Customer care isn’t keeping up with the cloud consumer

Most customer care departments have done their utmost not to have to talk to you. Got a problem? First you’re to read the FAQ, if that doesn’t work read the troubleshoot Wikipedia, then write an email, then tweet, and when all else fails, then you pick up the phone.

Finally after getting through the “For English, press 1” automated message and mind-numbing muzak, the customer has to explain everything step-by-step once again to a customer care representative.

“By which time the customer is like a very angry monkey in a box. With a baseball bat,” said Dr Nicola Millard, customer experience futorologist for BT Gobal Services during her presentation at the 2011 Frost & Sullivan Customer Interaction Summit.

Furthermore, this self-service approach to customer service means that if a customer still has a problem, it’s usually quite complex, something the call centre may not be able to deal with. So the call is essentially wasted time for the customer, said Millard.

The customer then goes to the brand’s Facebook or Twitter page to complain – generally about the call centre or unreplied emails, she added wryly.

Today’s customer is chatting with his or her favourite brand on Facebook, following it on Twitter, very likely has an app for it, and may even be helping other customers out in the official, or unofficial, brand forum.

“BT for example, has an interesting character on our forums named Mr Jolly who, we estimate, puts in about 39 hours a week of free, voluntary, customer service,” she laughed. All this makes for a highly expert, and very impatient customer.

“They want a response, and they want it now! They’re not waiting a week for a reply for an email or 15 minutes on the phone,” said Millard. Customer care centres should consider more instant methods of dealing with, or at least diagnosing problems, like instant messaging. “I’ve seen one customer care rep deal with up to 10 customers at once on chat, though I don’t recommend it,” she said.

The lack of integration across all these points of contact is part of the problem. Often, the team running social media customer care has no idea what’s going on in the call centre and vice versa. Customers however expect customer representatives to be well versed in every aspect of the company and will point out inconsistencies.

“Often, you’ll find a customer waving their phone under the nose of the person manning the help desk crying ‘That’s NOT what it says on your website’,” said Millard.

“Technically, customer care is highly advanced. But from a cultural standpoint, we are being held back,” commented Millard. Call centres should be manned by more than fresh graduates, experts in the required field should be available to address more complicated issues.

Customers like these, while high maintenance, are worth the effort added Millard. “Research has shown that multichannel users (customers who follow brands across multiple channels) are more loyal and spend more than single-channel users,” she said.

“Ideally, when a customer calls, the problem should be evaluated and then ‘speed-dated’ with the person most able to help,” said Millard. Generally, truly complex problems that require special expertise are rather rare, so keeping an expert on staff full-time may not be economically savvy. “This is where the cloud comes in to help call centres. Have an expert work part time on a consultancy basis on the agreement that they will field calls patched through to them, wherever they are.”

The important thing though, said Millard, is to make sure the customer knows his problem matters and is being taken care of. “It’s an emotive thing, if we have a problem, we want everyone to share it.”