Customer Service Initiative

Teaching your Agents to do the Right Thing

26th March, 2009 - Posted by Pam -

A critical piece in doing the right thing for your customers is teaching your agents how.  Strict policies and guidelines are not the way.  Empowerment is the way.  Allow your agents to make decisions - in fact insist they make their own decisions and deter them from escalating phone calls to their supervisor.

Prescribe a general philosophy that puts the customer first and then walk your talk.  Changing to this type of customer centric culture doesn’t happen overnight.  Agents will continue to seek management’s advice - and management better be consistent in their guidance.  Agents need to feel safe when making refund, return, and credit decisions.

I think there are two levels to this.  First,  have buy in at an executive level and make sure you have the corporate culture to support the change.  Second, tell agents to treat customers the way they want their families to be treated.  I once started an initiative of this nature and told the agents to treat the customer the way they (the agent) would want to be treated.  The shift to customer centric decision making was laborious.  However, I recently spoke with Rudy Vidal, renowned Customer Loyalty Consultant, and he shed a new light on the idea.  People that work in customer service tend to put others first.  So, instructing agents to treat customers the way they want their family members to be treated puts it in a perspective they grasp easier.  Thanks Rudy!

In addition to this advice, begin an incentive program that encourages agents to “Wow” the customer.  The rewards for their efforts should consist of activities that provide a pampering experience.  This might be a massage, a 5 star dinner, or a manicure - there’s plenty of activities to choose from.

It really all comes down to the Golden Rule.  Do unto others…..

So, develop the right culture, encourage your agents, and then reward them for their excellent service with pampering activites.  You’ll watch your customer loyalty grow by leaps and bounds.