Technology is taking over how we do business – there’s no doubt about that. We’ve got self-serve check outs at the supermarkets and self-serve check ins at the airport. Everything’s on the automated train but with less and less stops with human interaction, is this necessarily what the customer wants?
The rise in technology might be helping companies do things quicker, more efficiently and with fewer mistakes but it won’t ever replace good old fashioned customer service. People still want to deal with someone who cares about them as a customer and so businesses need to double down on their customer service basics.
More insights, less connections
Technology and software is giving businesses more insights into their customers and what they want than ever before. Artificial Intelligence allows us to know our customers on a deeper level and from that tailor personalised marketing strategies to them. This is a great step for companies and how they do business, but at the end of the day, people still crave connections and this shouldn’t be forgotten along the way.
It doesn’t have to be complicated either, it can be as simple as a call from your insurance company saying, ‘Hello Jane, I noticed that your premium is about to expire in 7 days, is now a good time to take your credit card details? This is so we can ensure that your home is not going to sit there uninsured.’
It’s as simple as picking up the phone to a client and saying, ‘Hello Mr Client, just a quick update letting you know that everything’s been updated. Your campaign is launched; your campaign is on track and tracking really well. How’s everything going with you? How’s everything going with the business?’.
Questions
It’s important to never underestimate the power of asking questions – questions can be so empowering. Just asking can reveal so much about the customer: their pain points and satisfaction and dissatisfaction with current services. This is on top of making them feel valued.
The fundamental thing that people all want is to be acknowledged and to be cared about, which questions are a great gateway in doing. It doesn’t matter who you are, how old you are, what position of power you’re in, what level you’re on the corporate ladder, everybody’s voice wants to be heard.
So for businesses, it’s about taking the time to care.
The next gen
In this growing digital era, businesses need to make sure they have a huge focus on the fundamentals of customer service and are training their existing teams the future of their business in how to treat customers and the importance of caring.
This rings particularly true for millennials that are coming through this technology era where so much communication is done online. Businesses need to ensure that they’re empowering their teams with the right people skills to service all the other generations that they’ll be working with in the workforce.
In our agency, for example, we have a team of millennials that are servicing Baby Boomers, Managing Directors and General Managers of our clients. The two generations have different ways of communicating; older generations don’t like emails and younger ones are more hesitate to pick up the phone. Therefore, businesses need to be training and educating their teams to understand how different generations and demographics communicate in a world that has so many different channels. It’s a critical part of customer service. It’s about understanding your customer and understanding that everyone wants to feel connected and cared for and then understanding how we make those connections across different demographics.
Technology is changing the game and our agency is all for it. We run a digital business and love all things online, however, at the end of the day we deal with human beings. So, just like we practice everyday in our company, businesses should never lose sight that their customers are people and that want to be cared for, to feel valued and important, and have genuine connections developed with them.
Businesses thrive when their customer service does. With growing automation in the way we do business, it’s more important than ever to double down on good old-fashioned customer service.
