Customer Service and Issue Centricity

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Top Takeaways:

• Issue Centricity is a focus on a customer’s specific situation. It is making sure that support agents have the right data and information about the problem, the issue and resolution history, and the context of where the customer is coming from at their disposal.
• When support agents don’t understand the full scope of the customer’s situation, they can only be reactive. If they have access to the right information, they can solve issues without the customer having to repeat their story again and again. They can feel empowered to guide the customer to the best possible solution or send them to the self-service option if that is more convenient for them.
• When customers call about a problem and interact with support agents whose goal is to resolve the issue and teach them about the best ways to use the company instead of upselling, they become more valuable to the company’s bottom line in the long term.
• If you do something internally, whether it is new software, system, or process, that creates more work or difficulty for your employees, it’s going to be felt on the outside by customers.
• We need to get people to recognize that an internal customer support department that focuses on doing nothing but answering questions and resolving complaints is part of the relationship-building that other departments need to drive more sales.

Quotes:

“Customers are like water. They will go to the easiest route downhill. They only care about the most convenient resolution to their problem.”

“Empower customer support professionals with easy-to-use software so that they can focus on the customer, not on the systems in front of them.”

“Customers are fickle. They don’t retain loyalty to a brand unless they really trust that a brand is going to do right by them.”

“Trust and loyalty are a two-way street. If you want customers to be loyal to your brand, you have to give loyalty back to them.”

About:

Devin Poole is the Senior Director of CX Strategy at Dixa. He is responsible for understanding the needs of customer service & experience leaders, shaping product development initiatives, and advising Dixa clients on best practices in service and experience effectiveness.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.

This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions … and more:

1. What is Issue Centricity?
2. Why is data important in customer service?
3. Is upselling good customer service?
4. How do you build better relationships with customers?
5. How does customer service affect the company’s bottom line?