Customer service: people are better than robots



    Recently I went to the cinema, and at the exit from the cinema there was a pretty girl. She thanked everyone who came out of the hall with a tongue twister for visiting and invited her to come again. In a couple of minutes, she uttered this template phrase, probably 50 times. I thought: does it even work? Someone will come again only because the girl said this boring memorized phrase?


    Once I wrote to my mobile operator: I said that I was going to Nizhny Novgorod and asked me to advise the correct option for roaming. In response, the girl threw into the chat a list of all possible options and a list of all the regions for which they operate. Which didn’t really help me, to be honest.


    I meet the same story when I write in support of online stores, I come to a dental clinic or bank. They answer all the questions in a script and smile politely.


    Now I realize that I did the customer service in my projects exactly the same. And I am ashamed.


    What is the problem


    I used to think that it is very important to provide a stable level of service. And what if they “blurt out” something in support without thinking? This will damage the company's reputation! I also thought that only a cool product is important, and it is enough for the customer service to be cheap and “stable” quality.


    I think that in large companies they hold the same opinion: they write scripts of interaction with the client on the main situations, regulate work processes, and open vacancies with a minimum rate. And there’s a lot of work, you need to quickly train people: scripts are very detailed so that “any fool” can do it.


    Small companies also do this, because every small company wants to be like a big one. And in vain. I don’t do that anymore.


    Man to remain man


    The user often turns to support when confused in the interface. He does not understand whether he is on the right path in solving his problem. Least of all at this moment he wants to knock out the information he needs from the next “machine”.


    A person differs from a robot in that it can empathize. And he can help find a solution to the problem, as he is able to understand it. A support employee armed with scripts does not empathize - he steps along the script, from one branch to another. Reacting with pattern phrases. Not trying to help. And this is our fault: we gave him a script and made him follow.


    Now we do not write scripts for the support service. Instead, we learn to help users together: we understand how to understand the problem, how to look for solutions, and learn to talk about them. Together with the scripts, these template ones went away. “Hello, this is the operator Ekaterina, how can I help you?”


    Here is what chatting with users looks like now:




    To trust people


    I used to need scripts to make sure that people wouldn’t make a mistake. I thought it would be better to make a mistake in the script than they would “invent” something there. And this is bad: this approach creates a staff turnover. Nobody likes a monkey job.


    Now I trust the support service, and it makes mistakes. Mistakes do not bother me as long as we really want to help the user and do everything we can to do this. Users reciprocate: they are calm about emerging problems and help us in finding solutions.


    Give an opportunity to help


    Still terribly annoying when support fails to help. The girl nods her head, sympathizes, and asks to wait until the application is reviewed by the department of "acid cabbage." This means that bureaucracy will begin further, the user's problem will not be solved, and he will lose a lot of time.


    Support guys need a real opportunity to help: fix something in the user’s profile, change his password or fix a typical error. At the worst, give compensation for “inconvenience.”


    We don’t have a “first” or “second line” of support - we don’t shift the responsibility.


    Sometimes we notice a problem that affects more than 5% of users. In such cases, we develop manual assistance tools in the first place, and transfer them to the support service. And only then we fix the product itself. This approach does not always work, but a couple of times it has already helped us out - support tools are easier to develop and faster to test.


    Users feel the care right away, rather than waiting for a bug fix release.


    Keep knowledge


    It’s good when typical user problems are described in a special help section. This reduces the number of template responses from support and allows them to spend less nervous energy on copying replicas from neighboring tickets.


    For many, writing to customer support means admitting defeat in the battle with the interface. The self-found answer is an independent victory. The knowledge base also helps train new employees: it contains answers to common user questions.


    A knowledge base cannot simply be sat down and done. That's right, when it is gradually filled with support guys based on real questions from real users.


    Study problems


    Good customer service does not solve all the problems of the product. He helps with some of them and complements the product with his “human face”. Therefore, it is necessary to study the problems of users and improve the experience of interacting with the product.


    When a support service begins to sincerely and honestly talk with users, it becomes not just a user retention system, but also an excellent communication channel. Studying chats and chatting with support guys, you can find out a lot of interesting things about your product.


    Something can be found by indirect signs. When in support they perform some actions too often, then this is an occasion to seriously study this part of the product. And the important thing is not that the support is heavily loaded - it is more important that not all users ask questions. Some of them simply go to competitors.


    Good customer service prevents user churn and helps improve the product.


    To become better


    I am convinced that turning people into robots is bad. That template answers to the script are of little benefit to anyone, and people in the client service are needed to help other people: honestly, not hiding behind corporate politeness.


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