Customer Service reps are one of the most overlooked valuable sources of information in business today. Who else in your company is the first to know when something is going wrong? Who else is close enough to know what your customers are really thinking?
Unfortunately, all too often their voices are never heard. Many will tell you that nobody cares enough to listen to what they have to say.
Most CRM software is designed to collect and track information about your customers. But it doesn’t necessarily serve as a tool to leverage the voice of your customer service reps.
The solution isn’t all that complicated. It’s a matter of setting up a simple database. Here’s an example of how it could work:
- Decide how you’ll use the database. You can limit the use to collect only data that impacts your customers. If you’re really smart though, you’ll broaden the use to collect anything (internally or externally) that your customer service reps view as a problem or a roadblock.
- Identify who will be responsible for reviewing the data, implementing solutions, and updating the status.
- Create a database with 4 simple fields.
What’s broken?
What problems is that causing?
How should we fix it?
Status - Give the CSR’s 15 minutes at the end of their shift to gather their thoughts and enter the information.
You can take this simple concept, expand it, and do all kinds of things with it. You could build an incentive program around it, build a process improvement program around it, and even use it as a tool for tracking the department’s accomplishments for the year.
One of the most valuable benefits I see is that it leverages the knowledge and voice of the customer service reps. They’ll feel like someone cares enough to listen to what they’re thinking. I think that’s pretty valuable.
What do you think?
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