Customer Support as the key to distinctiveness!

It is no coincidence that companies such as Coolblue and Picnic are growing faster than the market. Over the past few years, these companies have built up the total experience they want to offer their customers with an eye for detail, thereby acquiring a distinctive position in the market.

Customer support plays a crucial role in the realization of this customer experience and therefore also in the distinctive character.

It is therefore surprising that a Customer Service Benchmark Report*, carried out in 2021, shows that 97% (!) of the 1,000 companies surveyed do not ask their customers whether they are satisfied with the solution offered?!

The 3% of companies that do this have the potential to use the results obtained to improve the service, and thus the customer experience, and to distinguish themselves from the competition. After all, feedback puts the customer first and increases the involvement of employees in the work they do. Feedback brings the customer to life!

Scores alone are demotivating

The problem that many companies experience when they want to use customer feedback to improve their service is not collecting the feedback. The problem is in processing the results. The amount of results coming in is often overwhelming for a busy support department. There is simply too little time for the complex process that can translate incoming scores into action points.

In addition, there are few feedback tools that immediately offer sufficient tools to actually improve. Following (often disappointing) ‘thumbs up’ or flat marks results more in frustration than in an enthusiastic and focused focus on improvement. Knowing that it has to be better without knowing how is not motivating for anyone!

No wonder then that only a small percentage of service departments actively ask for feedback. What does it take to avoid the above problems?

Knowing what you’re doing right is more important than knowing what’s going wrong

Requesting customer feedback is only useful if you, as a department, are able to immediately apply the insights obtained. In addition to a score, you prefer to see ‘real-time’ insights and recommendations that can be applied immediately.

Instructions that indicate which elements you need to improve and how are of course important. However, you get even more impact from clear indications that indicate which elements are already successful and why. The enthusiasm with which a team sets to work to implement positive results elsewhere is many times greater than when the focus is mainly on what is not going well.

Customer-driven management

When you use the insights mentioned above for the entire department and make them transparent at employee level, it becomes possible to come up with personal improvement plans based on customer feedback. When employees realize with what behavior they get compliments from customers, they will show this behavior more often. With this they raise the service level to a higher level.

Do you also want to be among the top 3% of organizations that are able to offer distinctive and superior customer support with the help of customer feedback? Then see how CYS converts customer feedback into directly applicable action points!