Customer-Centricity Is the Secret to Customer Happiness!

I recently called the customer support of my broadband service provider. Obviously, my Internet was not working, so I called customer support.

I know the rigor, as this was not the first time I was calling. I knew exactly the process they followed in troubleshooting the issue.

So, when I called, I explained to them that the Internet hadn’t been working for the past 4 hours. I tried rebooting my router a couple of times. I tried unplugging the ethernet cable and replugging it after a minute of waiting, and I went through their troubleshooting mobile app and did everything that was suggested by the app.

Despite that, my Internet was not working.

After hearing all this, the customer service executive had two options – one was to go through the prepared script and take me through the entire process again, or two was to jump straight into troubleshooting with the help of an expert.

The representative chose the second option.

The representative empathized with my situation and also mentioned that this really must be frustrating.

Instead of reading out from a script, he reconfirmed everything that I had done. He then transferred my call to an expert and apprised him of my issue.

After that, the technical support expert took me through a bunch of configuration steps and understood the issue was on their infrastructure. He promptly mentioned that it would take up to 6 hours for them to set things right.

In four hours, I received a call stating that my Internet should be functioning. They asked me to check my Internet connection, and once satisfied, the expert hung up, leaving his number and asking me to call him directly if I faced any other issue within 48 hours.

Touchwood, I didn’t have to call him, as the Internet worked perfectly to my liking.

How Do You Rate This Interaction?

This is a customer-centricity at its best, where the representative and the organization have kept customers in the middle of their experience.

What components of this interaction make it customer-centric?

Firstly, the representative empathized with my situation. Knowing that I had done everything that he could have possibly helped me do, he personalized the interaction by reconfirming everything quickly. He immediately transferred my issue to a technical support expert.

The tech support expert helped me solve the issue and gave me his number so I could get in touch with him directly for any problems related to the resolution. This brought in the human touch.

I felt heard, respected, and not shuffled through their automated process. Would you believe that I have been their customer for the last 21 years?

As a contact center or as a customer experience function, how do you bring about customer-centricity?

While there are so many ways by which you can build customer-centricity in your customer experience process, you should definitely look at these three suggestions:

1. Empower Your Agents

Imagine your agent receives a call from a customer about an issue, and the agent had to juggle between multiple screens to provide the customer with the resolution?

How frustrating would this be for your agents as well as your customers?

So, ensure that you have an omnichannel customer experience infrastructure, where the agents will get to have a single view of your customers and can access all customer interactions from a single interface.

Besides, allow your agents to err on the side of the customers.

For instance, would you believe that Ritz-Carlton allows a discretionary spend of $2000 for every employee to ensure their customers benefit from it?

Take Zappos, for instance. They don’t measure vanity metrics like the amount of time spent by the agents on the call; instead, they let their agents spend as much time as needed to ensure the customer issues are resolved. Besides, their philosophy is that every customer conversation definitely moves the needle a little bit.

2. It Is Resolution Stupid and Not the Process

There was this online apparel retail company that got their first suit order from a customer. The customer had ordered it for a special occasion, and the suit was delivered four days in advance.

It turns out the customer received a suit in a color that he did not order. He was worried as he had only four days before the event.

He called up the customer support, and such first time orders were mostly routed to their senior management. In this case, the customer reaches the CEO.  

The CEO tells the customer, we are really sorry and we fully understand how stressful it would be for you. He adds, ‘Don’t you worry about this; we will have the color you chose shipped to you in the next couple of hours, and you should have it by tomorrow.’ We will refund the entire amount of money you paid for your suit, and you can consider our gift for your special occasion.

The CEO personally sends a note to the customer along with the delivery, stating how sorry they were about getting it wrong for his special occasion. Additionally, they send him a discount coupon that he can use on their site within the next one year.

Imagine a customer support process here. How unimaginative and automated would it have been?

This example here is about being obsessed with the customer and not being just customer-centric.

Would you agree that these kinds of examples would set the organization’s culture to be customer-centric?

3. Leverage Technology Wisely

Now, everyone is talking about AI, and you should, too. However, would you blindly use AI for your customer service and support needs?

While AI can be used for automating a lot of mundane and routine stuff, you should never look at replacing the human touch.

Just about 5 minutes ago, I interacted with an AI voice bot, and the experience was nothing great to write about. While a human on the other end would have handled my query in 30 seconds, the AI bot took about 3 minutes.

That got me thinking – it definitely reduces the workload for organizations but not so much for the customers.

Customer-centricity is all about customers, isn’t it?

While you can use AI to help your human agents and for routine and mundane stuff, anything complex would be better served by human interaction.

After all, contact centers are places where customer relationships are built or broken. It is about treating customers like people, empowering agents to act, and creating an experience that makes customers feel heard, valued, and important.

How often have you left a customer service conversation feeling that the company values your loyalty and is willing to go the extra mile to fix the situation?

This is where organizations should move towards, and precisely what customer-centricity would help do.