Things get done when the people who can affect change experience pain. What I mean by that the people that are most able to fix problems are the people in an organization who probably have no idea that it is happening. Therefore I believe every Founder or CEO should contact their customer service centers, as if they were a customer, immediately.
I recognize that a call to have CEOs dial their support lines may not happen by the likes of the Fortune 500, but my hope that one person who reads this will go through their support channels today and make improvements.
Almost all call centers can be improved but the metrics, dashboards, anecdotes and discussions in conference rooms are blocking progress. If a company leader spends time on the first point of contact, or perhaps the point where a customer is most in need, they will find a place to spend cycles that will help their business. There is so much energy spent on all the customer touch points; phone, email, txt, live chats, and more – but it feels most are spread too thin.
You don’t have to look far to find companies with customer services woes. Comcast and Time Warner are notorious for having bad customer service. The first line of defense here is the phone support system. This is a power law in action that is not being fixed. If they spent cycles on the single point of contact people hate the most, would it have halo affects on the rest of the business? My answer is yes.
I have a had my fair share of customer service woes and I am usually pretty good at solving them. So much so that people that know this about me get me involved when they can’t make progress. It’s not always just about “talking to a supervisor” but goes into how you communicate and why. I believe in the halo affect that a good product or a good customer interaction can have and this feels like an easy way to make customers happy.
So whether its by phone, email, livechat, or other means – contact your customer service team to see what the experience is like. If its perfect that you can scratch one more thing off your todo list 🙂
