Customers who contact you with a problem are, by definition, not happy. Sometimes these support interactions are handled quickly and efficiently. More often than not, though, the exchange is difficult, leaving customers more frustrated than when they started.
The situation gets exponentially worse when the customer team is offshore support and in a country like India.
I recently discovered my Groupon account had been hacked when I saw a notification of a purchase I didn’t recognize.
The rep from customer support was very polite and tried to be helpful, but he spoke English with a very heavy accent. He also didn’t understand the problem, explaining the purchase had been made from my cell phone. I told him that wasn’t possible because the cell phone was with me in California and the purchase had been made and redeemed in Florida.
Silence. Then I realized the problem. Sitting in India, he had no idea of U.S. geography. For all he knew, Florida might be a suburb of California. Once I explained the distance involved, he refunded the money to my account and apologized for the inconvenience.
But we weren’t done yet. I wanted the account closed so whoever hacked it could not make additional fraudulent purchases. The offshore support rep was unable to comprehend this request, so I had to contact the credit card company who immediately set up an alert to block any fraudulent charges.
Five Ways to Improve Offshore Support
Could this happen to your business? Here are five ways to avoid losing customers through bad offshore support interactions:
- Map the journey your customers take. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. What problems are they likely to have and what’s the best way to help resolve them? You can’t replicate every specific issue, but you can certainly predict most of the situations they may encounter, such as a fraudulent credit card, and you can simulate solutions with support reps.
- Understand the true costs of offshoring. It’s not just about lower call center costs offshore. Consider how many customers you may be pushing away with substandard support service or call center employees who seem clueless and unhelpful.
- Speak the language. If you do decide to offshore support, remember it’s not as simple as just getting people that understand English. Your call center team should speak the language clearly and with very little, if any, accent. They should be able to respond quickly to off-the-cuff questions rather than relying on a limiting script. And they should understand enough about the United States to know common business issues and basic geography.
- Brief your team on brand values. Your support team should understand the key attributes of your brand. They are just as responsible for creating a positive brand experience as those who interact with customers during the sales process.
- Empower your team to get things done. The credit card support rep with whom I interacted immediately understood my concern and took the steps necessary to ensure no additional fraudulent transactions would go through. She didn’t read me policies and procedures or put me on hold for a discussion with a supervisor—she simply fixed my problem. What a relief!
Eventually, I did get my Groupon issue straightened out, but it required interactions with four different people, including a supervisor, and took nearly a week. Don’t do this to your customers—they deserve a better experience. After all, they were smart enough to choose your product, and you should be smart enough to take care of them when they call.
Source: B2C
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