UNDERSTANDING WHAT THE CUSTOMER WANT FOR BETTER CUSTOMER SERVICE

WHAT THE CUSTOMER WANT - CUSTOMER SERVICE CONTEXT
The Importance of Knowing What Customer Wants

One thing about the customer service techniques you’re going to learn: you can’t succeed with them by memorizing them or using them in every situation. The key to customer service is doing the right thing at the right time.

To be able to choose the right techniques and to use them effectively, you have to understand what customers want. Knowing this will help you make sense of the techniques you’ll be looking at.

Below is a list of the most important customer wants and needs.When you address these, you create positive customer perceptions about you and your company. That means fewer arguments, fewer hassles, and better customer relationships.

Customers want:

■ problem solved

■ effort

■ acknowledgment and understanding

■ choices and options

■ positive surprises

■ consistency, reliability, and predictability

■ value (not necessarily best price)

■ reasonable simplicity

■ speed

■ confidentiality

■ sense of importance

Customers want their problem solved. They want to get what they want from you, whether it’s a product, service, or other output. This is the customer service “want” that most people are familiar with.

However, it’s not always possible to give the customer what he or she wants, which is where the rest of the “wants” come in.  Even if you can’t solve the customer’s problem, you can create positive perceptions by addressing the other, less obvious customer wants.

Customers expect that you (and your company) will make an effort to address their problems, concerns, and needs, even if you can’t give them what they want. Customers respect effort, often pay attention to effort above and beyond the call of duty, and will turn on you (create hassles) if they sense that you aren’t making an effort.

Many of the techniques you’ll learn later in this book work because they demonstrate “effort above and beyond the call of duty.” Customers want and expect to have their wants, needs, expectations, feelings, and words acknowledged and understood.

 That means listening and proving to the customer that you have “got” what he or she is saying.  Customers who feel understood and acknowledged feel important, and that’s a vital part of good customer relationships.

Customers also want to feel they have choices and options and are not trapped by you or your company. They want to feel they can decide and that you’re helping them, rather than the other way around.

When customers feel helpless or powerless, they’re more likely to become frustrated, angry, and aggressive. Customers also appreciate “positive surprises.” Positive surprises are things you do that go above and beyond their hopes and expectations (going the extra five miles).

They include offering discounts or providing some other benefit that’s normally unavailable to them. Positive surprises are most useful when dealing with difficult or angry customers. Consistency, reliability, and predictability are also important customer wants.

Customers expect that you will treat them in a consistent way and that you’ll always do what you say you’ll do. By acting in accordance with these wants, you provide the customer with a sense of security and confidence in both you personally and in the company. This builds loyalty.

Customers also expect value for their investments of time and money. What’s interesting here is that while money (price) is part of the value equation, it’s only a part. When customers look at value, they also take into account how they’re treated, the quality and expertise of the advice they receive from you to help them make decisions, and a number of other factors.

You may not be able to affect the price of services or products you provide, but you can add value by helping the customer in other ways. Reasonable simplicity is another important customer want.

These days many people are overwhelmed by a complex world. If you complicate the customers’ world or make them jump through a number of hoops, they will become frustrated and angry.

One of your customer service roles should be to make things easier for the customer, not more complicated, without oversimplifying or treating the customers in a condescending way.

Speed and prompt service are also important. At minimum, customers want you to make the effort to help them quickly and efficiently. They also expect that you will not create situations that have them waiting around unnecessarily. While you may not always be able to control how fast a customer is served, you can convey a sense that you’re working at top speed.

Confidentiality is an important aspect of customer service. Clearly customers want you to keep their sensitive information to yourself, but it goes further than that. Customers also want a degree of privacy even when talking to you about what may seem to be a mundane or nonsensitive issue. Customers may feel uncomfortable if there are other staffs or customers crowding around them.

We’ve left the most important need for last. Customers need the sense that they are important. Many of the above wants tie into this. Listening to and acknowledging customers demonstrate that you believe they are important.

So does arranging for pleasant surprises or making an effort. Many of the specific phrases and techniques you’re going to learn tie directly into helping the customer feel important.