Customer Service

Ever wonder why all of those service rating requests keep popping up in your email inbox?

With practically any company’s service or product, the primary person-to-person interaction a customer or client will have with that company is the customer service representative. Very often, the degree of future customer loyalty (or aversion) will be predicated on how well the customer or client is treated by the customer service representative, regardless of how good the product or service may actually be.

Customer service personnel require empathy and likeability skills to communicate effectively with the entire range of personality types that may comprise a customer base. Creating a sufficiently strong rapport with a customer will often confer brand loyalty preference, even if competing products or services are superior, competing prices are lower, or competing venues more logistically convenient.

Companies using call centers and online messaging to handle customer service inquiries and problems are now often outsourcing the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) portion of the service to lower cost labor countries with English proficiency, such as India or the Philippines. In other cases, they're using pre-recorded dialogue of actors with Artificial Intelligence programs to address the questions. Should the nature of the problem be more complex, the call gets subsequently routed to a “manager” who is more knowledgeable, and can then address additional questions.

Social media and sites like Yelp! have made effective customer service even more critical for companies, since negative reviews can go viral within hours. United Airlines’ mistreatment of passengers (and pets, at least one of which died thanks to mishandling) have made for a huge public relations nightmare for them.