How does a business transition from customer service to customer care? Well, the first step, as they say, is acknowledging that there is a problem. Every business delivers a level of service and that level can be good, poor, bad, satisfactory or legendary. It’s all about where the business falls on the scale of delivery. The lower levels of the scale run from sub-par to satisfactory, while the upper levels run from good to phenomenal. Every business that intends to win customers, should know where it falls on the scale, from sub-par to phenomenal.
Typically, a business that falls on the lower end of the scale consistently, is delivering customer service, whilst the business that is consistently on the upper end, is delivering customer care. Delivering customer service therefore, is the problem. Again, here’s the million-dollar question. How does a business transition from customer service to customer care?
The businesses that qualify for migration to customer care are those that surrender, willingly, to unthinking the traditional responses to customer service transformation.
Before I answer this important question, let me say that not every business that is at the level of customer service qualifies to move up the scale to the coveted, high-end position of customer care. The businesses that don’t qualify are those that are unwilling to put in the herculean effort required to make the shift, those that may not want to invest the financial outlay associated with the upgrade, or those that just are content with the fact that the majority of their customers are not complaining about the existing service level.
The businesses that qualify for migration to customer care are those that surrender, willingly, to unthinking the traditional responses to customer service transformation. The keywords here being “surrender, willingly.” Willingness is crucial to achieving a successful outcome. It means that the business will be disposed to being amenable to the demands of the transformation, during its “under reconstruction” phase.
One of the early acts of transitioning to customer care, is acknowledging that some elements of the existing business are obsolete and need to be replaced in their entirety.
One of the early acts of transitioning to customer care, is acknowledging that some elements of the existing business are obsolete and need to be replaced in their entirety. Often, this is a hard ask, since some of these elements may be legacy in nature, co-existing with a high level of emotional attachment to their originators or champions.
Our clients that have achieved a measure of success in these transition journeys, have been steadfast in walking this tightrope. They have understood and accepted the existing demands for shedding current load, in favour of future gains. Their “willingness to surrender” enabled them to trade in obsolescence for modernity.
Converting to a framework of customer care, requires rewarding a new set of behaviours during human-to-human encounters and removing effort on the part of the customer, during human to digital encounters. Rewarding initiative and creative problem solving, without the need for escalation to senior officers, now rank high on the list of incentivized, high value behaviours.
Rewarding initiative and creative problem solving, without the need for escalation to senior officers, now rank high on the list of incentivized, high value behaviours.
Innovative back-office solutions that enable self-service and omni-channel journeys to benefit from real-time solutions, whilst retaining the human touch, bring value to the customer care migration journey. Support teams that previously occupied largely invisible roles, have become significant assets to the customer’s eventual experience. Their roles, transformed due to the infusion of artificial intelligence, are contributing impactfully, to powering the urgency, personalization, convenience and speed necessary to keep businesses in the competitive game of winning the hearts, minds and wallets of customers.
Finally, migrating to customer care from customer service, requires a multi-disciplinary approach to the design of the customer experience. What has become the norm, is the multi-layered and multi-dimensional discussions required to craft customer success. These discussions create rooms where marketing, human resources, technology, finance, sales, research and development, corporate communications, brand management and customer experience leaders congregate for high value sessions, that produce the framework for achieving customer care and customer success.
Migrating to customer care from customer service, requires a multi-disciplinary approach to the design of the customer experience.
Why such a diverse collective? Because in order for the customer to enjoy a masterfully orchestrated experience, that is unvaryingly exceptional, these roles all become strategic assets in affecting the customer engagement landing point.
Any business that is serious about its migration effort to customer care, would not leave the crafting of a collaborative structure that impacts customer success, to chance.
To do so would not only be counter-productive, it would be self-destructive.