“By treating employees well, he explained, you end up with a first-class workforce that will in turn demonstrate a good work ethic and great customer service.” – Gary Kelly
The topic of customer service instantly brings to mind the responsibilities of a company towards its customers and the care that they deserve. Delivering top class service and memorable experiences is critical to the success of any organization, and service is delivered primarily through the company’s contact centres, serviced by the agents. Serving as the frontline and ‘face’ of the company, these service agents can either make or break the image of your company, depending on how they feel about the company. Caring for your customer service agents then, does not only make business sense, it is the most basic management rule – keep your employees happy and they will create happy and satisfied customers. In turn, happy customers become brand ambassadors and walking advertisements for a company – an extremely powerful ‘tool’ for any company. The customer service agents have a very stressful job – that is the nature of customer service – but a company that understands this, would care for them and ensure it treats them well.
As companies grow and increase their customer base, the number of queries and ‘relationships’ increase for the customer service agents. This has accelerated the need for skilled agents and has become imperative for any company to retain their best ones for the longest time. However, the market is competitive and continues to be so increasingly, meaning that only companies that can differentiate themselves would succeed. This ‘differentiation’ comes from the quality of service it provides – and service to customers goes through the customer service agents. Caring for this set of employees too is essential – as happy service agents will keep customer interests in the fore, whereas as poorly treated agents would mete out the same kind of service to the customers.
Caring for your customer service agents benefits a company in several ways and is the duty of the company. If a company’s leadership would take the time to speak with these agents, they would have some great insights and suggestions with regard to what they need to serve customers better – some of these suggestions usually come from the customers too. Hence, by listening to your customer service agents, your company would indirectly be listening to its customers – a very wise move for any company. At the top of the list of ‘wants’ – the service agents would love for their company to stop measuring their work and targets so stringently. We know that customers are different, their problems are unique to them, and each one expects to be treated as an important individual. This means that the service agents must interact with each customer depending on what they expect rather than timing their interactions based on what the company expects. For example – most companies with contact centres measure the effectiveness of their agents based on the amount of time they spend on each call. This means that even if the customer may still want to continue the interaction, the service agent would have to cut out the interaction, or be penalized for a longer than ‘stipulated’ call. Such behaviour would amount to poor customer service and would leave both customers and the agents, frustrated. If your company expects the service agents to treat each customer as an individual, it must start by leading the way.
Part of caring for your customer service agents (and other employees) is to help them deliver top class service by providing them with the best tools and a sound infrastructure to work with. The company must look at investing in a CRM system that would support a centralized knowledge base of customer data, which can be easily accessible and readily updated to reflect the most current information. This will enable the agents to provide accurate and prompt responses to customers, raising their confidence and morale, and keeping customers happy since they would not need to wait or deal with inefficiency. The fact is that lack of consistency or higher than normal wait times irritates customers and it is the service agents who are at the receiving end of their ire – irrespective of their best efforts to help customers. Being shouted at or talked down on, for no fault can be highly stressful and is one of the top reasons for high attrition in this realm.
The company’s leadership has the responsibility to ensure that every employee has a workspace and environment that motivates them to do their jobs well. The customer service agents need proper communication systems, ergonomic furniture (given the long hours they spend seated at a desk), the lighting must be optimal with large windows to allow natural light, and they must be encouraged to ‘personalize’ their workspace such that they feel comfortable and at ease even while working. Everyone feels warm and fuzzy with family ‘around’ – which helps to make people work better. Without actually ‘visiting’ the place of work of your customer service agents, it would be hard to understand the challenges and problems they could be facing owing to their workspace. In addition, it is necessary for the company to provide them with the latest technology and equipment to do their jobs at a highly competitive standard. Poor systems and out-dated technology would slow their responses and increase customer wait time, leading to customer ire and churn. The very future of a company could depend on the kind of technology it uses to service its customers.
Just as important it is for companies to conduct customer surveys to assess their engagement and connection, so also it is vital for companies to understand whether their customer service agents are engaged and enthused enough to serve customers well. It is necessary to measure their engagement levels, fix any challenges they may face, and constantly monitor customer experiences to ensure that your agents are happy and satisfied at their jobs. In addition, these agents must be empowered enough to make spot decisions and stray away from the robotic scripts in order to find solutions and respond appropriately to customers. Forcing them to stick to scripted texts could limit their creativity and keep them from thinking innovatively when they are faced with ‘unusual’ requests and or customer problems. Customers expect answers – if your customer service agents cannot think on their feet and or are confined by rules and ‘red tape’, it is unlikely that they would want to risk their jobs by providing ‘outside the box’ solutions, even if those would be the best for customers. Such behaviour reflects apathy and an unwillingness to help – enough to annoy customers, vent their anger on to the agents, and leave the company. The agents would feel demoralized and incompetent when they are shouted at despite their knowledge and ability to help. Some amount of ‘rope’ and leeway should be given to them allowing them to do that little extra for customers. The more happy customers, agents can create the more satisfied and confident they would feel in their jobs.
It is extremely critical to have a separate reward and recognition program for the customer service agents. Appreciation and praise for doing their jobs well by creating happy customers and therefore more business for the company is an essential part of caring for your customer service agents. In addition, ensure that this set of employees receive ample training and development opportunities – paving the way for growth and learning new skills.
We are sure there are other things your company may be doing to care for its customer service agents. It is essential to focus on this aspect since contact centres are no longer expense areas, but have now been established as profit centres. So much more is expected of these agents both from the company and the customers – and in order for them to deliver, show them a lot of concern and care. Supporting and caring for your customer service agents is necessary to deliver the superior levels of service that customers expect and vital for the growth and sustained success of a company.
