How many times have you heard these old chestnuts bandied about? The fact is, though, that clichés are clichés for a reason—they hold water. And I think these two clichés about the importance of customers to a business bear repeating because they are so often thrown to the wayside by companies that are too focused on cost-cutting.
So in this post I’m going to get back to basics and talk about building and, equally important, maintaining customer service.
Social media has been a game changer when it comes to customer service. Dissatisfied customers aren’t satisfied anymore with sending a letter to the company and maybe griping to a couple of friends. Now they will tweet, post on Facebook, send emails, use “contact us” and “live chat” options on your company’s website, and keep on griping until they get resolution. There are even folks who take their message to YouTube. In order to maintain your relationship with those customers, you have to run around putting out all these fires—as well as be on the alert for smoke in the future. Of course, there is a better way.
Practical Application
So who does it right? Ally Bank, for one. This online financial institution offers “straightforward banking” and a transparency that’s refreshing in any industry, but especially the banking industry. The Web site outlines what it calls “our difference,” including a commitment to customer-centric services, a price guarantee on CD rates, and a no-penalty promise—and offers a variety of ways for a customer with questions or problems to seek resolution.
Not only does Ally invite its customers to speak with a real live agent, 24/7, but it lists the current call wait time on the Web site. There, you can also find a live chat option, a way to email, and even the snail mail address. Ally is on Twitter, where two customer care representatives tweet replies to customers, offering to help with problems. If I were in the market for a bank, I’d look into Ally—it’s clear from the many open lines of communication, and their helpful, friendly tweets, that they really do value customer satisfaction.
One of the reasons Ally is able to offer such premium customer support is because they run a customer relationship management (CRM) system in the cloud. This system boasts intelligent routing capabilities, intuitive dashboards, and access to customer history for those who need it—the customer service agents. It produces reports and benchmarks to help management evaluate the performance of those agents, as well as a responsive set of assignment and escalation rules that route cases quickly and appropriately. The user-friendly system makes it easy for reps at Ally’s two call centers to input data, route calls, and access information; this, in turn, allows them to be more customer-focused, as well as to enjoy greater job satisfaction.
Having a state-of-the-art, automated platform that takes care of administrative details means that the people at Ally Bank have more time to spend actually listening to and helping customers. No matter what your business, that’s the way to build and maintain healthy customer relationships.
