Go back to Blog
Whether you lead a communications company, technology company or telecom company – odds are good that customer satisfaction has been tricky for you. Don’t take it too personally; these are tough industries and since society is increasingly dependent on instant gratification, the bar for satisfaction is getting higher and higher.
But even though the challenge is understandable, you’re still responsible for the quality of your brand. And, you still have a lot of control over providing the best customer service possible. If you use the Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey as a way to check in with your customers, you’re already on a great path for customer service. But there’s almost always room for improvement.
Did you know that a standard NPS score among telecom companies is +31 currently? This means, then, that a measure of success for you could be this number or anything higher. So think about your score. Can it be improved? Most likely, it can. Here are three tips for doing so.
Considering the importance of customer service, you’ve got to go multichannel if you want to keep up with your customers – and keep them, period. Here’s a look at a few of the key channels to implement for an effective, modern Omni-Channel approach.
Meet Demand, Quickly
One of the most common complaints of telecom customers is that they have to wait on hold for a long time, and they oftentimes don’t have their questions adequately answered even when they reach an agent. You can improve customer satisfaction greatly (and therefore your NPS scores) by not only properly staffing your customer support team for times of peak demand, but also by relying on qualified, trained staff who know how to de-escalate situations and resolve complaints within one call.
When you work with a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) provider like Conectys, we can help you scale up or pare down your customer support personnel depending on need. And all of our employees are thoroughly vetted and highly trained, helping you improve your First-Call Resolution (FCR) rates and reduce wait times. This one factor can make a huge difference in your customers’ overall satisfaction.
Set Clear Expectations
Another common complaint among communications, tech, and telecom companies’ customers is confusion. You can do a lot to increase your customers’ satisfaction by being exceedingly clear, in everything from billing to product usage and beyond. Go out of your way to spell out the terms of your engagement, and make sure you’re not surprising customers with unpleasant issues such as rate increases or restrictive contract changes. If you need to inform a customer about something you know they won’t like, be honest and be prepared with a plan to minimize fallout.
Also, think about how you can increase clarity for your customers at every step of their journey with your brand. Are the bills you send cluttered and confusing? If so, think about how you can reduce wording and make them more visually appealing. Do new customers commonly get frustrated with your onboarding process and the stack of paperwork you give them? Try to reduce the volume of materials that exchange hands by offering not only paperless billing but other materials you normally mail, and only pass on the most important (and helpful) resources to them.
Route Feedback through the Right Channels
Regularly collecting NPS surveys is a great step in gathering customer feedback. But if you want the best customer service, you need to take that feedback and then send it to the appropriate person (or team) who can do something actionable with it. Ask yourself what your process is after you get your NPS scores (and comments)? Do you have one?
Ideally, you should send all detractors to your customer support and/or the product team for follow-up. In a general customer communication vehicle, such as a monthly customer newsletter, make it known that you are working on specific improvements so they know their feedback was heard and appreciated. In an NPS response, if the customer made it known who they are, the customer support team should plan to follow up quickly, and ask for more details about why they responded negatively.
If the customer feedback was anonymous, as most NPS responses are, or the customer has provided suggestions for product improvements, these should be sent to the customer support and/or the product team, where applicable. Meanwhile, your promoters, if they made it known who they are, should be sent to someone who can either get a testimonial or case study from them or can enroll them in a customer loyalty program. For those individuals who fall in the middle of the pack, the passives, try and look for common threads why they are not as enthusiastic about your business. It could be as simple as slightly increasing your level of communication to get them more engaged and avoid you losing them to a competitor.
The point is, sending and collecting NPS feedback is only half the battle – and it’s the least important half. The other part of the equation is actually doing something with the valuable insights you get. If you show that your customers’ feedback matters, and that you’re making an effort to act upon it, your next round of NPS scores are all but guaranteed to improve.
Your NPS scores matter because they’re a direct line into the hearts and minds of your customers. What you find out, and what you do with it, can shape customer satisfaction in a major way. Try these tips to increase your scores, and put more smiles on your customers’ faces – and more revenue in your pocket.
Still not sure how to get started using NPS surveys? We can help with every step of the process. Contact us to learn more.
