Missed opportunities in improving customer satisfaction

So how do you retain a customer — keep them coming back for more. Simple answer — keep the customer satisfied. Key to customer satisfaction is good customer service; which is where a few companies do a great job, most do a mediocre job at best and the remaining pay lip-service to the act of providing customer service.

A call to a customer care center is often an exercise in futility and can cause frustration, especially if your query or request is something out-of-the-ordinary (i.e. not covered in the call script or generic scenarios). Attempts to interact with a senior customer service representative who might just understand your problem or even have a solution is quite impossible unless you threaten all sorts of severe action or carry on the call for long (which then affects that rep’s call volumes and statistics).

I have even faced situations where the service rep behaves like they are a different company — saying that they were not the person who sold the item and so are not responsible for the issue

Note to Customer Service teams: A foundation stone of good relationships is the ability to listen and not just look for similar sounding words in the script and respond in the prescribed manner, whether or not it answers the customers’ query. It is sometimes OK to say that this is the first time such a request is being made or problem being faced and there is no ready solution

Social media is a much used channel to vent frustrations and these are often addressed by a customer service team who monitors and manages social media in most organizations. While rants and vents are often addressed and at times compensated too, a missed opportunity to improve customer loyalty is to rewards positive reviews and referrals.

Word-of-mouth is a powerful avenue for customer acquisition where potential customers often read reviews and ask for referrals from past customers before deciding whether to buy a product or service (or not). Companies would do good to track these referrals and positive reviews and add points to the customers loyalty account or provide gift/discount coupons for a certain number of reviews and/or referrals received.

Companies go all out on offers to attract new customers, while forgetting to reward their existing patrons who have stuck on loyally. A surprise upgrade or special offer (no strings attached) can go a long way in ensuring customer satisfaction — e.g. A restaurant that I frequent with my family has friendly service and good food — I have given them good reviews for the same. How do they reward me — very often “forget” to charge for my daughter’s meal or give us a dessert on the house — a small gesture, but goes a long way to set that satisfied smile on my face