Customer service

In praise of the human factor

Longform
Image: Stockfresh

12 June 2015

Another issue is that channel partners have diverse customer bases and their interaction with those customers ranges from managing directors and financial directors wanting to know that queries with their systems can be fixed easily to dealing with ICT managers that have a clear understanding of the technology being provided. “It’s important to cater to these different types of customers in an appropriate manner – something that can’t be done through an automated system,” he warns.

Balance
Hugh Dawson, service director at IT managed services provider HiberniaEvros believes there are challenges to delivering “a balanced level of customer interaction. The reality is that when things are running their best, customers should hear from us the least”. The company runs a network operations centre (NOC) in Cherrywood that is constantly measuring system performance, carrying out upgrades, system patching and analysing trends in customers’ systems “so we can pre-emptively detect and resolve issues. In doing so, we can minimise the number of inward customer calls we receive.”

The company also proactively communicates with the customer contact point “to inform them of how their system is performing and what issues have been resolved, with and without their immediate knowledge, since our last contact. We are very aware of not making our service provision onerous to the customer but want to provide the assurance that their system is being taken care of.”

“[Customer service is] about listening to and responding to an individual customer’s needs, as quickly and as well as you can” – Michael Jackson, Tech Data

Long argues that listening is “a vital element in good customer service”. Channel partners need “to listen properly to an initial query and fully comprehend its importance and why it is an issue for the customer”. If they have this understanding from the beginning, they can put the right expertise in place as early as possible, “which ensures a quick diagnosis and increases the likelihood of first call resolution”.

If it’s not possible to achieve first call resolution, it’s important to let the customer know and to provide him or her with an accurate timescale for when the query can be resolved. “It’s important to fix problems quickly and go the extra mile to keep customers happy and keep their businesses running,” Long comments.

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