Covid 19 has taken the whole world by surprise with a lot of constraints presented before all industry leaving no individual and organisation unaffected. Some organisations cannot define nor describe their customer service promise during this period of Covid 19. They even do not have the time to define what they are delivering to customers, what they want customers to feel about their offering during this Covid 19 pandemic.
Guess what? The treatment customers are receiving during this period will give you loyal customers who will not only spend their money with you but spend more. Furthermore, Covid 19 is an opportunity to hold on to the customers with a grip like never before. Some organisations are confused on what to do for their customers. However, those who knows that this is the time to do what customers really care about in this period and they do it now, do it rightly and quickly, they will look back and thank goodness that there was this phase in their lifetime.
Last week I woke up to a very bright and cold morning at 7 am. I later on had breakfast I was ready to rush for a meeting at the office in a period where very few people are getting out of their homes. I got into the car but it could not start. I quickly contacted my neighbor to jump start my car and he came through to my rescue. On my way to the office a thought came to mind of how important the meeting I was going to attend and the people I was meeting. Then I imagined my car failing to start right after being escorted to my car by the people I will meet after the meeting. That would be embarrassing, I concluded. Thus, I had to make a stop at an Auto shop to buy a car battery.
When I walked into the Auto shop, I was greeted by a people with their headphones on and in their ears. I asked how much their batteries were going at for the first time and no one answered me until after I was about to go did the customer service representative removed the headphones and shouted good morning to me and asked if I needed any help. From this I have the following questions;
- Are essential workers essential during this opportune period?
- Do they understand what treatment to provide during this period?
- Is management aware of these attitudes especially during Covid19 where when a customer stops buy it is a golden moment, since few people are on the move shopping.
Customer service is a must but in short supply during this period. Customers are also depending on nonphysical channels to reach sellers and transact. Research postulated that a first time customer has more than 50% probability to do repeat business. However, where very important tools like customer service are ignored that chance is reduced to zero. We have this golden moment to provide some treats to customers and below are some of the tactics we can employ:
- Conduct a research by contacting your customers to appreciate what they are going through and how they think you may be of help.
- Meet as a team or teams and suggest ways to better treat the customer based on the submissions from customers.
- Digitize the parts of customer service and other processes
- Training. This can now be conducted online to establish right skills.
- Implement quickly.
- Monitor. This is where it gets challenging like in the scenario above. Questions have to be answered here. Leaders working from home how are you making sure the plan is working? Is your team relaxed because traffic has reduced? Are you aware that the reduced traffic can comprise of your future loyal and profitable customer?
Revisit the customer service strategy, let it anchor on providing better realistic treats to customers. Covid 19 is no excuse as long as there is a customer.
Article by: Bruce Sikombe FCICM
Customer Experience Futurist
Chairperson of CICM Executive Management Committee
Bruce Sikombe is a certified customer service professional with Customer Service Institute of America (CSIA) with more than 10 years’ customer service work experience both in Contact center (Omni channel) and managing service centers in the telecommunications and financial industries. Both in private and public sectors.
Sikombe holds a Master of Business Administration Degree (MBA-Service Marketing) and a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree (BBAFinance) both from the Copperbelt University. He is expected to finish his Doctorate Degree with UNZA-Binary university in 2022, under research area in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Customer Experience (CX).
His profession is dependable as he is a fellow member (FCICM) and Chairperson of the Executive Management Committee of the Chartered Institute of Customer Management (CICM Zambia).