I’m an amateur blogger, but am considering turning Pro. One of the blogs that I read had an interesting post regarding responding to customers in a timely fashion. I would like for you to read it:
http://www.dailyblogtips.com/customer-support-is-key/
Once you’ve read it, I’d like for you to keep in mind that while most of our response to our customers is instantaneous (they call us, we answer… they walk up, we wait on them… they ping, we answer…), but still, the principal of how we respond is important.
Don’t you agree?
Responding in a timely manner is important. Responding and acting professionally is even more important. But as we begin to trim back the available support resources that the customer’s have, this can increase the amount of time it takes to respond to customer needs as well as place extra pressure on staff members, which can take its toll on attitudes and tempers for both customer and staff. You do as much as you can to provide the best support to the customers, but you can not do it at the expense of the staff.
Now back to the article, we should be consistent in providing quality service. We should be in constant contact with the user that have open requests. If we say “you will be contacted within the next 48 hours”, the user should be contacted in that time frame. Make an appointment and keep it. If you need to break an appointment, speak to the user first. Provide regular updates on requests, call at least once a day. These are fundamentals of customer service.
The quality of service a representative provides on the phone has less to do with the factors you mention in your first paragraph than one might imagine. Each request for service should be handled in the most professional way possible.
Yes, I understand that longer waits for service typically results in less patient customers. Less patient customers are, by their very nature, harder to deal with. However, in each interaction, there is a choice to be made as to how one will react.
Make the right choices, and a customer, even one who was impatient when they called, has a higher chance of walking away delighted.
Make the wrong choices, and everyone has a higher chance of having a bad day.