Improve Your "Over the Phone" Customer Experience.
Many companies obsess over their customer experience, creating a fancy interactive Web site, finding just the right furniture for their reception area, and investing a ton of time and money implementing a CRM system to track customers' preferences and shopping patterns. And how many companies spend the same amount of time and effort managing their "over the phone" customer experience?
Expert Fast Company Blogger Shawn Graham on a whim, called Zappos to see what he would encounter when calling the company has a cult-like following and a reputation for providing extraordinary customer service to see how they approached the "over the phone" experience. Here is what he discovered. Once past the prompt to select language similar to all other prompts we've heard at other companies, their voicemail menu options immediately kicked it up a notch--and it was refreshing. The person's voice was full of energy, articulating a fun and exciting spin on an otherwise straightforward and oftentimes boring process. They also include an option for a joke of the day. Even if you're fuming mad and not in a joking mood when you call in, hearing the "joke of the day" option would have to bring even a little smile to your face.
With Zappos, the call was routed to a live person quickly--very quickly. In fact, he didn’t have the chance to wait on hold to hear what their on hold music sounded like, or even if they even had hold music. So, curious to see if Zappos.com would use the same Kenny G inspired smooth jazz heard so many times when calling other companies, the customer service representative happily obliged to his request to be placed on hold to hear what their music on hold experience was like. It was unique, and could only be described as a soulful guitar riff which seems to perfectly match the vibrant brand and culture.
The sound quality of the music on hold was also reported to be of excellent quality. Quality also applies to your brand’s on hold music. It seems like 99.5% of the time it sounds like it is being piped in through a blown out speaker that has been wrapped in a few sheets of wax paper. You might not think it’s a big deal, your caller is only on hold for a few seconds, but listening to something like that and you’re bound to become annoyed.
If your business looking to drive customer satisfaction, I think we could all agree that the last thing you want is for an upset caller to get even more wound up just by listening to your telephone on hold music. Managing your customer experience goes far a fancy Web site or Art Deco chairs in your lobby--it also relies greatly on how you manage your customer experience over the phone.
When is the last time you took a long look at the process from soup to nuts, or in this case from the time they get the industry standard language prompt, to speaking with an actual customer service rep? You may be surprised to learn that on hold statistics show that business lose 60% of potential revenues due to caller abandonment (caller hang up/lost calls), and poor caller experience.