Webinar: Turn Your Call Center Agents into Loyalty Makers
I recently attended a webinar held by GoToAssist (@gotoassist) on the topic of turning our call center agents into “Loyalty Makers.” Presenter Jill Griffin (@jillgriffin) of LoyaltySolutions.com and author of several books on customer loyalty presented a few key points that are essential in any customer service team in building loyal customers.
She started by defining the behaviors of loyal customers. Loyal customers are:
- Repeat buyers
- Buyers of multiple products and services
- Resilient to competition’s efforts to pull lure them away
- Quick to recommend your company
- Help your company learn and grow
Looking at this list, I think we can agree that all of these characteristics are exactly what we want our company and customer service team to achieve. In her presentation, Jill gave three ways to ensure this.
- Start with why! Before you do what you do, it is important to define why you do it. If your goal is solely to beat your competition you are likely not going to build customer loyalty. If your goal rather is to provide consistently amazing customer service and you recruit agents that buy into this goal, you will achieve customer loyalty and likely beat your competition as a byproduct.
- Improve FCR (First Contact Resolution) Jill said that “First Contact Resolution is the #1 driver of satisfaction, loyalty and likelihood to recommend.” In a poll during our webinar only 45 percent of attendees were actually measuring this. We are actually in the other 55 percent. FCR is the measurement of the number of contacts that are resolved on the first contact and she encouraged us to get this above 80%. The more we can resolve issues on the first try the more loyal our customers will be. This is definitely going on my list of SMART Goals.
- Be a “Behavior Change” connoisseur Companies are always changing and it’s essential to build a customer service team that is trainable and can adapt to this change. Be sure to listen to your customers to understand their needs and adapt accordingly. A customer that is listened to is a loyal customer.
In all, this was a terrific webinar with several take aways and several books I am adding to my Amazon reading list. When you hear the term Customer Loyalty, what is the number one thing companies must do to ensure they are building this?