Total CX

Arm your Front-Line Troops!

You know who they are--your direct sales force, your call center representatives, your online support chat agents--the people who "talk" directly to customers when there is a problem. Most of the time, these people are well-trained, well-spoken, and well-intentioned. They are usually truly sympathetic--even empathetic. But they often work either with their hands tied up in red tape or with too little information to truly address the customers’ problems.

 

My most recent experience occurred this week, when my Internet access, telephone access, and cable TV (oh, the horror) went down. I get all these services from the same provider, and short outages are not unheard-of. But this time, the outage was of sufficient duration that the battery backup on my telephone modem was spent, and I was hopelessly alone without a lifeline.

 

I went to my car to call Comcast, my provider--you see, my cell phone doesn’t work very well from within my home (tower positions and all). After going through the labyrinth of automated voice responses, I was informed that there was an outage in my area and that it was being worked on by technicians. Because of looming deadlines, including having to look up how to get to a meeting several hours later, I decided I needed a bit more information than that.

 

I pressed "0" enough times that I was finally put through to a CSR. This young man was very pleasant and truly wanted to help me. But all he knew initially was that there "was an outage in my area and that was being worked on by technicians." I already knew that! What I wanted to know was estimated time of repair. Did it pay for me to go to the public library to get free wi-fi for the rest of the day? Should I sit tight and know that my communication with the outside world would be back momentarily? Should I crawl into a fetal position and yearn for a less techno-addicted era?

 

My nice CSM put me on hold and went looking for more info. He was able to tell me that "a node was out," and that most of the time, this was fixed in two to four hours. That was good to know, but I still had questions. "Has anyone from the field service team reported in?" and "Is it a simple problem or something out of the ordinary?" The CSR had no idea.

Loyalty Requires a Relationship

I started to think about what vendors I truly am loyal to, and it’s a short list:

• My auto mechanic
• My hairdresser
• My primary-care doctor

And, while price might play some part—my hairdresser is less expensive than many competitors, but more so than others; my auto mechanic fixes minor problems, like a flat tire, for free for me, but charges me standard prices on major repairs—it is the relationship that I value. None of these have rewards cards or loyalty programs. I’m not given a darn thing if I refer someone to them, except a thank you. But I’m not planning to go elsewhere because each of these providers—Jimmy at Hynes Auto, Mark at Ozma Hair Design, and Dr. Richard Brodie of Brookline Medical—makes me feel special as the individual that I am and is good at what they do.

So, when you are thinking about loyalty, don’t get caught up in the immediate satisfaction of seeing an uptick in sales based on reward discounts. Your customers value personal relationships and being treated well.