You're Not Perfect, But Do Customers Know You're Trying?
Add bookmarkNo matter how much we hang our hats on creeds like "the customer is always right" and "never stop until you delight the customer," the difficulty of delivering that satisfaction from within a business framework cannot be overstated.
Practical roadblocks, whether defined by disparities between what a customer says he wants and what he really wants, inabilities to align customer service endeavors with greater business objectives or struggles to optimize existing staff and resources, reduce (or is it inflate?) any notion of customer experience perfection to a pipe dream.
It absolutely must be the mark to which all organizations strive, but it doubtfully will be one that any truly reaches.
Given the constraints of that reality, a key differentiator when it comes to the customer experience is the ability to generate faith that improvement is always top of mind. When a customer receives underwhelming service from the organization, is he confident that the brand will use that experience as a lesson to do better in the future? Or does he view it as a status quo consequence unlikely to improve down the road?
How badly do you want feedback?
In today’s customer service climate, it is imperative to maintain an open line of communication with customers. Whether in the form of a post-call survey, an e-mail drop-box or a social media discussion, a brand cannot realistically pass itself off as customer-centric without enabling customers to share their thoughts.
The true differentiator, therefore, comes from the value an organization places on customer feedback. Is it collecting feedback simply for the aforementioned branding purpose, or does it actually intend to shape process and strategic improvement around the insights it receives?
The best firms approach feedback from the latter perspective, and that notion is why Ancestry.com assures the link between its customer service wing and customer sentiment is never closed.
"Our customers are our lifeblood, and we value what each and every one of them have to say," explains Ancestry.com’s global social media director Nick Cifuentes, who is speaking at the 8th Annual Customer Feedback Week. "Using platforms like Facebook, Twitter, our blogs and other avenues, we are able to product systems that allow us to understand and evaluate what our customers say about us."
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Feedback has a funny way of getting lost in organizations that are only engaging customers to keep up appearances; customer-centric organizations treat lost feedback as money flushed down the toilet and thus commit to properly collecting, understanding and acting on the insights they receive.
"Ensuring that we are pulling this data in via our social technologies is key as well, [and] we utilize several systems that allow us properly monitor, respond and engage with users as they inquire," says Cifuentes.
Do customers know you care?
An essential part of the customer experience, particularly as it relates to making customers feel invested enough to offer feedback, is assuring their concerns receive a voice. If, as noted earlier, they see through customer "engagement" as a mere branding tactic, they have no reason to participate in a meaningful relationship with the brand.
Ancestry.com therefore commits itself to delivering a response to customers. It recognizes that it cannot always solve a customer’s issue—certainly not instantaneously—but it also knows the customer expects his or her commentary will resonate with the organization. When an experience goes bad, customers want to know that the organization is suffering for its failure and will do what it can to permanently rectify the situation.
"We work to respond to every inquiry we get, through every platform, and whether it's a question about a membership, or an inquiry on how to do something on our site, we make sure that we are responding to address the inquiry in full," details Cifuentes. "We know that we can't fulfill everyone's request and make each person happy, but we work to ensure that we at least point people in the right direction if we can't solve the issue at hand directly. It's important that customers know that we are there to answer each and every inquiry, and even though we may not be able to solve each request, they see ACOM responding, which means they know if they come to us and ask, is anyone there, we'll be there to answer, how can we help you."
That kind of commitment is a building block not simply for a quality customer experience but for producing organic customer advocacy. Different from influencers, who Ancestry.com defines as bloggers and industry commentators who typically require some sort of incentive to brand for the business across their networks, advocates do what they do because they identify with and believe in the brand.
If given justification for that faith—defined first and foremost by a great experience and subsequently by how well the brand responds when it cannot initially create a perfect experience—advocates will do the reputational work for the brand.
And because they help bring about the "image" benefit of customer feedback strategy, a commitment to actually using the voice of the customer to drive changes is the stone that kills two birds. Brands can use customer insights to improve their existing and future experiences, which will improve customer satisfaction, and leverage those improved experiences to improve their brand presence.
Why focus only on the latter when a commitment to customer feedback—and thus an effort to prove that the organization cares about its customers and wants to do better—achieves both?