The data referenced comes from Genesys’ 2019 Asia Pacific Consumer Research (APCR).
Calling customers the lifeblood of any organization is akin to saying breathing is essential to living.
Despite the value of customers being a universal truth, all too often, there are still companies that fall short when it comes to keeping them satisfied. Sometimes, the cause is as simple as forgetting the basics of quality customer service.
Some businesses believe that low prices will keep customers happy and will keep them coming back, regardless of how poor their customer service is. According to the APCR, 45% of consumers surveyed claim that customer service ranks higher in importance than the lowest price on an item.
These potentially misguided businesses have forgotten the simple fact that unhappy customers want to have their issue RESOLVED quickly. So, what mistakes are they making? And how can they better implement Knowledge Management Solutions to fix these issues? Let’s find out!
These are three simple mistakes that make matters worse for customers and businesses
1. Being Put on Hold for More Than Five Minutes
46% of surveyed consumers see ‘being put on hold for over five minutes’ as a top annoyance.
Being on hold can play psychological tricks on anybody that is sitting and waiting for answers.
Seconds turn to minutes, and the minutes turn to an eternity. Even two minutes can feel like abandonment. By the time being on hold has reached five minutes, the customer in question will likely be frothing at the mouth.
Waiting on hold has led to 75% of respondents growing so infuriated with customer support that they’ve cried or sworn before hanging up.
2. An Overabundance of Automation
41% of respondents stated that ‘too many automated options before reaching a human voice or resolving their issue’ is one of their biggest pet hates.
It is understandable. Customers want their problems resolved. Being assaulted with an array of automated prompts that muddy up the process is outright irritating.
When making a purchasing decision, 86% of consumers at some point will solely base their choice on the business’s customer service reputation or on-going support. Too much automation will put up barriers to problem resolution. If you see a break-down in your automation activities, rectify it ASAP and ensure the customer can acquire the answer they are looking for quickly or they can connect with someone in the company for assistance if this is required.
3. Repeating Information to Multiple Representatives
38% of surveyed consumers listed ‘repeating information to multiple customer service representatives’ as one of their top annoyances.
There is no doubt this pet hate is mind-numbing, inconvenient, and maddening to say the least!
Sure, on occasions certain issues might necessitate the involvement of multiple customer service reps from different departments, but escalations and continual reiterations of information must be kept to the absolute minimum. Get it right the first time, ensure every agent have access to right knowledge and quickly.
Mitigating this, and other, customer service mistakes is conducive to creating an environment where consumers (27% of those surveyed) are willing to pay up to 5% more for products from companies with better customer service. Write this down!
How Can you Improve Customer Satisfaction?
So how do you avoid these three major mistakes in customer service? Firstly, you need the right tools and software in place. If you do not have a cloud-based Knowledge Base or Knowledge Management System in place you are already behind on the starting blocks.
There will always be challenging scenarios faced by reps, with questions, complaints, purchase, refunds, and everything in between getting thrown at them daily. This is why equipping your agents with a Customer Service Knowledge Management System will help create consistent customer experience, while reducing overall costs. Agents will be confident when they search for an answer and deliver it, it is correct and the same answer their fellow agents are communicating to customers.
In most cases this reduces the need to transfer the call, showing us reductions in AHT (on hold times) by over 20% and up to a 70% reduction in the need to transfer the call at all. This is all the result of from the implementation of a Knowledge Management System such as livepro.
Having the answers at your fingertips is intuitively logical but often seen as unattainable. Once you take the step to implement a Customer Service Knowledge Management Solution the chain reaction of positives surrounding customer service occurs. When questions are answered quickly, customers are happier having their issue resolved efficiently, and agents are available to serve queued customers. It keeps things streamlined and running with optimal efficiency.
The other major benefit of having an established KMS is utilising it for onboarding. The system can significantly reduce training and induction periods, the statistics show that knowledge retained from agents onboarding with a KMS supersedes those who onboarded without it.
The customer service team will love using the system: having access to concise information on a wide breadth of products and issues makes them customer service superstars. Their calls will start in a better place, with a client who hasn’t been waiting on hold for an unnecessarily long time.
The Asia Pacific Consumer Research Report is based on an online survey of 8007 people across the Asia Pacific region aged 18 and over, conducted during July 2019 by third party research consultancy firm, Vitreous World, on behalf of Genesys.
Do you want to find out more about Customer Service Knowledge Management Systems or Quick Start Knowledge Base Software? Contact us today for a quote or free demo.
