Second, according to third National Complaints Culture Survey unhappy customers are growing increasingly frustrated with way their complaints are being handled, and hard-pressed call center staff are being hindered by a lack of training and support from their employers.

Since calls coming into a center are escalated before they’re even answered—if I could successfully find my answers through website, self service, VRU, IVR, etc. I wouldn’t need to talk to a human—agents need more tools than ever before to diffuse what is being presented to them such that they can move customer onto a more productive interaction, and close call.

Where will they find these tools? The simple answer is with customer centric training. Off shelf, generic, or outdated training is like trying to put a round peg in a square hole.

Today’s training modules must be customized to customer, not statistics, and training must be presented ongoingly. Remember, training is a process, not an event.

Never lose sight of fact that we are human beings, not merely ‘human doings.’ The fact is 70% to 90% of what happens with customers is driven by human nature, having nothing to do with technology. Technology is meant to enable human endeavors, not to disable them.

Extraordinary service or lack thereof, separates good from great companies. As more and more organizations are turning to contact center as a strategic player in competitive landscape, it is in throes of re-inventing itself to step up to plate and become heart of a company's customer facing operations.

Empathetic Responsiveness

The ability to put yourself in another person’s shoes and see their point of view—not agree with them, not make them right and your company wrong—but hear what they are saying. After all, basic needs of all of us are to be heard and treated with dignity and respect. I think of a call as an ABC process. ‘A’ represents customer presenting their question, request, complaint or problem. ‘C’ is ultimate resolution. Most times ‘B’ is either skipped or left out—because of metrics, calls in queue, or simply because you know answer before customer is even finished speaking. ‘B’ is where agent acknowledges what they hear—be it upset, anger, frustration, or fear. Or, a simple ‘thank you for taking time to call and bring this to our attention.’ After all, if a customer calls in to complain, you have opportunity/challenge to turn them around. If they don’t call, and only complain to other people, you have no opportunity. Does going through ‘B’ take longer? Not at all. It allows you to move customer to a more productive interaction and close call. I’ve heard many customers repeat their opening paragraph (A) over and over, while at same time agent is trying to get them to resolution (C). Red alert! Red alert! Acknowledge what is behind words and you will move them quickly to ‘C.’ I believe you can’t go from A to C without going through B.

If all customers wanted just facts (and some do), they could ascertain information online. Most customers (people) want human interaction, someone to hear them, someone to care. A simple, “I’m so sorry that was your experience. My name is Rosanne and I’m going to do my best to help you right here and now.”

Self Service

When asked question in a recent study, “What is biggest barrier your company encounters to self-service effectiveness?” only 14% of customers replied they don’t know about it.’ This means that 86% who do know about it and attempt to use it (1) find it too hard to navigate, (2) can’t find answers, and/or (3) don’t trust system or answers they do find.

Research shows that customers prefer to deal with companies who are most consistently accessible. When customers experience a level of service from email and chat support, for instance, that equals or exceeds voice support, then and only then will they gladly migrate to those channels to resolve their problems and inquiries. To increase customers’ satisfaction, be sure to:

1) Phone: Have a ‘zero out’ option on your system 2) Website: Have your phone number or a button to speak with a human 3) E-mail: Rephrase issue in opening paragraph.

Purchasing Process

In an interview with Delia Passi Smalter, former publisher of Working Woman and Working Mother magazines, we found very interesting statistics regarding female demographics (Incentive Magazine, 2003). It seems that women are making over 85% of consumer purchases and influencing more than 95% of total goods and services. Smalter distinguishes purchasing process women and men go through. The biggest one, she says, is that women need to feel more of a connection to TSR; they need to trust corporation and brand. Price becomes secondary. Women take in a lot of information, including recommendations from friends and family, company and brand reputation, feelings about her contact person, and how brand will impact her life. Not so for men. Men take a systematic approach, allowing outside influence to some degree, but mostly they are focused on price.

One of most influential documents in world, U.S. Constitution, begins with "We, people..." Yes, ‘we people’ are what makes difference.