Especially during challenging times, look to make it easy for your employees and your customers. By embracing simple solutions to their problems, you can save time and money. You’ll focus more on your most important things and not become bogged down with damage control or endless repetition.
Think about those times when you had a problem and the solution was unexpectedly easy. This could include things like changing a flight reservation, updating your address with a government agency, or giving employees instructions on a new process.
People may anticipate those tasks as being painful, even though, on their own, none are that complex. You make it easy for them because you’ve thought about the problem and the solutions ahead of time.
Compare that to those times when you feel like you’re explaining the benefits of fire to a caveman and get nothing back but blank stares.
Most interactions are somewhere in the middle. Try to have a goal to move closer to making it an easy solution.
After all, if your customer service produces grumpy customers, then they’ll likely take out their frustrations on your team. No matter the compensation you offer your employees, being yelled at for hours will likely not help your retention efforts.
While your industry likely has some unique problems and challenges, these tips represent a good first step in making it easy:
Anticipate the Journey
Mentally walk though a problem from when it’s first discovered to when you solve it. Are there parts of the journey that might be frustrating or represent unnecessary delays? Think about if there’s anything that can done to smooth out or speed up the process.
I’ve talked to utility executives who admit they’ve never called their own phone system to see what the journey is like for a customer. That short investment of time could reveal a lot of issues. A cheap phone system can undermine a billion dollar brand.
Explain the Process
Have you ever walked into a quick service restaurant and not known how to order or even where you are supposed to stand? This represents a communication failure because either through words or signs, you’re not letting people know what they should do.
As a result, people may guess, guess wrong, and then slow down the ordering process for all. Or they may turn around and walk out, never to return.
For a company, explaining the process might involve onboarding a new employee. Do you let them know what their first day will be like or their first week? The more you can remove uncertainty, the faster someone will be able to integrate and contribute.
Anticipate
A smart exercise sees leaders ask various departments, “What’s the number one question you’re asked?” Then evaluate whether there’s something to be done to make sure the question is answered before it’s ever asked.
If you have information that people need and you want them to know, then don’t hoard it. Make it available on your website, through your phone system, or an automated chat.
Clarify
A customer may be in the middle of a process and then be handed off to a different person to finish the job. For you, the switch makes total sense but it may confuse the customer and they may feel like something is wrong.
To make it easy, have both employees explain the handoff and their role in it. This step takes very little time but gives the customer confidence that things are going well.
Keep the Promise
If you promise people that you’ll call them back in 24 hours, then you have to keep that promise. You may need to clarify if the 24 hours is actually 24 regular business hours.
People become very resentful when you state your rules of engagement and don’t follow or respect them.
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