More About Customer Service
I suspect most tech-minded people are problem solvers. That is what interests us in technology. We find a situation that can be improved with technology and we put together a solution. Or, we find a problem with a current technological system and we repair it. We're fixers. We're problem solvers.
I don't think that the part of the brain that solves problems is the same part of the brain that likes to talk about them. When I solve a problem, I don't want to dwell on it anymore. I want to move on to the next problem. So, I frequently neglect to tell people about how the problem was resolved or even that it was resolved. That would pretty much qualify as poor customer service.
It's not that I fail to understand how important communication is to developing good relations with the people who rely on my services. (See my earlier posts about my experience receiving poor customer service if you doubt me.) I just don't want to spend any time talking about something that is completed and, to me, has begun to fade into history already.
So, has anyone out there stumbled onto the holy grail of communication with end users? I'm looking for something that nearly automatically gives the necessary information to them so that I keep them in the loop while keeping my focus on the problems.
Or, feel free to tell me to suck it up and start talking more to people if that is really the best way to handle things. Seriously, I can take it. I just think there has to be a better way.
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2 comments:
I'm not much of a conversationalist, but considering your blog, you do seem to have something to say. My two cents, although I never thought I'd hear myself saying something like this is that it sounds like maybe you should try thinking a little...a very little especially at first, bit more like a sales person. Ouch, there I said it. I've definitely been working around too many sales people for too long. But SOME of what they do does seem to work. They rub off on you after a while. For instance, customers love to be reassured that "everything is going to be alright". 99.9% of them don't know, want to know, or care about all the techie cyberbable details, they just want direct eye contact, a pleasant smile or at least a grin, a firm handshake, and maybe a mildly humorous analogy about how they had a slow leak in the left front tire and you got it all repaired…or something like that anyway. I guess maybe the bottom line would be reassurance. Often times I tell clients to keep an eye on it for a couple of days and please feel free to call me if it happens again. You might think that that opens the floodgates but I would rather my clients flood me than flood my competition…well, most of my customers anyway.
Hey, Steve:
Don't sell yourself short, you definitely have something to say and I'm glad you've said it!
Once the shock of seeing the "S" word used here (yes, "Sales" is a four-letter word!), I think you have some valid points. People do want to be reassured and they do not want the details.
My problem is not so much how to treat people in face-to-face encounters but how to treat the emails, voicemails, and interoffice memos that I receive. I suppose the reassurance still needs to be given, but I find that I rarely go back and reply to emails/voicemails/et al. I wish that could be automated.
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