As much as contact center agents can grow weary of difficult customer inquiries – the kind where the customer simply cannot be satisfied by the agent’s responses – customers are equally ambivalent when they reach out to a contact center agent. They’re hoping for the best and worried that they perhaps do not have the proper information that will allow the agent to assist.
In this clashing of expectations, the phrase ‘the customer is always right’ can feel a bit trite; however, there is certainly truth to the matter. It can be easy to forget that the customer is paying for a product or service and the call center agent wouldn’t have a job if not for the customer’s patronage. If the customer isn’t always right, he or she is certainly always a customer, and with that being true, the best course of action is always, obviously, to strive to meet her expectations.
When it comes to social media interaction, for example, customer expectations continue to be made known as we move along in this new arena. When considering the importance of meeting customer expectations, consider that 71 percent of those social media users who experience positive customer care are likely to recommend that brand to other.
In fact, a recent upset customer phone call was uploaded on YouTube that depicts exactly how far some customers are pushed until they break. Some have disputed the authenticity of the clip, but the fact that so many have perceived it as an absolutely believable meltdown says something about the distance that still remains between customer expectations and the contact center solutions available to many of them.
Though, with 90 percent of upset customers able to be retained with great customer service, here’s hoping that even the Customer Service Meltdown man stuck with the company if he ever did eventually get his issue resolved.
