General

With customer service being an entry level position that earns its agents minimum wage, it’s hard for many agents to see the bigger picture of just how much impact they make.

But you know better. You know your agents are the bread and butter of your company, and that if these employees – the faces and voices of your company, and often the only team members customers have access to – don’t provide the best service they can, your company will be in serious trouble.

It’s time to show your customer service agents how much they matter, so you can enroll them in the greater vision of your company, and start seeing better results.

Here are 4 ways to do just that.

Share Customer Success Stories

When you’re a customer service agent, you’re usually very exposed to everything that’s wrong with the company’s products and billing. Rarely, a customer will call in to say thank you because the company has changed her life.

Yet other people in the company are busy finding these exact stories – the customers whose lives or businesses were transformed thanks to your company.

If you already have a management team, reach out to these people – usually from the marketing department, though customer success managers might be able to help you too – and ask them to share happy customer stories with your customer service team.

If you’re still a solopreneur, reach out to your audience yourself to look for these stories.

This will help your agents start to realize they’re part of something bigger, something that makes a difference.

Survey Customers on Agents Impact

Make an effort to track stories of how specific agents made a difference. There are many ways you could do it.

You could ask the marketing department to ask customers about it when interviewing them for customer case studies. You could send a quick survey to customers at the end of each call. You could reach out to all customers via email, and offer some incentives in exchange for sharing great stories about your customer service agents.

Showing your customers that you are making an effort to improve the service quality they get and celebrate the agents that truly help will have a greater impact. Customers who know about this process might be more patient as you work through challenges, and more open to taking the time to thank the agents that went above and beyond for them.

Share How Much the Company Has Grown Thanks to Them

Any smart company knows that improving customer service KPIs (key performance indicators) has a direct impact on its bottom line, especially in a world where customer service empathy matters more than product quality.

Just check out this review our sister company, BuyGoods, received at the Better Business Bureau from a customer named Sofia when it outsourced its customer service to HelpGrid:

“Best internet transaction experience! The setup is such that you are always informed thoroughly and fast! I wanted to cancel my purchase and use the refund policy which worked perfectly! The total service and communication procedures are of excellence level. It leaved me more confident and empowered as it concerns internet interaction. Thank you people!”

You can bet this is a customer that will come back when it’s more relevant, or at least send someone else in BuyGoods’ direction, because, even though the product wasn’t a good fit for her, she left the interaction with customer service trusting the company.

When you see results like that from the more empathetic customer service your agents work hard to provide, reach out to your agents, share the good news and say thanks.

Of course, there’s one more thing you can do to avoid the pitfall of agents feeling they do all the work and you reap all the benefits.

Reward Agents that Turn Customers into Fans

We get it. Every company needs sales to keep its doors open and pay its employees. But if you look at industry research, the numbers are pretty clear. As Invesp reports, “increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%.”

In other words, it’s time to reward agents for the quality of service they provide, how empathetic they are, and how they turn random – or even angry – customers into the kind of customers that praise you on Twitter, buy that upsell, and tell their friends to do the same.