It’s Nice to Be Nice, But What Your Customers Really Want is Help Printer friendly format
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Yes, friendly and delightful employees are great. But what your customers really want is a smooth, easy experience. Here are three ways to give your customers what they really want: help. 

So I bought a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes—the red bottom stilettos. I put them on and oh, did they look good! My calf muscles just popped in these shoes. Without even realizing it, I walked with a little “switch” in my hips. I could totally see myself taking the keynote stage in these shoes with the lipstick-red soles, wearing one of my little black dresses.
 
As I “test-walked” in my new shoes, I realized they hurt my feet! My stride was pained. I was cute, but nowhere close to comfortable. There’s no way I could deliver a keynote in these shoes! I can have a sexy red-soled shoe, yes. But what good is a sexy shoe if I’m in pain?
 
Here’s what my red bottom stilettos, now on a UPS truck back to New York, have to do with your customer experience: What good is it to have delightful employees if customers have to work too hard to get help?
 
Yes, friendly and delightful employees are great. But what your customers really want is a smooth, easy experience. Here are three ways to give your customers what they really want: help.
 
1. Make solving customers’ problems your first priority.
 
If a customer speaks with a wonderfully friendly employee, but the customer had to make four calls, send an email and also use support chat to get her problem resolved, she had to go through too many hoops.
 
A delightful employee does not make up for the multiple calls, emails, etc. the customer had to go through. Although your customers want to talk to nice friendly employees, what they really want is their problems solved.
 
2. Focus on what matters to your customers.
 
Every customer service call center I’ve worked with scores agents on metrics, like call handling time and average speed of answer. An Australian call center in the telecommunications industry stopped scoring agents on productivity metrics like these and began focusing on meeting customers’ needs. Call handle time increased some, but repeat calls fell by an astounding 58%.
 
Trust me, your customers would rather hold for a few more seconds than have to make repeat calls to get their problems solved.  Make sure you’re measuring what really matters to your customers.
 
3. Fix what frustrates your customers.
 
A company called me to deliver customer service training. After listening to a random sample of phone calls between customer service employees and customers, I realized the problem wasn’t a lack of customer service skills. The problem was the company was just too difficult to do business with.
 
Over and over again I could hear frustration in the voices of customers as they explained the same scenario: “I submitted this online and never heard back,” “This is my fourth call,” “Just let me speak to a supervisor.”
 
The first thing I did in my work for this company was track the points of customer frustration: when customers had to switch from the web to reaching out by telephone; when there was a lengthy delay in problem resolution, when customers found a step in the process just too tedious.
 
As a result, we modified or eliminated 14 policies, which resulted in a drop in call volume and significant monetary savings.
 
It’s great to have friendly customer service employees. Rude employees will definitely have a negative impact on your customer experience and drive customers away.
 
But what your customers really want is a resolution to their problems—quickly and easily. Focus on solving customers’ problems and removing frustration points. When you do, customer satisfaction will go up, repeat calls will go down, employees will be happier and customers will reward you with loya