Give Your Customer-Facing Employees the Tools to See the Whole Customer

It's not often that I see true ambassadors handling customer issues, despite plaintive cries from customer-facing employees who keep saying, 'just give me the tools to do my job,' and often lament, 'my customers know more about us than I know about them.'

I promise you that if you set up round tables with a handful of your customer-facing employees and ask, 'What do you need to handle your customers completely?' you will be deluged with suggestions. And one clear pattern will emerge: 'Just give me the information that I need, when I need it.'

Consider two different customer interactions, and customer experiences. Which one would you rather have in your company—and as a customer, yourself?

Case 1

Case 2

Easy to spot the differences, right? Case 2 uses computer telephony integration (CTI) to pop the employee's screen with the IVR data entered. It also provides critical information at the employee's fingertips from the company's order history and from the marketing promotion that the company sent earlier that day to the customer. In both cases, the employee could promise only next-day shipment, but in Case 1, the customer was so frustrated that he canceled his entire order. In Case 2, the customer had such a good experience that the delay was fine.

Case 2 is what customer experience leaders such as Amazon.com, Apple and insurance leader USAA follow, in some cases for as many as 10 years. They ensure that their customer-facing employees are armed with the same information already provided to their customers, such as outbound email promotional messages or automated alerts. They ensure that those same employees have the knowledge of what their customers have already attempted over the phone in terms of IVR menu selections or entered into the web site, through web clicks, as well as their full purchase history.

Case 1 is what many companies still have in place, but it's obvious that those who haven't evolved their technology are suffering higher operating costs and increasingly upset situations: inconsistent responses and answers; incorrect solutions; unneeded concessions to placate customer frustration; and, ultimately, reduced revenue.

What is also important is to have full customer contact and purchase history at the employees' fingertips, including everything that the company sent to the customer, such as offers, late-payment notices, email messages and promises. USAA is a great example. The insurance company supplies them with third-party policies and credit card information. Amazon employees can immediately connect with customers, thanks to having a full customer history in front of them. Apple can connect its employees across the burgeoning 'i' family of products. With all of this knowledge, the customer service ambassadors are on an even footing with the customers: They don't have to start from scratch. Instead, they can acknowledge previous interactions, anticipate issues and provide remedies before the customer asks for them (creating a true 'wow' moment) and log customer sentiment so that the next ambassador is prepared.

Your customers know everything about their interactions with your company, but do you know all of those interactions? If not, the finest listening skills and trained agents will not be able to cope with the customer upset.

It's hard to turn your employees into ambassadors for your company, but giving them the technical tools to do so every time they interact with customers is well worth it. Your customer-facing employees become more engaged, so they deliver higher levels of first-contact resolution. And they stick around longer. Your customers express their satisfaction to you and to a bunch of their friends and will become more loyal. Your costs will, over time, become much lower per customer or per transaction.