Why Metrics isn’t the End-all and Be-All of Providing Stellar Customer Support

The fast paced, data driven nature of the modern business means that it’s easy to focus only on the metrics and numbers of running a business. Terms like ROI (return of investment) and BPM (business process management) dominate the minds and discussions of business professionals, and while having proper measurements and metrics in place is certainly important to running a good business, the same thing doesn’t necessarily apply to good customer support.

The reason being? People aren’t numbers.

What makes good customer support?

There’s a lot that goes into effective customer support. But let’s talk about some of the key concepts of providing customer support, concepts that override metrics.

• Staying after the sale. Even if you’ve sold a good product for your customer, they may have remaining questions or concerns. Even if they don’t, keeping open communication with a customer after they’ve already purchased your product shows them that you’re committed, and that fosters commitment from them as well.
• Educating the customer. Think of the old “teach a man to fish” story. Don’t just give them the bare essentials to solve their problems – take the time and effort to make sure they have a good understanding of the solution that you proposed, so they can learn more and prevent further problems in the future. This is going above and beyond by most definitions, but when it comes to serving your customers, it’s doing your job.
• Respect them as people. This means not wasting their time, being polite, and giving them choices on how to proceed.
• Listen to what they have to say.

There’s more to what makes a good customer support, of course. However, I am confident that you have a better understanding of how it works right now. While none of these practices can be measured – they are just as important as any other “trackable” metrics. The “customer” in customer service is just as important as the “human” in human resources.

Metrics are still important for measuring certain aspects of performance, of course. Response time is important, as are experience ratings and resolution time. But it’s important to consider more than just your numbers when you’re working on your customer service solution.

What can I do to provide it to my customers?

All that being said, you’re likely left wondering what you can do to improve your customer service! To learn more about outsourcing customer service, read our blog  or contact us for a consultation. If you’re interested in outsourcing your customer service to skilled, experienced professionals, give us a call and let us know what we can to do to help you.

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