Customer Experience? You Want It, You Got It!
Posted by Hoyt Mann on Sat, Jun 06, 2009 @ 09:10 AM
As you can imagine, I read volumes of information on customer experience, customer support, how to make the contact center into a profit center, on and on and on.
Yesterday, I experienced it. I must say that, even though I didn't rethink my decision for calling and I didn't buy anything, the customer agent I spoke with pulled out all the stops. I think she followed every best practice in the book. And at no time did she sound as though she was reading from a script.
I was calling to discontinue a credit monitoring service. Of course, the company does not wish me to do this. So the agent was very friendly (smile when you answer the phone). She said she surely could do that but...
(There's always a but isn't there?)
Had I considered...
And here came the consequences my actions could bring upon me:
Did I realize that in this day and age it is extremely important to monitor my credit record to prevent identity theft? That I really need them to keep an eye out, not just on my credit card numbers, but my Social Security Number because that was the gateway for ID theft? And she quoted some statistics in a voice touched just a little with tragic concern.
Well ,since that didn't work, she wanted to know how I was going to protect myself. I said I was going to use another company I already did business with for other things.
I swear she looked up that company and got an answer in 2 seconds because, with barely a delay, she told me that the company I was considering only checked one credit bureau but her company checked all three....and went on to remind me of all the services her company provided that the other company did not.
Well, that didn't work either. So she goes for her last weapon.
"Did you know we are offering a promotion in which the cost of our service is discounted 50% for the next 12 months? Won't that make you reconsider?"
She almost got me there (I am a bit of a tightwad). I mean, what person in their right minds would turn down all these services for half the price?
Guess I'm not in my right mind.
Be that as it may, I had to admire her performance of the techniques I have been reading about. I don't think there was anything she left out. If she did, let me know what it was.
And you know what? I would likely recommend their company to someone else, even though I had discontinued their service. How's that for salespersonship? Lose one customer but perhaps gain more in my place?
Goes to show that these techniques work, even when you know what is being done. So don't scoff at those best practice stories about making the contact center into a profit center, fully as capable of selling as addressing problems. Or articles that are adament about not using scripts (at least not without training the agent how to not sound like it was a script). The proof is in the pudding, as my mom says.
Try this recipe in your own contact center and let me know how it works. Our inquiring minds want to know.
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