Every customer service rep can relate to that anxious feeling of suddenly engaging in an unexpected and unpleasant interaction with a customer. But in that brief moment where your welcoming and optimistic greeting was met with an immediate, hostile retaliation, have you ever wondered where that frustration was coming from?
I've worked in customer support for more than a year at this point. And, after encountering this time and time again, I wanted to know why these patterns emerged, and more importantly, how to fix them.
I started paying closer attention to these cases and what surprised me was that with most of these angry customers, the frustration didn't originate with the support rep. Think about it — when you call a support line, it means you have a problem that needs to be fixed.
On the customer support rep's end, this can leave them fighting an uphill battle before even hearing the customer's problem. Instead of being the source of dissatisfaction, the customer service team ended up working as the feedback mechanism in a much larger customer service ecosystem, called customer experience.
Customer experience, or CX, is the customer's overall sentiment of every interaction that they have with your company. This evaluation runs parallel to your inbound marketing approach, beginning with the first point of contact with the customer and ending with your feedback outlets.
Customer experience accounts for what happens leading up to the support phone call and why the overall customer experience with your company is resulting in the frustration observed. While a positive CX can be the catalyst for a loyal customer base, a negative experience can influence potential prospects even before they interact with your company. Being proactive in your approach to CX can not only help your team solve these tricky customer situations but create a long-term game plan for problems that may occur down the road.
Ready to build a better experience for your customers? Check out these tips that can help you get started.
