Free your agents and customers will follow

Have you ever had a feeling of being stuck in traffic? Whatever the the reason, that’s not a nice sensation. And if you manage Digital Customer Service operations, chances are you may have that kind of unpleasant feeling – even for a short while. So, if you have the responsibility of a customer support team the sooner you set free your agents, the better customer experiences they’ll deliver. Learn why.

May I really say it to the customer?

Let me make it clear from the beginning: I think that processes and procedures play a very important role to deliver a consistent tone of voice across all support channels. Being that said, I’m convinced that if you want to leverage online conversations you also need to master emotional intelligence and empathy. These elements make the difference because they stick to customer’s emotional memory, driving their next decisions. I also have to say that despite the spread of many digital support channels amongst B2C and B2C companies, still many support agents are afraid of expressing themselves. Here are some common situations:

“Shall I call the customer using his/her name?”
“Am I allowed to write that we’re happy after reading customers excellent online review?”
“If I ask a question the customer will think I’m not enough skilled…”

These are just a few verbatim that I’ve collected in recent years from customer service of various industries, markets and size. Some agents fear customer’s reaction, others fear their supervisors / Managers, other both of them. Well, I’d argue that such a mental masturbation is the result of an obsolete approach towards conversations with customers. This screeches like chalk on the blackboard especially in online conversations where customers expect an informal, yet professional, tone of voice according to each channel peculiarities.

Kid Scared GIF from Kid GIFs

Let your agents be themselves

As I used to be a support agent, I know that feeling pretty well and how it negatively affects performances. Since Digital Customer Service is here to stay I encourage wise organizations to foster a human conversational approach in all online conversations with customers. That means providing your support team with clear and effective guidelines, yet empowering them to express their personalities. Free your agents and they’ll be more motivated and proactive than ever – I guarantee that after training many of them and enjoyed their newly gained enthusiasm and successful results. Practically, you need to follow through to these main steps:

Define ad hoc tone of voice as per support channel [remember that 2021 is a different age of the customer compared to 2019]
Review and/or get processes and procedures up-to-date, both external (end-to-end) with the final customer and internal (between customer service and other departments
Get your support agents up/re-skilled as per each digital channel. That’s where Digital Customer Service Personas© skill-set model comes to rescue, helping transform your agents into online conversations specialists.

Over to you

We are all customers and we want to recognize our values through the interactions we have with brands we make business with. So make sure to provide clear guidelines, but also free your agents – empowering them to show their human traits, especially over digital channels! Your customers will appreciate your blend of professionalism and human touch.