Gabriela Aguilar
HR Manager, World Connection

If our shared human experience has taught me anything, especially during the first year of the pandemic, it’s that the only way to cope and evolve is by making a conscious decision to accept uncertainty.

In March 2020, little did I know what was about to unfold for our planet. I remember that when Guatemala’s president announced the closing of borders, airports, restaurants, concerts, and religious gatherings, I thought, “We must prepare because this could last between 30-60 days.”

There, without even noticing, my mind had set an expectation. Later, I overheard my children saying that adjusting to this pandemic would last about two years for humanity, but that our interactions as we knew them were never coming back. They were more open to receive uncertainty than I was.

Three years prior, I had joined a personal transformation program in which my teacher taught me how to create awareness when the mind kidnaps the present moment. While it requires practice and discipline, over time (and not on every occasion) I was able to create space between a situation and my thoughts, feelings, or emotions. A kind of “pause” began to emerge from within. I noticed that rather than reacting abruptly, I could name what I was experiencing and just be.

My family has also been primary teachers in my life. They have taught me to be open for transformation and shown me unconditional love thru acceptance and how to ignite acts of kindness.

There we were experiencing our first pandemic together as a unit; a team.

When defeat, chaos, or anxiety came for a visit at home, we decided to welcome them without resistance, knowing that a form of suffering arises when we want to change the current situation we experience. We therefore used acknowledgement as a tool to share what we felt, sensed, or thought with a non-judgmental attitude — making an effort to name what we were going through. We began to experience more kindness and acceptance towards ourselves and each other.

So much has changed since then. We are on the verge of the first anniversary since that moment. After a decade of being a stay-at-home mom, virtual public speaker, and part-time consultant, I was becoming a full-time employee working on-site as a leader in the contact center industry.

In October 2020, I joined World Connection in Human Resources, or, as I like to call it, the Talent Support Center. I listened and observed how the pandemic had affected several aspects of our coworkers’ daily interactions. The most obvious one for me was communication.

I tried to implement mindfulness techniques with the HR Team, so we could have a tool available to cope with stress and anxiety levels, but I was quickly asked to stop. It is not uncommon that when we feel so much pressure, the last thing we want is to cultivate breathing and patience. So, I decided that the best way to interact between colleagues would be to apply the same simple method we applied at home: kindness.

Based on its concept definition, kindness is a difficult trait to measure, especially in the workplace. Corporate leaders rarely accept it as part of an HR Strategy. How could managers audit or prove that being kind to one another reduces attrition or impacts profitability? The bigger question is should you measure it?

Here is the paradox: Being a personal choice-response or decision-in-action principle, first one should assess the motive behind the will to measure kindness. Does your inherent motivation to mold employee behavior come from the “sincere use of one’s resources to better the lives of others thru genuine acts of service?” Kindness is more of a subjective verb. It could run like grains of sand through our hands; dissolving in the act when trying to make tangible.

In her 2018 book, The Fearless Organization, Amy Edmondson describes three steps you can take to build psychological safety in the workplace: Setting clear goals, creating a space where everyone knows that leaders want to listen to their team, and allowing people to know that it is okay to fail. These, for me, set the foundation to build trusting relationships. Learning to listen to others’ needs requires skill. It can be developed, if there is a will to discover it, and to do so, kindness must fit into the equation — towards yourself first. Having acts of compassion for ourselves can help us tap new levels of personal development.

Inevitably, emotions and feelings will arise while interacting with others; from frustration, anger, sadness, or indifference to love, compassion, and joy. We are bound to feel. The challenge is to cultivate and develop the awareness of external circumstances so that we actively choose to respond with kindness rather than being hijacked by our reactions.

Especially during these times of uncertainty, where we are not capable of determining how this epidemic has affected each individual, leaders and team members who have their basic needs covered can overcome their personal obstacles and reach out to help others feel valued within the organization.

So, in your next interactions with yourself or each other, you may ask internally: “How have I showed kindness today?”

About the Author

Gabriela Aguilar joined World Connection as HR Manager in 2020 with ten years’ professional experience in areas such as Human Resources, Recruitment, and Talent Acquisition in the Telecommunications and BPO industry. Her studies in Clinical Psychology, Mindfulness, Disruptive Thinking, and Systemic Human Dynamic make her uniquely qualified to lead us and speak on this subject.

The post How Kind Have You Been Today? first appeared on World Connection.

Customer experience tools & techniques to improve satisfaction and create loyal customers are needed in the actual competitive landscape.

Tracking customer satisfaction and providing memorable customer experiences are part of the industry mainstays. Nowadays up to 89% of businesses compete on the level of service they deliver to their customers.

Now it’s the time to take a head start and save your at-risk customers, it is a necessary step with almost all your competition stepping up their customer experience game.

We choose four techniques and tools that can help you avoid customer churn and step up your customer experience.

1. Analyze churn to identify patterns pointing to at-risk customers

Customers who churn provide solid proof of what not to do in your customer experience. Dig into your churn reports and identify themes and patterns in their customer journey, to see what led to their disappointment.  

