What Do People Want From Customer Service?

Customer service is incredibly important, and companies are always looking at innovative ways to improve their response to inquiries. Since the 1960s, remote customer service centers have handled many companies’ customer care. What, then, do people actually want from customer service? Here are some of the most common desires that customers express.

Swift Responses

Nothing feels more like a waste of time than waiting on hold. Customer service centers need to have adequate staffing and a good call distribution computer to avoid trapping customers in long queues. Oh, and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons? People have had enough of that song already!

To Talk to a Real Person

The rise of chatbots was intended to be a time-saving solution. Unfortunately, most customers find it incredibly frustrating when they are confronted with an assistant that is clearly not human. Customer service should be a fundamentally person-to-person avenue of communication. Chatbots frequently fail to meet customer requirements and end up bogging customers down in lengthy requests for an escalation of their query.

The key is empathy. When a person has a concern, they want to feel understood. A chatbot is, by its very nature, completely unable to understand the nuances of human empathetic communication.

To Have Their Issue Dealt With Efficiently

Calling customer service is usually the last thing that a person wants to be doing with their precious time. It is very important that inquiries are dealt with as efficiently as possible. The more time a person spends on the phone or talking online about their issue, the less satisfied they are likely to be. In the UK, the average length of time spent talking to a customer service agent has been hovering around the 300 second mark for a few years. Keeping this number down takes a great deal of effort on behalf of contact center managers and agents. In order to identify efficiency issues that might affect call times, it is important to have tools available for monitoring call data. Using data analytics can help managers identify areas of concern that are causing inefficient call responses – learn more about improving the customer journey at www.aceyus.com/call-center-analytics/.

A Follow-Up

Nothing is more frustrating than contacting a customer service center with an issue, receiving an assurance that it will be resolved and then never receiving a follow-up call or email. Good customer service always involves making follow-up emails and calls to update service users about the progress being made on their behalf.

Politeness

This should go without saying. Rudeness or sharpness over the phone or via text can really sully the relationship between an organization and a customer. Rudeness is usually the result of agent burnout. Overworked agents are often stressed, which can seriously inhibit their ability to stay calm and polite in stressful situations. Customers can be very demanding, and especially trying characters might drive a stressed and tired agent to breaking point. Make sure that your agents have enough breaks and support from management.