No Time Like the Present – or Very Near Future

When it comes to great customer service, a quick response time is imperative. When something goes wrong, and a customer has to wait any real length of time, it just adds to the frustration and aggravation they feel. If that is left to boil for too long, repairing the situation is much more difficult, and may have spread further by word of mouth or social media. Dealing with a customer’s issue should be a high priority, and needs to be dealt with as soon as possible.

With so many people on social media circuits these days, more and more customer service issues have begun to be dealt with online, for both customer (good and bad reports) and the company. In one of my prior articles I discussed the importance that social media plays for a company’s service, and this is true, but aside from just needing to monitor social media sites, the response time is an important factor.

In a real life situation, think of what it would be like if a customer entered a store with a complaint, and upon asking to speak with a manager, they had to stand there and wait an hour, a day, or multiple days. What if they called on the phone, do you think they would wait an hour or two to speak to someone? If they did, do you think they would be cheerful and have a lovely disposition once they got on the phone with a representative? Apply that idea to electronic and social media service.

If someone emails the company about an issue, it is a great practice for companies to have a quick response time guarantee in place. Try to make this as short as possible, depending on the amount of staff and the amount of issues. What if, instead of responding the following business day, that instead you aim to get them a response within an hour? That would be great customer service. In a recent article, customer service speaker Shep Hyken listed five tips for managing service through social media, and his number one point was response time. He says “First and foremost, respond quickly. Many customers feel that a same-day response is acceptable. Some companies attempt to respond within an hour. I just worked with 1-800 Flowers and their goal is to respond within five minutes. That’s a pretty amazing goal.” The key thing to remember is, if you do not properly use social media to your advantage, it can be turned against you rather quickly, with bad reviews spreading like wildfire.

It is a very common practice for call centers to measure the waiting time for a customer on hold, and then work hard to shorten that time by various means. One article from 2009 stated “This is an area [call waiting response time] where companies can make a lot of costly mistakes if they don’t understand what drives customer satisfaction.” Well, that still applies today, and with social media being a much more common factor in life today than it was even just three years ago, the application of that philosophy must be broadened into this area too. Therefore, companies should be applying various time shortening practice to those online areas as well.

Of course, with the economy doing poorly, and so many companies being forced to cut back on staffing, keeping enough manpower on hand to provide great service can be a concern. It does good to remember that customers are the main source of life for most company, so, as the true life-support agent, they must be given a high priority in the equation. Cutting back on service representatives due to the economy is like cutting off your air to see how long you can survive. Even back in 2008 when the economy was pretty bad, it was a recognized issue as reported on McKinsey Quarterly:

So it’s not surprising that most executives think compromising service levels is a mistake. When we interviewed senior executives from 11 leading service delivery companies, all but one agreed that improving the customer experience is growing in importance to their companies, customers, and competitors.

Great service should always be the goal, for as Cindy Solomon at Ezine Articles said, “Luckily, exceptional customer service is one of the few things that don't necessarily require you to spend large amounts of money. The fact is you can greatly improve your … level of customer service in any economy. In doing so, you can develop ardent customer advocates who ensure your revenues keep coming in no matter what the economic weather may be.”

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