Customer Loyalty Blog: Personalized Customer Service: A Thing of the Past?

Personalized Customer Service: A Thing of the Past?

October 19, 2005
Greg Robinson, Customer Loyalty Blog

Customer service isn't what it used to be. It used to be easy to call your local phone company or bank and talk to a person. In the good old days, a person might actually answer the phone. Even basic call vectoring systems always had '0' as the default option to talk to customer service rep. It seems as though organizations, despite the desire to increase loyalty, are increasingly using technology in ways that push them further away from their customers.

In your experience, are there any industries that are doing a good job of providing effective, personalized customer service today and what are they doing to differentiate themselves?

Poll Closed

Nowadays, the '0' option is buried two or three levels down in the call vectoring system and you are only allowed to push it after listening to the disclosure statement that the information on the automated system is the most current information available to the customer service representative.

Our fellow human beings are being systematically driven out of basic customer interactions and being replaced by Robo Ken and Robo Barbie whose friendly voices promise to help us with our needs. (Even though the reliability of the voice recognition technology leaves much to be desired.) And those companies that do provide the human touch are increasingly doing so through outsourced call centers in Asia where voice recognition can also be a bit of a challenge.

What is ironic about the trend toward using technology or outsourcing to handle basic customer transactions is that these organizations also want to increase customer loyalty and retention. They rationalize that customers want cost effective and convenient service and this is the best way to provide it. This cost driven focus results in companies missing opportunities identify emerging needs, surface problems that reduce satisfaction and loyalty, and cross sell value added products and services that are appropriate for the customer’s situation.

Probably the all-time low point of distancing the customer from an organization was when First Chicago Bank came up with the brilliant idea to charge customers $3 per teller transaction as a way to get customers to use the ATM. You give us the money and then pay us to get it back! The uproar was so great from customers that they canceled the plan.

So what should companies do to balance the need for cost effective transaction processing and building customer relationships without compromising customer satisfaction? Here are three ideas:

1. Companies should make it easy for customers to do business with them in the customer’s preferred style. The first call vectoring option should be a choice for the customer to use an automated system or talk to a human.

2. Develop technology application with the needs of the customer in the forefront as opposed to cost. Enhancing the service experience for customers should be the driver for technology service applications.

3. Use technology to develop a better understanding of potential customer needs based on the customer’s transaction history. This data can then be used for marketing and cross selling during live customer interactions.