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Customer Service in a Digital Age
Customer Service
Thoughts from Rj Link’s VP of Business Development, Terry McCormick, on customer service during the digital age:
RjLink: “Rj Link, how may I help you”
Caller: “Oh, I wasn’t expecting to talk to a person. Every company I have called lately, I just end up getting transferred to some voicemail or computer voice. Now, I have to think about what I called you guys about.”
RjLink: “We get that sometimes too. But, we like to talk to the customer directly.”
I have been with Rj Link International, Inc. for more than a year now. It amazes me how many times I am on the phone with a potential customer and they tell me that we are one of the few companies that they connected with that can, or will, talk to them about their gearbox application. Is this familiar to you? How many times have you called a company only to get stuck in “Digital Customer Service”? It doesn’t matter what industry you are in; you call the company and you get into this automated voicemail digital world that if it doesn’t fit their specific menu selections, then you get lost or you try dialing zero to connect to the operator. Whatever happened to just “answering the phone” and asking how can I help? Now, to be honest, I have voicemail just like everyone else, and sometimes I miss the call. However, I feel the key to good customer service is to just call the customer back and have a conversation with them. Not redirecting them to a website or automated process, but trying to connect to them directly.
Technology can be helpful in the digital customer service world. A good website can be an excellent resource of information. With large call volume, digital screening can assist in properly directing the caller to the correct resource. But, in the end, it is usually a person to person connection that wins the day. In our case, the callers are customers who want to talk to someone. They want / need their questions answered; they want to connect.
In industry we love metrics. We measure On-Time delivery as a customer service metric. We measure Quality as a customer service metric. We measure Stock Availability as a customer service metric; if you are in Corporate America you know all about customer service metrics. I have never seen a metric where we measure that we know our customers. That the farmer who just called in looking for a PTO gearbox had the farm established in 1897, that the farm has been in the family for (4) generations. The digital customer service experience will never ask, nor care, how you are doing today. How is your family doing? Did your daughter get into college?
Rj Link wants to be known for the company you get to talk to, that you get to know. We offer industrial gearbox solutions. Our website can offer some great information on our products and capabilities. We work hard to work with our customers to achieve success. We do this by getting to know you.
Terry J McCormick – VP Business Development
