From the course: Customer Service Mastery: Delight Every Customer

Communication

From the course: Customer Service Mastery: Delight Every Customer

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Communication

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- My next method is to think about the communication process that the customer would prefer. Can you give them a choice of communication processes? So, for example, would they rather do it by email? Would they rather use the phone? And that's why I chose First Direct, for example, 'cause I can ring them up. Would they rather do it by text? I think text is actually my favorite. Cause I don't, generally, I don't like phoning people up, but I love it if I can send a text or receive a text. And I mentioned earlier how I really liked the fact that First Direct texts me with information about what's in my bank account. They don't, they don't write to me. They don't phone me. They send me a text. There might be some people who would like to have an actual paper letter. So maybe you should give them that option or maybe face-to-face, you know, perhaps banks. There might be some people who would actually like to go in and see a real person. Personally, I wouldn't, but some people might prefer that. So can you give people the option of how they interact? I'll give you an example of this. Suppose that you want to have a repeat prescription from your doctor. You just want to get one more lot of pills or some ointment or something like that rather than having to go in there and see them. Wouldn't it be great if you could do it by either email or even go to a webpage and just click on repeat? And you could easily have an automatic thing that says you can't have more than three repeats or it could perhaps ask you a couple of questions before it lets you have a repeat. But wouldn't it be great if there was an automated process and that would save time with the doctor as well as delighting the customer. So the idea is really whatever system the customer wants they should be allowed to have. And if you can find out which one they like, you should use that. So if you know, they prefer to be emailed, email them. And one way to tell is what they do with you. So if you say, "Let me know." If they ring you up, then you know they prefer the phone. If they email you, then you know they prefer email. I've certainly found with my customers, some of them like to chat on the phone, some of them prefer just to send me an email, some of them text me. I've even got people to use WhatsApp and Facebook and things like that as ways to contact me. But whatever the customer prefers, that's the method I use. Cause I want to make it as easy for them as possible. So for your customers, do you know what their preferred communication method is? And do you then use that?

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