Knowledge

Five Often-Missed Customer Service Focus Areas

Jun 23, 2010 by Confero Inc.


Sometimes the simplest task is the hardest to do. Through our decades of experience and knowledge measuring the customer experience, five key areas stand out when thinking about areas employees frequently miss. These five may seem simple, but they can be difficult to execute consistently across an organization. Consider these areas within your own organization to see if your company is where it should be:

1) Welcome and Greet Customers to Establish a Personal Interest
Companies train employees to use strong and inviting greetings, but sometimes employees miss significant elements of the greeting. The most effective greetings are sincere, timely and welcoming. When we see results where the employee does not meet the standard, usually the employee has rushed through the greeting, doesn’t appear friendly, or greets the customer in a mechanical way.

2) Build a Connection Using the Customer’s Name
Standing out among competitors is an ongoing battle, and an even tougher one in today’s economic climate. To do it, you need to make sure that employees make the extra effort to connect with customers and prospects, so that customers feel good about doing business with you. Using the customer’s name is an important way to connect. Many companies don’t want employees to overuse the customer’s name (it seems forced and unnatural), but they do want them to use it more than once in a conversation.

Despite the expectation, employees frequently do not repeat the customer’s name twice. The employee may not want to mispronounce a name or forgets to mention the customer’s name again. Whatever the reason, some companies could benefit from training or incentives to ensure employees meet expectations regarding the use of the customer’s name.

3) Use the Connection to Learn about the Customer’s Needs
When employees take time to know the customer and make them feel welcome, they ask questions about what the customer needs or wants, and don’t just take an order. At a fast casual restaurant, an employee may explain different menu options that meet dietary requirements, whereas at a retail store an employee can talk to the customer about desired features of a certain product.

In any employee-customer interaction, employees need to listen to needs and provide information and recommendations tailored to the specific customer. One reason that some employees don’t do this is because they are focused solely on the transaction at hand. If this transaction-only-based interaction is happening within your organization, sales potential goes down. Think about ways to motivate and encourage employees to take the conversation to the next level. Better yet, consider more specific ways to communicate this expectation before you make your next hire.

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June 2010: Low Hanging Fruit: These Stats Show Opportunities to Best the Competition

Jun 23, 2010 by Confero Inc.

Last month, we highlighted a few relevant customer service statistics. This month, we look at more that may surprise you and inspire you to contemplate where to deploy your training and other resources.

  • 92% of all customer interactions happen via the phone. (Gartner)

Businesses are obviously aware that phone conversations are a piece of the customer experience, but they may not be aware of the extent of the impact that these contacts have. Does your firm evaluate phone interactions and their effectiveness? Could you capture more business via the phone with added training? Do your employees make a lasting first impression over the phone? What can differentiate your telephone customer service from your competitors’?

  • 85% of consumers are dissatisfied with their phone experience. (Gartner)

It’s surprising that the percentage of dissatisfied phone customers is so high, and it makes you wonder how so many firms miss the mark in this area. Measurement tools may not gather data that reveals dissatisfaction. Companies may need to consider more demanding phone standards. Firms may collect the feedback about dissatisfaction but then neglect to act on it quickly. Consider how you measure customer satisfaction and phone experiences with your company. Do you think that your method paints a true picture? Is it worthwhile to raise the bar when it comes to employee phone skills?

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Is Customer Service a Catalyst for Growth in the New Economy?

Jun 08, 2010 by Confero Inc.

In this economy, companies are working to keep loyal customers and increase sales. A new study by Accenture finds that firms are responding to the economic recovery by channeling resources to improve service and training. These efforts are focused not only on keeping current customers happy and loyal for the long term, but also on gaining market share from companies who are not focusing effectively on customer service.

In her 6/7/2010 article for the Wall Street Journal “Customer Service as a Growth Engine”, Dana Mattioli provides insight into Walgreen’s and Comcast’s new customer service strategies and into the study’s findings.

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May 2010: Low Hanging Fruit: These Stats Show Opportunities to Best the Competition

May 26, 2010 by Confero Inc.


In addition to the business intelligence we gather at our clients’ locations, we consistently review important customer service statistics that impact our clients’ various industries. Each month, we will share a few of these interesting statistics with Connector readers. Here are a few stats recent eye-opening stats:

  • Boomer women are making more online clothes purchases because they feel “ignored” in the retail store environment, according to a study conducted by VibrantNation.com, an online community for women over 50. “84 percent of respondents find sales people indifferent, inexperienced, invisible, or outright rude, while 32 percent perceive an age bias from younger sales associates who don’t pay attention to older consumers. Only 16 percent said that sales associates are well-trained and helpful.”
  • 84% of the [insurance] companies … in the study did not automatically acknowledge email queries. An amazing 28% of the companies did not even respond to email queries. We learned this from eGain, the multichannel customer service and knowledge management software vendor, which recently measured customer service levels provided by the leading insurance companies.

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Shop the Competition!

May 26, 2010 by Confero Inc.


Gathering competitive business intelligence is an important step in retaining and gaining new customers. To help businesses get the information they need, Confero often executes competitor studies on a large scale and over a considerable length of time. However, there are ways for individual stores to conduct competitive analysis locally and effectively. One way is to use your existing employees as mystery shoppers. Here are simple steps to put a competitor evaluation plan into action:

  • Distribute mystery shop forms to selected employees from each location.
  • Review the survey questions and discuss why each area is important to the success of your store.
  • Next, employees choose a competitor to visit and evaluate. The competitor can be one that they hear about frequently from customers, one that has a new offer, or a competitor that is new to the area. Better yet, if you frequently lose sales to a certain competitor, make their location a priority visit.
  • Employees visit the competitor and, immediately following, record what they observed and heard during their interaction.
  • Employees should consider how their location ranks against the competition. Did the competitor’s employees say and do things that they felt contributed to great service? Did the competitor’s service include some of the same standards as their own? Did they include something in a product presentation that was attention-grabbing and effective?

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