Did they send a message that was never responded to? Did they call in over and over and never reach an agent? After you identify what makes your customers leave, look to your current customer base for similar indicators and make some changes.

Map their entire journey. Use insights and analytics to find information from every point in your customers’ experience.

Once you have your at-risk customers identified, get a full review of their interaction history with your company and use those insights to get rid of the gaps in the customer journey.

Train your agents to improve your customer’s connection and interaction with your company, encourage the agents to reach out proactively and give their best attitude on every follow-up call which is a particularly frustrating type of interaction and is needed to resonate with your customers. Their data and feedback opens the door to a better, more personalized experience for your customers. 

2. Train and coach agents to deliver proactive service

Work with your agents and other departments to create on-boarding guides and training manuals for your customer’s interactions. Training and knowledge of the products or services can really benefit your company and helps your agents provide a better and faster solution to all your customer’s inquiries.  

If you already have some materials about your brand, update them quarterly or annually, whatever makes sense for your business, but keep them as updated as possible.

Providing fresh and renewed guidelines not only makes it easier to provide the right information but it also gives the agents support and new air in a way, change or renew the script. Train and develop your agents to be a constant resource for your customers. Empower agents to go above and beyond for this group of customers.

3. Improve your customer service with the help customer and agent feedback

Feedback from your customers gives you the best insight about their journey, so you can fix it before they leave. When you analyze customer patterns and interactions, you should look out for the at-risk customers who have answered post-interaction surveys frequently.

Feedback after a negative experience is the best resource to improve your customer experience. Pay full attention to your customer surveys and act on the feedback you get.

Go a step further, and analyze your agents’ experience also.  Collecting data from and about your agents experience and their interactions with at-risk customers provides valuable insights.

It is necessary to identify if your agents are perpetuating customer problems, or if they are actually solving them. Once you have a complete view on how your agents handle these specific customer cases, you can tailor your coaching moments to address any concerns you identify.

4. Customer surveys and agent scorecards

CSAT surveys and frequent customer check-ins help you keep your attention on how your customer experience is going. Use your surveys to get specific, actionable information from your customers.

To improve the service the agents provide customers on the daily interactions, rope agent scorecards into your everyday routine. Pick a handful of interactions to review, and use agent scorecards to grade your agents on those interactions.

You need to point out areas for improvement to your agents and give them the necessary training to provide better attention, so they don’t send at-risk customers directly to your competition.

It is inevitablechu to get some churn from at-risk customers. But you can always improve, providing better use of the data, delivering proactive customer service, and using feedback from the mind of your customers to make a better experience for your customers, offers your company an opportunity to save at-risk customers who are a good fit for your business.

The post 4 Tools & Techniques To Save At-Risk Customers first appeared on World Connection.

Customer service must be one of the businesses top priorities. It is necessary to make the client feel taken care of and respected. We need these satisfied customers to promote sales as a domino effect and engage in a long term relationship as satisfied customers stay longer with the brand.

The task of providing this level of customer service to consumers can take some extra time, money and resources. You will have to invest time in the hiring and training process and money on new jobs and the right equipment to provide a fast, high quality service

But now more than ever it is vital to get your customer service right, this will improve your  reputation constantly among your customers and will help you stand out from the competition to increase your new customer base.

An important thing to address is the value of your current, actual customers. It is many times more expensive to get a new customer than to retain an existing one so if you are into lowering costs, this is a must!

So, proper attention to providing good customer experience can give your company a head start on increasing sales, customer loyalty and a positive overview for new customers.

Increasing Sales

Customer service is responsible for making our customers satisfied with our company’s product or services before making a purchase; during, such as when they have questions; or after, when an inconvenience takes place. If the queries are solved properly, the customer is more likely to purchase from our company again.  Simple right? Now imagine the mood of a frustrated customer who made a purchase and notices we don’t pay attention to them.

This is why customer service is related directly with the possible increase in sales, happy customers shop more.

Customer Loyalty

When a company gives you direct lines of communication, providing high quality customer service, the customer queries are easily solved and the customer will be satisfied not only with the product or service, but with the company in general. A loyal customer will become an advocate when they are excited about their experience, and may even create a positive buzz about you through word of mouth, reviews and Social Networks.

New Customers

When something is good, people know it and they recommend it. So if your actual customers are satisfied they will bring to the company new customers. When a company has a positive influence on their customers, it expands its limits and increases the bottom line.

To achieve a high quality level of customer service it is necessary to focus on the customers and take some action, whatever their issue may be.

What do your customers need?

It is important to understand your market and customers to provide good customer service.

Having different ways for your customers to contact you is one of the most important things, as they will never be satisfied if they can get to you. So creating easy access to information about your company for customers is key.

Having an online Q&A page can help your customer without having the need to get in touch with an agent, you can set up an online chat and have an active social media.

Nowadays, technology has provided us with more than one way to communicate, so this needs to be used as an advantage for our company.

Make them feel respected

When you take more time than expected to give a response, when a message or call is not answered, when queries are left unsolved, you are not giving your clients the respect they deserve. Our customers need to be rewarded with good attention and service, especially for the fact that they have already purchased our services or products.

