{"id":809,"date":"2015-05-04T14:33:25","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T14:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/csm210469\/?p=809"},"modified":"2016-02-02T15:07:07","modified_gmt":"2016-02-02T15:07:07","slug":"authentic-service-the-key-to-winning-customer-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/authentic-service-the-key-to-winning-customer-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Authentic Service &#8211; the Key to Winning Customer Service"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Why allowing your customer service teams to be themselves is key to great service. Matt Lynch, CSO at Big Sofa\u00a0explains.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-7063\" src=\"http:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/big-sofa.gif\" alt=\"Big Sofa\" width=\"197\" height=\"197\" \/>Providing great customer service is tough. Customers are becoming increasingly demanding and have a huge amount of information available to them at the click of a mouse. They complain more. Many companies have responded by introducing sophisticated and detailed processes that leave little room for the customer service representative to use their own words, let alone their commonsense, in efficiently handling a customer\u2019s issue.<\/p>\n<p>While these systems are designed to mitigate disaster, they are not the foundation of successful, authentic customer service.<\/p>\n<p>Authentic customer service occurs when there is a real culture of \u2018how can we solve this customer\u2019s problem\u2019 rather than \u2018how quickly can I get them off the phone\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Customers are best served when they talk to a representative who works in an environment that allows them to be themselves, to use language they are comfortable with and have the confidence to find ways to answer the customers\u2019 request or solve their problem.<\/p>\n<p>In short, to have empathy with the customer, provide excellent service and, in turn, build trust in the organization, its products and services.<br \/>\nNow I\u2019m not advocating that all customer service managers throw away their scripts and allow a free-for-all on the phones or email.<\/p>\n<p>While that maybe the gold standard in the training room it isn\u2019t really practical for most customer service operations. But there are two things that customer service managers can do to move towards providing authentic customer service.<\/p>\n<p>Start by listening to the frontline. The employees on the frontline of the business \u2013 the \u2018outside\u2019 \u2013 are the best placed to identify where customer service is succeeding or failing. By reviewing existing systems and processes with those who can have most impact on customer experience \u2013 your frontline staff \u2013 you can rapidly identify what does and doesn\u2019t work, and what can be improved.<\/p>\n<p>This \u2018outside-in\u2019 approach turns traditional \u2018inside-out\u2019 strategy (management writes the script, customer service delivers it) on its head and recognizes that frontline staff is intrinsic to successful business improvement.<\/p>\n<p>Second, use more than metrics to judge success. Too often metrics and mystery shopper scores are the only measure of success for customer service. This tells you \u2018what\u2019, but not \u2018why\u2019. To find out why a process is not working requires an understanding of what is happening at the point of interaction between the customer and frontline staff.<\/p>\n<p>Authentic customer service keeps consumers happy and builds trust in your brand and organization. It\u2019s not easy to deliver but the rewards are high.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Matt Lynch heads up client strategy at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bigsofa.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">Big Sofa<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why allowing your customer service teams to be themselves is key to great service. Matt Lynch, CSO at Big Sofa explains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7064,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809\/revisions\/7064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}