Sluggish Information Flow Is Behind Many Customer Service Issues
exceptions; and leverage mobile solutions, according to the study. "As a result, [customer-facing employees] are not actively engaged with their customers," states the Forrester report. "It is by supporting these employees through improved document and process support that organizations will be in a stronger competitive and revenue-driving position."
But why do customer-facing employees see this situation when managers don’t?
“The answer may be that these communication issues fall through the cracks,” the study states. “They do not result in exceptions, lost customers, or delayed orders—things that managers track—but they will degrade the customer experience over time. Not closing these gaps through improved document and process support may result in inefficient workers, high employee turnover, declining competitiveness, and lost revenue.”
Three Paths to Improvement
Still, there’s hope for improvement. I suggest the following:
Give good people good tools. A positive customer experience requires truly empowering the people involved in it. Companies must equip them with information solutions that enable swift problem-solving on any communications channel—in person, mobile, landline, Web, chat, text, videoconference, or email. This echoes customer-facing workers who in the study stated they need “smarter solutions” that improve information capture, analytics, process management, and information access. Companies that invest in collaboration, instant messaging, mobile solutions, and flexible workplaces will make customer-facing workers more efficient and free up more time for them to provide the personalized service customers are missing.
Look at your workflow. Good tools require sound underlying processes. Focus on streamlining processes to foster information mobility from the back office to customer-facing systems and customer-facing employees. Customer-facing workers need agile processes that will give them the ability to handle exceptions in more flexible ways by having expert guidance, quick communication with experts, and the ability to start new case processes.
Understand the full impact of poor customer service. Remember that the quality of the customer experience can directly affect the performance of a business. Well-equipped workers will be able to delight the customer and take pride in their productivity. This positive feeling will carry over to the next interaction and can pay off for the company over the long term. It will also help address negative attitudes about the work.
Proper tools, workflows, and training will give your employees everything they need to turn around the quality of their customer interactions. Make sure, however, to ask employees how they think they’re doing; your managers might be missing nuances by focusing too much on concrete metrics. And when you’re sure your employees are properly equipped, check in on their attitudes. Hopefully, they’re brighter than when you started.
Terrie Campbell is vice president of strategic marketing at Ricoh Americas Corporation.
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