I have a real problem with call centres.
And I don’t suffer the people who work in call centres
gladly. And even though I know it is not the fault of those answering the
phones, too often these people get the sharp end of my tongue. If you are one
of these people, I am sorry.
Last week is a case in point.
I had to phone a call centre to sort out my insurance. An
innocuous request but once again the illogicality of a call centre process left
me fuming. And even though the customer service rep I was dealing with could
see the sense in my position she was unable to do anything for me as she had
‘to follow orders’- a defence rejected by the Nuremburg courts! No matter. Nothing
was going to budge her and so I was left back where I started, annoyed, enraged
and frustrated.
It was not her fault, nor the fault of her colleagues. They
did not get up in the morning and come into work to deliver bad customer
service. Instead I blame the senior management of the place. These are the ones
that dictated and built the process but they rarely get the chance to view
their handiwork.
But how do you get these people closer to the customers who
pay their wages and away from the financial reports, strategy papers and the
other bumf that absorbs senior management time?
If you want to improve the food served on airlines, serve it
up in the boardroom for the Board’s lunch. And, in recent work I’ve been doing
to help businesses across the region think about their customer journey and the
experience their brand delivers to its customers, I have collected 5 ideas that
other businesses have implemented with their senior executives.
Simulation…In one
very large business senior executives take a weekly turn to simulate the
complete customer experience by going through a transaction or business process
as a customer. Through this they are asked to log their thoughts, feelings and
emotions, positive and negative This really does help the executives walk in
the shoes of the customer.
Executive Complaints…get
your top team to investigate and answer one complaint a week from start to
finish. They are not allowed to dictate the task to secretaries, PAs or some
other flunky. It is down to them and this gives them the opportunity to uncover
the cause of the complaint and any defects in the processes, the journey, and
the experience.
Speed Dating…the
executive get to team meet a group of customers and each executive has 10
minutes with each customer on different topics. After their time is up they
move onto the next customer. I think it is important in this context that the
team work off the customer’s agenda as well as their own.
Hanging on the
telephone… the senior management team to randomly phone customers on a regular basis (even those who have provided
low customer satisfaction scores) to ask them what they think of the experience
or how it could be improved.
‘Meet the Manager’/ ‘Tweet the Manager’…sessions
which allow to contact or meet directly
with the management of the business on a regular basis. It might be scary but
it does show great commitment to your customers and your people.
These ideas take time and courage, commodities which can
both be in short supply, but the willingness of the management team to adopt
ideas like these show real and genuine commitment to improving the customer
experience and to walking in the footsteps of your customers.
