Imagine a day when...
I just had a few emails and phone calls go back and forth with a customer service rep of another company. It all went very smoothly, no problems, but I started thinking, "Who is this person on the other end?" It occurred to me that if I'm doing business with a large company, I would be nice to know who I'm conversing with.
When you walk into a store, you can see the sales rep you are talking to, and that makes the transaction more comfortable. Shouldn't that apply to customer service reps too? Think about all the angry phone conversations that must happen with customer service reps. They are an anonymous voice, you tend to forget that they are people. The case above was a pleasant transaction, but I'm sure we've all had some not so pleasant transactions.
Typically, when you are upset with a company, you may take it out on the service rep, and that shouldn't happen. If you been placed on hold for 30+ mins and have been bounced around to multiple reps, theres a good chance you will be stressed and slightly hostile at the next new representative to come on the line. That doesn't help either party and it doesn't help get the problem solved.
I think we should wrap social networks into customer service. If the rep. agreed to make their profile public (photo, interests, ....) it would really bring a personal touch to the service and greatly increase the chances of a pleasant transactions and a positive view of the company. If I'm being emailed by a rep or I'm speaking to them on the phone, I would love to view their profile page on my computer and feel more personable with them.
Thoughts?
When you walk into a store, you can see the sales rep you are talking to, and that makes the transaction more comfortable. Shouldn't that apply to customer service reps too? Think about all the angry phone conversations that must happen with customer service reps. They are an anonymous voice, you tend to forget that they are people. The case above was a pleasant transaction, but I'm sure we've all had some not so pleasant transactions.
Typically, when you are upset with a company, you may take it out on the service rep, and that shouldn't happen. If you been placed on hold for 30+ mins and have been bounced around to multiple reps, theres a good chance you will be stressed and slightly hostile at the next new representative to come on the line. That doesn't help either party and it doesn't help get the problem solved.
I think we should wrap social networks into customer service. If the rep. agreed to make their profile public (photo, interests, ....) it would really bring a personal touch to the service and greatly increase the chances of a pleasant transactions and a positive view of the company. If I'm being emailed by a rep or I'm speaking to them on the phone, I would love to view their profile page on my computer and feel more personable with them.
Thoughts?
posted by Vincent @ 14:32
1 Comments:
At 6/02/2005 4:56 PM,
Anonymous said…
I think your idea has a lot of merit, Vinney.
I also think, if that idea were implemented, it would be cool to be able to select the same customer service representative every time you needed support from that company. It would be someone that's worked with you previously, so knows a bit about your problems already and doesn't have to figure out all over again just what is going on.
At work, there's one woman, Kel, that is the tech support for the entire floor. After having a few problems and chatting with her while she was fixing the problem, it's almost like we've built a work relationship together. I think if we could create that sort of relationship among customer service representatives and the people seeking their help, the interactions might go a lot smoother.
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