Pest Control

I have seen this article written in Forbes website [here], and read it several times since it was published. It describes /explains some keys for achieving excellent customer service. Those “ten commandments” are true in those cases that the customer is a real “pain in the butt”...   

Thats okay, I can live with this list except the last one, the tenth in the list:

Pest: A customer the company may need to fire to be more profitable. Be quick to identify and replace them.

It is a wishful thinking for each supporter firing this annoying customer. Is it really that easy? I don’t think so.

Let’s assume that your customer is paying each year some $200,000 buying from you HW, SW and renewal of support contract. At what time exactly you can afford yourself to get rid of this customer, at the “startup phase” when this value is some 30% of your income or when the company is well firmed, and this value is 5% or less from your income?

In my point of view one cannot underestimate this income (or any other sum). When you reaching this point when you feel that you customer is becoming to be “pest”, it is the time to change tactics.

The first option, which is commonly used as the last resort, instead of pushing the customer away, embrace! You need to empower the customer by embedding it. See my post explaining what is embedded customer [here]

For the second options, some changes in support SLA needed to done. You need to ask the customer to be certified into certain level to get an SLA. Each certification level will have its own SLA.  You will benefit twice: 1 - The educated customer will not want to be considered to be lame (hey... I need to “kick the cat” [see #6 here] once in a while); 2 – you charge MORE for different SLAs, training and certifications.

Apology to the customer. Is it necessary?

I have read this blog post advising some essential beliefs [Kate Nassers (the author) point of view] to deliver a “Super Customer Service Experience” [here]. I can agree with most of the list, with some less.

There is this statement:

“A sincere apology is the quickest way to repave the road of customer trust”

I know that in most cases it works, but why one need to be there in the first place? Pay attention to the customer complaint. Listen! Don’t hear! , see my post “It is all about listening [here].

Empathic listening is the way the supporter needs to listen respond to the customer’s complaint for mutual understanding and trust. Once the problem was understood you can start handle the case.

When case is being escalated to the next level of support, there is no need to apology as well; you can use a statement that will soften the customer, i.e “your case was escalated to me for investigation. I have read the case and I can see that….”

Apology will be used as “doomsday weapon” when you don’t have any solution for the problem.

Embedded Customer

The phrase “customer experience” is used often when describing customer’s feedback. Studies show us that creating “wow” experiences and “please” customers doesn’t often improve the experience, especially if the was one time interaction. It didn’t increased customer loyalty once thought. Moreover, customer becomes more and more powerful.

Company’s focus (not just the support organization) started changing from a complete organizational view to a customer-centric view. An organization that foresees the future are in a process to be fully connected to "embedded" customer.

The "embedded customer" main principle is to to engage the customers in decisions taken by the company. One can see it as a seat in an advisory board of the company. However, companies must keep their balance as they face the challenge not to become too friendly with the “advising” customer. It should only be involved customers who have a genuine interest in the development of the company.