Customers just want to be heard and understood

Customer Service tips from Whistl
Every now and again, we like to share some insight from our skilled contact centre advisors, into just what makes our outsourced contact centre so successful. We frequently seek out their top tips, and these are some useful ones we wanted to share.

Customers just want to be heard and understood
Dianne Cobb, contact centre advisor at Whistl since 2010, contributed this simple, yet so incredibly true tip. Whether an advisor is handling a sales enquiry, a complaint, or a simple request for information, the same principle applies. By really listening to the customer, and understanding their personal situation, you can then begin to help that customer. In fact, if you haven’t really heard and understood the customer, we’d suggest you’re not yet in a place to help.

Complete Customer Satisfaction
Customers aren’t numbers. When they contact customer services they’re not experiencing the same problems or looking for the same solutions as other customers. They will be different. They may have a similar problem, but their situation will be different, their tone of voice will be different, and their expectations of the call will be different.

Let's look at an example:
Sarah purchased a black dress online on Thursday, choosing next-day delivery as she has dinner on Friday night she is attending and wants to wear the dress. Unfortunately, the dress wasn’t delivered until Saturday morning. Sarah had to wear an old dress and was very unhappy.

Amy also purchased a black dress on Thursday and chose next-day delivery as she wanted the ‘option’ of wearing the dress on Friday night. Again, the dress didn’t arrive until Saturday. Sarah had another dress she was thinking about wearing but was still disappointed the dress didn’t arrive.

Although these two customers have experienced an identical problem, their level of dissatisfaction will be different. Only by really listening, and understanding the situation, can an advisor rectify this situation to ensure complete customer satisfaction.

As Sarah specifically wanted the dress for Friday, her level of disappointment is likely to be higher than Amy’s. As a result, she may lose confidence in that particular store, and no longer shop there. That being the case, a skilled advisor can assess the situation and offer the correct reimbursement to win back confidence in that customer, and ensure complete customer satisfaction. It may be that Sarah is given a discount on future purchases or free delivery vouchers for the future, whereas Amy may simply require an apology and an explanation.

By really listening, you’ll understand exactly what action needs to be taken to satisfy the customer.