It’s an idea whose time has come

Life Lessons in the Call Center are very real.  Here is a quick story about how one company used their new Salesforce Program (NO I am not a Salesforce salesman) to save a very upset customer!  (I am always looking for defining moments on a phone call, email, or chat.)  THINK L-A-M-A, then call us.

Here is the story about how one call center discovered that a customer had contacted their company four different ways, in just one hour.  And Salesforce did all the work.  The CX manager was pinged with a customer issue, and when he put in the information, Salesforce created a list of all four contacts, and the text of those issues. (Could this happen to you?)  Here is what happened.

  1. The customer contacted the company by chat…and hung up after waiting.  Unsure of where the agent had gone.
  2. The customer tried chatting again – was still left on hold…hung up again!
  3. The customer sent an e-mail, and received a terse, yet accurate return response.
  4. The customer received a CX survey.  They proceeded to send it back, blasting the company for terrible service but a great product.

The Coach/CX Manager gave the original Chat Agent a pass…she was handling so many chats at once, and he thought the customer could have been a little more patient.  The Coach also gave the e-mail agent 100% for accurate information and a speedy response. Although the agent got good grades, the customer wasn’t happy.  Are you seeing the missing link?

The Survey comments were angry, and the customer could not understand why she was treated so badly when she was long-time customer of this brand and often purchases with her on-line account catalogue.

All of this could have been avoided in the very first CHATHow?  Wait for it…Here is the answer which can change that customer experience into a satisfactory one.

  • We call it L-A-M-A, you would call it templates.
  • We call it Training the agents to understand the Art of a Question
  • We call it digitize a response that includes the L-A-M-A

Here is how it would all work if the Chat agent knew how to L-A-M-A

  1. Chat comes in…Chat agent asks “How may I help you today?”
  2. Customer offers their needs
  3. Agent L-A-M-A-tizes and Digitizes the answer. (It could be a template as well.)
  4. The digital response ends on a question. This changes everything …(just be sure the question makes the customer right to answer it – don’t ask “How old are you?”).

Agent: “Thanks so much for chatting with me today.  I will look that up immediately and it may take me a couple of minutes.  I will be right back.  Do you mind waiting?”

Customer: “No, I can wait, I really like those jeans.”

  1. The customer is waiting by permission. The customer made this decision.
  2. The Agent ended her side of the conversation on a question asking for that permission. (So polite, so grateful, so customer centric – Call Center talk for CARING)
  3. The Customer waits patiently and receives the answer.
  4. The Chat Agent ends with, “So glad you chatted today…Would you like a coupon for your next purchase?” Customer says “YES!”
  5. Agent sends a link to the coupon and a final “Thank You,” and branding the call.
  6. Now, it’s perfectly fine that there is no question, because the Agent doesn’t want any more response. (You can do the same thing with e-mails)

Remember “The person who asks the questions, is the person who is controlling the path of the call, or the chat session.”  The e-mail and chat agents, don’t know this simple rule.  They never learned the L-A-M-A Technique, so they cannot be blamed or graded.  The fault lies in the lack of communication or soft skilled training course. (“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars. But in ourselves, that we are underlings.” That’s Shakespeare, a little impressed…right?)

The L-A-M-A goes DIGITAL

With a L-A-M-A-tized/DIGITIZED first Chat session, there is only one contact. One and done! (Thanks to L-A-M-A) The customer does not need to chat twice.  This saves time in the chat area.  The customer does not e-mail anyone, or sends in a negative survey.

Great story about defining moments Judy . (Judy talks in third person) Could you please SUM IT UP?

*  The Coach (JUDY) heard the absence of a question which caused the customer to hang up. (What can I tell you…it’s what I do!)

*  The SALESFORCE program reported all the negative remarks from the same customer in just one hour, all in the same place, making it easy on the CX manager to get to the bottom of it. (Is that what you meant by sum it up?)

*  The Customer received a very nice note from the CX, thanking the customer, and got another coupon. (WHO HOO! The CSAT scores go up again.)

*  Judy or Sally received kudos from the company for teaching them the LAMA.

* The Company saved a CUSTOMER in the end. (We want them for LIFE, don’t we?)

* The Customer received both an acknowledgement and discounts.

* The Future Agents of Chats, Phone, and Email room will all be trained in the L-A-M-A Technique and the ART of the QUESTION.

* Salesforce made the digital part all possible and the L-A-M-A TECHNIQUE made all the communications work better.

The END….All is well and it all happened because of a Defining Moment when one person forgot to ask a question.  This will never happen again.  WIN WIN WIN WIN WIN… (How many wins in that?)

I would rather ZIG when everyone ZAGS than anything else.

I love that the Agents get to WIN too!!!

Judy