72
I N D U S T R Y I N S I G H T / K E L L Y H E B E R T
How many times have you heard the phrase, "We have
great customer service?" What does this mean exactly?
Is there a proven formula that shows empathy + smiling
through the phone + knowledge = happy customers?
I'm sure a Silicon Valley startup must be working on an app and an
algorithm for this, right?
It is difficult to grasp what constitutes great
customer service because everyone boasts that
they have it. I believe we need to rethink what
great customer service is because the phrase has
lost its meaning. When I hear that a company
has great customer service as a part of their tag
line, I am skeptical—I have heard it before, and
I have been disappointed. Too often there are
complaints about a terrible customer experience,
and we hear very little about what companies are
doing to make sure their customer service is truly
awesome.
is prompted me to do a little research. I
wanted to quantify the immeasurable parts of
customer service, so I performed some unofficial
Google research on companies that are known
to have the best customer service. e findings
were fascinating. What people perceive as great
customer service may be difficult to measure
or replicate. ese were some of the recurring
themes:
» being polite
» professionalism and courtesy
» variety and centralization
» the feeling of being pampered
» reliability
» the people that work there are happy
» accuracy
» caring about customer needs
is is a diverse list to master, and a company
may need to hire a psychologist to create a
training program for human resources teams to
do so.
Great customer service may not be found in a
THE CUSTOMER CONNECTION
Every company likes to believe it offers top-notch customer service,
but what are the real keys to excelling at customer interactions?
