Customer Care: Speaking is a necessity, listening is an art

I firmly believe that listening and responding relevantly is, unfortunately, a rare quality these days.

Forgive the rant, but too many times we find ourselves wasting hours behind automated voices that bounce us from extension to extension, only to end up being unable to speak with an actual person.

Just a short while ago, in an attempt to get a refund for a purchase I didn't make, I lost a lot of time but above all my patience, which has already been scarce lately.

I felt like a ping-pong ball that could never score. In short, as if I were being tossed left and right just to push the problem onto someone else or to make me give up!

So, I wonder where professionalism has gone, but above all, I ask myself why I have to manage on my own to solve a problem that I didn't even cause (and I would like to emphasize this concept in capital letters to clearly define the state of mind a user often feels).

"What made me trust them in the first place?" ... "Never again!"

I expect (and I'm probably being too utopian in this specific case) that, as a customer, if I trust a particular Brand, they should have a structure behind them designed to support the consumer or, at the very least, be able to provide a prompt response when problems arise.

Listening to understand, help, solve

In my opinion, a customer service MUST KNOW HOW TO LISTEN, in the truest sense of the word. If you don't listen, how can you understand? If you don't understand, how can you solve it?

I'm not talking about listening just to give a token response, but listening TO COMPREHEND, listening TO HELP, listening TO RESOLVE.

These three concepts should be a true mantra for any customer service worthy of the name, because WE CUSTOMERS are important… because WE CUSTOMERS are what make that Brand live and thrive.

In fact, studies have shown that 66% of consumers change brands if, in their relationship with the Customer Care operator, they feel treated only as a number and not as a person. And who can blame them?

The fundamental resource: Web Chat and Customer Care

Web Chat and Customer Care are fundamental resources that help a Brand handle all customer requests promptly. Unfortunately, however, many of us put our heads in our hands when we know we have to interface with a Contact Center to solve a problem. But why does this happen? Are we so poorly accustomed?

Think of a Brand supported by an efficient Customer Care structure, where you can have someone who listens kindly (which is already a big deal) and then works to reach a resolution of the problem… wouldn't that be fantastic? Without a doubt, as a customer, I would trust that Brand again and even recommend it.

The Voice & Web difference

Voice & Web is a well-structured organization that, since its inception, has always and only employed direct personnel who reside in the countries from which it provides B2C services (Headquarters in Italy, Spain, France, and Austria).

This organizational structure allows for the correct and fundamental continuous training of personnel on every single project, in order to provide the service with professionalism and, above all, to safeguard the training background acquired by operators over time.

A good #ContactCenter service like ours can therefore count on an adequate structure and the long-standing expertise of its operators, who are capable of LISTENING to get straight to the heart of the problem and guiding the user towards the completion of the transaction. This avoids the frustration of making them repeat their request over and over again.

Furthermore, we are able to manage critical issues and ensure operational continuity of services in every situation thanks to the autonomous and homogeneous Data Warehouses with which each European office is equipped. This is how Voice & Web becomes a strategic and, above all, very welcome human point of contact between Customer and Brand.

That is why our Voice & Web #CustomerCare service is different. And I am proud of it.

Article by Simona Di Iorio, Commercial Assistant for Voice & Web.

Voice & Web's sphere of activity ranges from Customer Care Services, to Customer Satisfaction, to Customer Relationship Management (CRM), to facilitating and guiding the Customer in eCommerce activities and processes, to improve their user experience.