In service environments, customers have complex needs. Even in the most mundane encounters, emotions are lurking under the surface. Your job is to make those feelings positive.
When people think about innovation in customer service, they usually think about technological or process enhancements that make service delivery faster or more efficient. Restaurants have introduced hand-held devices that buzz customers when their table is ready, and supermarkets use self-service checkout lines. While such innovations can simplify matters for customers, service organizations rarely stop to consider the overall psychology that shapes service encounters. Indeed, many key psychological variables that influence customer perceptions the subtle enhancements that help define a positive experience have yet to be fully defined or articulated.
Organizations often measure the outcomes of service encounters in concrete terms such as on-time flight arrivals or the time to resolve a customer’s call. However, the subjective outcomes the emotions and the feelings are more difficult to describe: Did the passenger enjoy the flight? Did the customer who called the service center with a problem walk away feeling better about the provider? Just as having a deeper understanding of systems dynamics and process analysis has pushed companies to re-engineer their operations to achieve explicit outcomes, findings from behavioral decision-making, cognitive psychology, and social psychology can point service providers to ideas for redesigning the psychological or implicit aspects of service encounters.
In this article, the authors examine how three factors emotions, trust, and control shape customer assessments of service experiences and their overall view of service providers. Drawing on research conducted at companies including Harrah’s, MGM Grand, Dell, Farmers Insurance, the Seattle Supersonics, and McKinsey & Company, they argue that organizations seeking to excel in customer service need to attack the “soft side” of customer management with the same type of intensity they have previously used to reengineer workflow and supply chains.
5 Comments On: Designing the Soft Side of Customer Service
I’d like to get in touch and possibly do an Ask the Expert interview.
I think well said. But it is important to know how an organisation can classify or gather the information along these brackets.
As it is common knowledge that sales rep in field and customer service representatives are best source of information, but as well is it is very difficult to capture this information & also at the right time.
Organisations should encourage concepts of enterprise 2.0/ tools which are very simple and intuitive so that these people can update their experiences regularly. Other employees should be encouraged to comment and discuss this issue. This will ensure regular flow of information, which we at Minesweeper Biz believe is far effective than annual surveys.
Regards,
Mayank (mayankb [at] minesweeperbiz.com
Loved the prior article and this one. I was just teaching an exec class on service innovation and we began talking about innovation with customer feelings in mind. We were speaking of a desire to feel cared for or valued in a healthcare setting. We then started talking about evidences of this from their experience. Evidences that quickly emerged, for example, were getting a follow-up call and remembering and using my name. A simple yet very effective approach – especially when tied to discrete steps in the process of obtaining service.
Hi Katherine:
My email is dasu@marshall.usc.edu. Thanks.
An article that brings another facet to customer service. I typically think in terms of speed, quality, and cost but you’ve correctly identified a 4th dimension of service… emotion. In any event, companies that focus on delivering service as a core competency can expect improved profitability: http://bit.ly/cgIDeD