Managing Customer Interactions - The Hidden Benefits

 Generally, most people would accept that Customer Skills Training is effective in providing Support Technicians with skills that make the customer “feel good” about the support experience.  Clearly, these skills are advantageous and typically require the Support Technician to be polite, cordial, caring, and helpful.  There is no question these skills are necessary in creating a positive support experience for the customer which is often more important than a quick resolution. But is that really enough?

Most Support Technicians pride themselves in being technically competent.  For years, they have studied the subject and have valuable experience in practical learning, working with, and troubleshooting problems in their chosen field.  Often, though, the Support Technician believes that technical competence is the most valuable attribute.  Look at any resume and see what has been emphasized. 

In reality, the Technician who can manage the interaction with the customer will be the most successful.  Remember, it is the customer’s perception of the service event that truly matters in the long run when measuring satisfaction or loyalty.  It is all too common for a Technician to solve a technical problem and yet leave an unsatisfied customer. 

A typical example would be when a customer starts the call by going on and on about how bad the situation is, how they are effected, how frustrated and angry they are, the repeated error message (or hang up, etc.) and how they are going to contact management to complain.  After the Technician listens to this “whining and bellyaching,” he or she asks the deadly question, “What is the error message?”  This is the kiss of death for the success of this customer contact.  Although it wasn’t overtly said, the message to the customer is, “I really don’t care about all your troubles, I have a lot of troubles of my own, and your whining is preventing me from solving this technical problem which I am most highly qualified to solve, so let me get right to the technical issue.”

The fact is this customer, who has been treated as if their feelings and concerns do not matter, will be a very difficult, non-cooperative customer all throughout the support event.  The customer is in an emotional state and therefore is NOT in a rational state.  The rational state is where the customer thinks, remembers details, and works with the Technician to solve the problem.  When the customer is in a rational state, they both have a common goal.  When the customer feels unappreciated or offended, they can strike back and insult the Technician or the company and easily bring the Technician into the emotional state.  What a mess!

Technicians perform well with customers who are not emotional, i.e. angry, frustrated, disappointed, distressed, etc.  However, when the customer is emotional there is a tendency for the Technician to become emotional too (I’m mad at you because you are mad at me) or they become exceptionally “cold” and remote.  Either of these responses will further alienate the customer and dramatically reduce the customer’s desire to cooperate.  The customer is in Flight or Flee and the Technician goes into Flight or Flee.  This is a formula for disaster.  There is nothing good happening here.

Clearly, the Technician who can manage the interaction with the customer will be more successful and not get drawn into the situation described above.  The Technician who can recognize the customer’s emotional state, listen very carefully to the source of the “pain,” and make empathetic statements to help the customer transition from the emotional state will arguably have a much better chance to solve the problem quicker and more effectively than the one who ignores or minimizes the customer’s plight.  The customer who believes that the Technician really cares about him/her will have far more tolerance and patience than the customer who believes the Technician does not care. 

Herein lies one of the hidden benefits – Productivity.  Productivity for the customer and for the Technician - everybody wins.  Technicians who manage the interaction effectively will spend far less time on the call.  The Technician recognizes the customer’s dilemma and makes statements that indicate he or she can relate to (empathize) the customer’s plight.  The customer stops complaining because it appears that someone actually cares and begins to work with the Technician to solve the problem. 

The second hidden benefit of possessing and using effective customer interaction skills - Job Satisfaction.  The Technician who has a number of contentious encounters with customers can not feel very good about their work.  Just as success breeds success, failure seems to breed more failure.  The Technician who has a very bad customer encounter will likely let emotions spill over into subsequent calls, thus polluting other customer service events, even alienating customers who were not upset upon initial contact with the Technician.  In addition, they taint co-workers with negative stories about customers who are “jerks.”  In reality, the “jerks” are just people the Technician couldn’t handle.  

However, the Technician who can manage the interaction with the customer, and to some extent, manage the customer’s emotions, will reap the rewards of having customers who shift into the rational mode, actually think about their problem, work with the Technician, and cooperate.  The Technician then has a high sense of self achievement and success.  Consider how that feeling will flow into subsequent calls and what it feels like at the end of the day when there was far less conflict and the conflict that did occur was minimized quickly and effectively. 

To be effective in the position, a Technician’s customer interaction skills must be equal to, or even greater than, his or her technical skills.  Giving the right technical answer is clearly not enough for most customers. Technicians who are successful in helping a customer “settle down” and reduce the emotion will feel more successful and will let that success spill over into subsequent calls.  They’ll go home feeling more self-satisfaction and have a brighter outlook about their job.

While the benefits of effective customer interaction skills can be measured immediately through call monitoring, they will also show up in customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction measurements.  These benefits can also be measured in retention of customers and employees.  Happy employees make for happy customers.  It doesn’t get much better than that.