Donna
Siegel

What Customers Really Want 

Customers, particularly upset customers, often don't articulate their needs clearly. So it is easy for customer service reps to respond to the surface dissatisfaction, missing the underlying issue. In order to provide true customer satisfaction, again and again, your customer service reps must be able to determine, on an individual basis, What Customers Really Want

We know that, as customers, we have an important role to play for a number of companies. So why do we feel intimidated? Because so many of our experiences are less than satisfactory. It's not unusual for us to walk into a store only to find the staff completely indifferent to us. They're busy with whatever they are doing; they're talking to each other, or they're on the phone. Or, if we do get their attention, we're made to feel as if we've done something wrong: "Why are you returning this item?" or "Why don't you have your receipt?"

It doesn't take much to make us feel unwelcome. We're always on our guard. If we don't watch out for our own interests, no one else will. It's no wonder we approach customer service ready to fight for our rights. It doesn't take much to get us angry and upset. After all, the only way to get what we want is to demand it.

But then, every once in a while, we have an entirely different type of experience. We find customer service people who make a point of taking care of us, who give us the attention we deserve and go the extra step. We feel good about the person who took care of us, we feel good about ourselves -- and we feel good about the company. We become loyal, we seek reasons to buy from this company and we tell everyone we know how great the service was.

What This Means To Customer Service Reps

For those of us in customer service, a consequence of the generally poor quality of many service departments is that many customers contact us already expecting the worst. They expect us to be surly, rude, or at least indifferent to their needs. These expectations are based upon a large number of previous experiences, where customer service reps have given customers less than professional service.

However, it's relatively easy to take these negative expectations and convert most customers into loyal boosters of our company. To do this, you need to keep three principles in mind:

1. You must satisfy their basic needs in seeking assistance from customer service.
2. You must stick to their agenda for this discussion.
3. You must meet or exceed their expectations.

Principle 1: Satisfy Their Basic Needs

Whatever type of help customers are seeking, they have the following basic needs that must be satisfied:

To feel welcome
Customer service areas, such as waiting rooms at the doctor's office or auto repair shop, are necessary parts of normal living; yet they can feel intimidating to even the most assured customers. The difference between intimidation and effective service is often the attitude of the customer service reps toward the customer. Customers want reps to display interest in them and their issues or questions. More importantly, they want recognition that the reps are there for the purpose of helping them. This sense of interest translates into a feeling that they have a right to be there and to seek help.

To be taken seriously
Sometimes questions or issues seem simplistic or even silly; other times, issues can be very complex. You may know that the customer's issue is trivial, but the customer may not understand that. Customers want to feel that reps will give considerate thought to their questions or issues in all cases.

To feel comfortable
Depending on the nature of the question or issue, customers might have to give some personal information about themselves or their families. They need to feel that this is an environment where confidentiality can be shared. They need to feel you care about them and you can be trusted to help them.

To be understood
There are many reasons why some customers might be hard to understand. They might have trouble speaking the language; they might not be able to put all the details of their situations together easily; they might be missing important facts about the situation; they might have a speech impediment or disability. However confusing or disconnected their story might be, customers expect service people to go the extra step to make sure they are understood.

To feel important
Customers want to think the only reason your company is in business is to serve their needs. They want to feel that they and their questions matter to your company. Customers want to have your full attention and all of your company's capabilities put to work to resolve their issues.

To accomplish their objective
Customers contact service departments because they have a goal to be accomplished. When the conversation is complete, they want to know they have attained something tangible, even if it is not a full resolution of their issues. If they cannot walk away knowing their issue is fully solved, they need the confidence that it will be accomplished as promised.

To be handled quickly
Last, but not least, customers are busy and do not want to spend considerable time getting the answer to their questions or resolving their issues. They expect customer service reps to be efficient. They expect you to be knowledgeable about your products and services and know how to resolve their issue.

Principle 2: Stick To Their Agenda

Because customer service people spend all day, every day, thinking about how to help customers, they usually know much more than the customers. This is both good news and bad news. It's good news when their expertise can be put to work helping customers. It's bad news when customer service reps start working from their own internal assumptions about customers, products, services, particular types of customer issues -- or anything else that takes them away from dealing with each customer as a unique individual.

Customer service reps need to put aside their own agendas and focus totally on those of their customers. What do these people need to accomplish? What level of information will satisfy their needs? What steps are appropriate to ask these customers to go through in order to get to their goals?

Customer service people can only help customers when they work the customer's agenda, not their own.

Principle 3: Meet Or Exceed Their Expectations

Because customers approach customer service reps with limited expectations as to the results of the conversation, effective reps have a chance to dazzle them with their results. The lower the customer's expectations, the easier it is to exceed them.

Thus, in every interaction, customer service reps have to first find out the customer's expectations and then find some way to meet them . . . or better yet, exceed them. It's not hard to exceed an expectation. All you have to do is to do something just a little bit better, or a little more thoughtful.

SeaBird Associates Inc
3011 NE 7th Drive
Boca Raton, FL 33431
Phone: 561-750-9233
E-mail: Donna Siegel

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