In the world of customer service improvement, we talk about the need to ask questions and listen. Let the customer tell us what they want. And we should do this. But helping customers get what they want takes more. We need to be their coach.
Our customers can and should tell us where they want to go. But we need to help them find the best way to get there. That’s where our skills come into play. (If they already knew the best way, they wouldn’t need us.)
We do this by using our knowledge, experience, our intuition and our conscience. We advise them and we coach them.
Seth Godin writes about this. He says it’s too easy for companies to let their customers make bad choices. And left on their own, many will. The problem is, if their bad choice blows up, they’ll have a lousy experience. Maybe they blame us or maybe they won’t. But we’re not in business to avoid blame.
We’re in business to help our customers. And that means being their their coach.
Other articles you might like:
- To improve customer service coach your peers
- Adobe does the right thing, apologizes for customer service problems
- Toyota has a customer service problem
- It’s Okay to Say “No”
- Help Your Customers by Being Flexible
