If you haven’t noticed, many businesses today are struggling with customer service. Whether as a result of staffing shortages or other reasons, these businesses have seemingly given up on trying to provide even the most basic level of customer service. It’s almost as if they have conceded that providing customer service is out of reach, unattainable or a luxury they can no longer afford.
Yet, businesses today have more ways to provide customer service than ever before. Technology has made it easier, faster and cheaper than even a few years ago. The available solutions are abundant, but these solutions won’t implement themselves. Leadership is required to map out a strategy. Investment is needed to bring the strategy to fruition. Management is essential to monitor results and make adjustments. From this perspective, business leaders have hope. Instead of concluding that customer service is no longer attainable, business leaders would do well to focus on a solution that works for them.
Artificial unintelligence
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to infiltrate our lives, I’m seeing more and more examples of artificial unintelligence: automated attempts to provide customer service or to sell me something that misses the mark. Instead of helping the relationship, they actually hurt it. They’re out of place, annoying and communicate to me that I’m not being heard or cared for. There is danger in using technology in an unintelligent way.
Customer service has two sides: proactive and reactive. Proactive customer service may be out of reach for struggling businesses. Or is it? Isn’t there a way — any way — to reach out to customers every so often for feedback? Of course there is, but how many businesses actually do this? Not many. There is an opportunity for us here.
Reactive customer service appears to be easier at first blush. A customer reaches out and the business responds. However, not all of these customer interactions are simple requests for information. Some involve complaints, and sometimes angry people aren’t all that pleasant to deal with. I have a hunch that some businesses just don’t want to deal with complaints, so they intentionally make it difficult for customers to interact with them. No news is good news, right?
The problem with the avoidance approach, which seems extremely common today, is that customer satisfaction levels don’t increase when a customer seeks information or is unhappy. They realize that the business doesn’t care enough to hear from them.
There is also a missed opportunity by not taking care of unhappy customers. Some of the most loyal customers were once unhappy but were won over by a business that truly listened to them and responded appropriately.
So, how about you and your business? What’s the status of your customer service? What would your customers say about your proactive and reactive approaches? What can you do to improve your customer service?
Now go forth.
