By Jana Love, ProSolutions President/CEO
Quick reactions and timely responses should be a part of every company’s core standards because these two actions help support a positive customer experience. Customer service doesn’t just happen to someone else; it’s a very personal and intentional action that happens to each one of us daily. We have a personal connection to the service we are providing as well as receiving.
We have built our world around speed, and because of this, any amount of waiting seems like a complete waste of time and an enormous frustration. We have drive-thru opportunities everywhere- banks, coffee shops, cleaners, and even restaurants will run your take-out to your car. With a quick search on google, just about any question has an instant answer. The responsibility and understanding this brings to all customer service providers is that asking customers to needlessly wait may be the difference between a positive or negative experience.
We can all recall a service experience when the time you had to wait for service or food delivery exceeded your “wait time” expectation. This pivotal moment for the service industry has two possible outcomes- win a customer or lose them forever. Care, concern, and quick responses are what can turn this situation into a positive experience.
In order to provide this level of service and earn the same response, you must be customer focused. Fast service, depending on how it’s delivered, is not the simple answer. We can all identify with a service experience where the provider was “fast,” but lacked efficiency. This response is as disappointing as waiting. So “reacting quickly” will only have a successful impact when you take the time to understand and connect with your customer’s needs.
Another very important aspect of reacting quickly is the leverage it gives you through service recovery. When something goes wrong, a fast response, regardless if you have all the answers or not, will neutralize the emotion in the situation far quicker than waiting. Service recovery starts with prompt reactions to the problem.
The following 3 steps promote positive and memorable interactions:
- Anticipate your customer’s need ~ The reason why world class service providers are called “world class” is because they are trained to think about and plan for (anticipate) what steps in their service delivery will meet the need before the customer knows they have a need.
- Respond to that need in a timely manner ~ Your response time to a customer’s need is time sensitive. No reaction or a delayed reaction is what creates frustration and disappointment. All too often the decision is made to “fix” the need first, instead first responding to the customer.
- Deliver the unexpected ~ You must clearly understand the customer’s need and expectation in order to deliver more than they asked for. Service providers have such an open opportunity to deliver the unexpected if they first truly understand needs through the customer’s eyes and not their own.
The key is to plan to take your time to properly offer a fast reaction to your customer. It’s not a lesson learned overnight, but will need practice.
