Every Employee Is a Customer Service Employee with Keith Farley

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

1. How do you build a culture where every employee takes ownership of customer service?
2. When should a company use AI automation versus a live human customer support agent?
3. Will AI eliminate customer service jobs?
4. How does hiring for empathy impact customer experience?
5. Can empathy be scaled across a large customer service organization?

Top Takeaways:

• Customer service is everybody’s job. When you wear the company logo or interact with a customer, you represent the entire brand.
• When an employee is in front of a customer, they might be the only interaction the customer ever has. That interaction might be the only basis that the customer has to form an impression of the entire company.
• The A in AI stands for “artificial”. In times of need, customers need another A, which stands for “authentic”. While digital options make processes convenient for both customers and agents, make sure a human-to-human service is available, especially in emotional or sensitive situations.
• Great customer experiences start with hiring for empathy. It is hard to train someone to be nice and empathetic when it doesn’t come naturally. Empathy can’t be faked, and customers notice when it’s real.
• For companies without a physical product, the experience is the product. The value comes from how fast responses are, how convenient the processes are, and how supported customers feel.
• Some customer concerns are so challenging and require a high level of empathy that they might require specialized support. Creating a dedicated team for these calls gives customers people trained to handle that moment with empathy and clarity.
• Plus, Shep and Keith discuss why business leaders should call their customer support number from time to time. Tune in!

Quotes:

“When you’re wearing your brand and representing the brand, you are the brand.”

“When you get 15,000 calls a day, that’s 15,000 customer feedback opportunities a day. The question is, are you listening, and what do you do with it?”

“If you hire the right people, you shouldn’t need to train for a whole lot of empathy because you either are or you aren’t. It is hard to train adults to be nice if they’re not.”

“When customers are happy, they usually use digital options. When something goes wrong, they want the human option. You should be there however the customer wants to contact you.”

“Walk the process. Every so often, become the customer and see what it would feel like from there if you didn’t know all the things that you know on the inside.”

“Customers don’t know how things work in your company. Why would they know how things work in your company, and why would they care how things work in your company? All that matters is how they want things to work.”

About:

Keith Farley is the Chief Customer Officer for Aflac, Inc. He leads a team of more than 2,000 employees and is focused on making customer experience a company-wide strategy.

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