This week we talk about IBM sending it’s robot Watson into the customer service world. Since robots aren’t going to replace the support rep, we talk about the soft skills to look for when it comes to hiring people for your team. A stop of at Help Scout’s blog gives us a glimpse into the Net Promoter Score and it’s impact on your customer satisfaction. Then to round everything off, UserVoice’s head of support has a great article on how you should apologize to your customers when you need to.
All that and more from the best team in customer support on this episode of the live Support Hangout!
Watch to the show
Show Notes and Links
- IBM’s Watson is Now in Customer Support
- Most Important Soft Skills
- The Ultimate Guide to Customer Satisfaction
- How to Apologize to a Client
This week’s shoutouts
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I think the NPS achieves what it’s trying to do. I imagine most people who think “Would I recommend this app? DEFINITELY!” are going to repsond with a 9 or 10. If they’re thinking “Yea, probably would”, they’re going to mark something lower, and probably not actually recommend.
That said though, the people doing support are going to be in tune with how happy the customers are, and no metric in the world is going to change that. However if management isn’t listening to conversations, reading customer’s emails, watching twitter or facebook, then they need these metrics to help pass that type of information along.
Short anecdote:
While listening to you read the 5 points on how to apologise I was writing an apology and hit every point in order. I will say though that “Give the customer something” can be as simple as “That’s a really great idea though for something we could improve, I’ll add it to the feature request forum!”, while appreciation can also be akin to thanking them for taking the time to email/call/whatever. All too often we forget that negative feedback can often never reach the company, so when you hear it, let them know you appreciate it.
Great anecdote there! You’re right – when the customer knows they’ve been heard, that’s a big boost to them.