Why don't the most successful and widely used brands (Google, WhatsApp, etc.) have customer service (or at least we've never needed it)? It's not good to solve customer problems; what's good is for the customer not to have problems. It's a question of attitude that applies at the very moment of product/service design.
Those who know me are aware of my passion for Apple products. Their laptops and tablets not only have an attractive design, but above all, they are easy to use and, in my case, have become inseparable companions for work and leisure. I use these devices a lot. I have occasionally had some difficulty using certain features, mainly because I was in a hurry to finish the installation and start using what I needed. However, I have never had to contact Apple's after-sales service. Whenever I have encountered a problem, I have found a way to solve it by consulting their website or with the help of online forums about the brand, where expert users enthusiastically and selflessly help those who are less advanced.
The same applies to other services that we all use intensively today and are now part of our lives: Google, Facebook, and WhatsApp, to name a few. In these few examples, we find some of the characteristics that I most admire as a customer: simplicity of use from the very first moment, satisfaction of needs, constant evolution in functionality that is shared with the user, absence of failures, and finally satisfaction, that magical goal that is so difficult to achieve and that, in my case, leads me to use these services again and again, to be a loyal customer, another magical word, also elusive and complicated, but one that Apple, Google, and others seem to master, to the admiration of the rest of the market.
How do they do it? Is it possible to achieve that level of excellence? What is their secret formula for success? In my opinion, the key is that they are very clear about what they want to do and are totally focused on it. They don't get sidetracked along the way, and even though things weren't easy for them at first, they've always had the mindset of focusing 100% on their business with all their available energy. I think it's the same formula we see in people and businesses around us: having a clear mission and focusing all our attention on it is key to engaging and charming others, in any project we undertake, whether personal or professional.
I wanted to introduce today's reflection on customer service (responding to customer complaints and queries) in this way precisely because I believe that we should all start from the concept of
excellence when designing our products and services: doing things so well and making them so easy to use that once the customer has made a purchase, they no longer need us (unless it is to buy more things...).
We know that problems are bound to arise and even the best can make mistakes (remember the fiasco with Apple's map service when it launched its latest operating system
),
but it is one thing to get used to living with problems and quite another to take a firm stance to eliminate them by tackling their root causes until we are sure they will not recur.
In my experience, many of the problems we pass on to the customer stem from the fact that we care more about ourselves than our customers. "Compartmentalized" organizations and processes, in which everyone looks after their own area without worrying about the end result, about the quality of what the end user receives. This is also reflected in the sometimes limited support and capacity given to the people who are face-to-face with the customer, solving their problems: they are often the least valued and trained employees in the organization, which shows how little we are customer-oriented.
Let me share with you some ideas that I have found to work well throughout my career when it comes to providing good customer service:
- Let's find out why customers call us and what they are complaining about. Beyond this, which seems obvious, let's use this information to resolve the root causes of the problems that led to the call, ensuring that we solve them and therefore avoid new complaints for the same reason.
- Let's give customers the chance to resolve issues themselves, to serve themselves efficiently. Far from being negative or inconsiderate, this option
is increasingly in demand by users who are becoming more accustomed and expert. Of course, we must design the self-service experience to be highly satisfactory, otherwise it will be counterproductive. - Let's make it very easy for customers to talk to our company: whether through the call center, the website, or in-store, let's make customers feel that we care about what they are telling us.
- Throughout the organization, everyone must be very clear about how their work affects the customer experience. There should be no areas that are isolated from the customer. This is not good.
These four points are not easy to implement. In some cases, significant investments are needed to do it right (self-service), and even more complicated than that, a cultural change in the organization that takes time and, as we said before, requires us to be very clear about our mission and very focused.
Along the way, the people in the organization who are most in contact with customers (salespeople and customer service staff) have been a great help to me: I have always found that their knowledge of our customers' needs and expectations is perfect, and they have provided me with relevant information for improvement. I also love the attitude of constant improvement that I usually find in them, carrying out a task that can often be frustrating.
Rest assured that the benefits of all this effort are worth it: not only can we save money, but this approach to service quality drastically reduces service demand. More importantly for our business, we will have delighted customers who speak highly of our brand and would never consider leaving us for a competitor.