So giving the attention they need, when they need it, solving queries properly and giving them options to reach you will directly improve satisfaction levels, even if there has been a mishap. 

Exceed Expectations

When it comes to customer service the more you give the more you get. If your customers are well taken care of they will buy more and they will refer your products and services to new possible customers.

Imagine if we exceed their expectations of what they can give back. This is one more reason to focus on creating a well-developed customer service department in-house or outsourced onshore, nearshore or offshore, whatever can provide your customers the experience they deserve.

Go Beyond

When we say go the extra mile we mean take your time to go to your customer before he needs to get to you. Having an after purchase service for your customers can help you have a direct evaluation about their satisfaction level with the product or service purchased and will give them the opportunity to make any query necessary which will make the whole experience smooth.

Providing this kind of customer service, paying attention to the details, will develop long lasting relations with our company.  Be aware of their needs, make yourself available, take care of their queries and solve the problems gracefully to achieve a high quality customer service that your company needs to grow.

The post The Importance Of Customer Service For Growth first appeared on World Connection.

When customers interact with a brand, they go through different experiences with the company’s staff and Customer Care describes how people are treated during this process. Having good listening skills can provide a head start, as it is of utmost importance to focus on understanding the real needs in the customer. From the moment someone considers purchasing a specific product or service, during and after the purchase, customer care is one of the most important aspects of customer service since it has the ability to go further by cultivating an emotional connection with the brand`s active and growing community.

Customer loyalty and success will blossom naturally when caring for customers becomes a priority, which is why customer care can’t be measured the same way as level of service. If you’re too focused on measuring the customer base, it will be impossible to build an emotional and trustworthy connection with all the people that are reaching out to your business. The main characteristic of customer care is fully focusing and investing in customer`s goals and needs, even if it sometimes means counterintuitively ignoring certain metrics to achieve full service satisfaction.

The Main Difference

When a business provides advice or assistance through a specific team or department, this is what is commonly known as Customer Service.  On the other hand, building an emotional connection with your customers is what the Customer Care process is all about. The main concern for Customer Care is one on one interactions, and by making this a priority, it becomes less quantifiable than what goes on in Customer Service.

It is clear that both of these functions are productive and helpful for any business when you’re looking to increase customer satisfaction, each one contributes in their own specific way. Customer Service has to be in charge of continuously answering questions and providing support, while Customer Care develops a working strategy based on active listening that enables a better understanding of a customer’s emotional and physical needs by nurturing a long term relationship that will mutually benefit both sides. 

In Customer Care you can expect the unexpected, in many cases it is most likely you will have to improvise to help the customer reach their desired solution. In consumer satisfaction this can be seen as a real challenge, but it also works as a fresh opportunity because it allows us to find new creative ways to deliver a high quality service.

Customer Relations in Customer Service

Customer relations is another area within the scope of customer service that focuses on constructing long-term relationships. However, the main goal in customer relations is to create loyal customers that can eventually turn into advocates; this can be achieved by aiming to quantify this relationship with the target audience you are seeking.

A similar objective but in a much less calculated way is what customer care works and stands out for. In any given situation its sole purpose is assisting customers with the simple purpose of helping them, the idea is to have a way of resolving even when a customer’s goal does not relate to your business. In a world filled with a variety of options in any product or service that we are looking for, technological advances have allowed many business to flourish in the global market in many different ways depending on their marketing strategy, but nothing beats the essence, which is being able to deliver an honest feeling to your customers giving them a sense of being heard and cared for. Every company should aim to become a trusted resource in the eyes of the people, the eyes of your consumers.  You look to become a dependable expert in your field.

Personalizing the entire service experience is one of the best ways to strengthen a relationship. When a customer receives a thoughtful response, it means you took the time to craft it and it is a very good way to demonstrate how much you actually care. Having a team that knows how to deliver a personalized response will motivate customers to engage in a better way during the interaction, responding any inquiry`s, questions or complaints with creative and customized solutions delivers the confidence people need to feel in order to gladly come back to your business any other time, make them know they can rely on your agents and your brand.

Being prepared for any given situation can be a little overwhelming when it comes to customer care, sometimes you may not be able to know it till you get caught up in the action. You want customers to be with you and you want to be there for them everytime, but keep in mind your most loyal customers are also the most valuable ones for your company and they can help when inspired to do so. The fact is that they spend more, value their investment and feel confident about their purchase with a partner they trust, therefore they are the ones that most likely will advocate on behalf of your business. 

Always assume customers expect an immediate response, especially with all the latest internet platforms, software and applications, so by meeting this expectation you are covering a crucial component in the work process of customer care. Drop what your doing and focus on the well-being of a person not a customer.  It can make all the difference in the World, although sometimes it may take an act of above and beyond customer service, but on the long run the customer will forever appreciate the gesture, eventually become an advocate and will surely keep you in mind as their number one option.

The post How Does Customer Care Relate To Customer Service first appeared on World Connection.