developing outstanding corporate customer service

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Developing outstanding corporate customer service

A benchmark study of complaint resolution behaviours

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© Huthwaite International

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Estimated reading timeFull report: 30 minutes

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ContentsIntroduction ............................................................................................4

Background to Huthwaite International .........................4

Background to the study .............................................................5

‘Complaints’ or problems?.....................................................5

Identifying success ....................................................................6

The findings ...........................................................................................7

General observations ...............................................................7

Behavioural trends ...........................................................................8

Types of Proposal .......................................................................8

Taking Responsibility ................................................................9

Quality of information ............................................................10

Seeking agreement ................................................................11

Showing agreement ...............................................................12

Defusing Emotion ....................................................................13

Summary ...............................................................................................14

Report author .....................................................................................15

Contents • A benchmark study of complaint resolution behaviours

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Introduction • A benchmark study of complaint resolution behaviours

IntroductionThere are many theories and approaches to delivering excellent customer service. Customer service consultants and experts extol the virtues of exceeding customer expectations, ‘wowing’ the customer, being proactive, taking a “Yes, I can” approach, the importance of First Contact Resolution, the need to show Empathy. But which of these actually ensure that organisations keep their customers satisfied? At Huthwaite, we decided to use our behavioural analysis tool to answer this question.

Background to Huthwaite Huthwaite International has been in the business of behavioural research for over 30 years. We recognised early on that successful people don’t necessarily know what it is they do in verbal interactions that makes a difference. It is only through objective and scientific behavioural analysis that we can begin to understand what it is that people say that makes a difference to the outcome achieved.

The fundamental principle of Huthwaite’s behaviour analysis is that anything that we say can be classified as a particular type of verbal behaviour. Behaviours can be subdivided into as many categories as we want to analyse, providing we keep to the following rules:

• Each behaviour category is easy to understand.

• Each category is easily distinguishable from the others.

• Each category is measurable.

• Each behaviour is a matter of choice, so scripted behaviours are excluded from the analysis.

• Each behaviour is related to performance.

This tool was used to discover the secrets of SPIN® Selling. We’ve now applied it to understand the behaviours that make a difference in the most challenging type of customer service call – the complaint call. What we found were three key groups of behaviour that impact customer satisfaction in this type of call:

• Behaviours found to be highly significant and therefore much more likely to leave the customer satisfied.

• Behaviours found to be significant and therefore more likely to leave the customer satisfied.

• Behaviours found to be highly significant and therefore more likely to leave the customer dissatisfied.

Huthwaite’s behavioural analysis research tool allows us to capture objectively what actually happens in a customer conversation.

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Background to the study This research was initiated by members of the Institute of Customer Service (ICS), who expressed an interest in benchmarking effective behaviours in complaint calls. Three companies signed up to take part in the research:

• A company selling mobile phone contracts to small businesses, who provided data from their customer service team

• A utilities company, who provided data from their small business call centre

• A mobile telecommunications provider who provided data from their complaint resolution team.

‘Complaints’ or problems?The behaviours we identified in the study were those that were effective in resolving problems as well as complaints. Whilst analysing calls, we recognised that there was a difference between a customer who has a problem, and one who is making a complaint.

Customers have problems with technology, bills, and processes. What they complain about is poor communication!• Customer problems generally involve technical

issues, errors on bills and other paperwork, and process issues, such as a missed delivery.

• Customers start complaining when there are communication issues, for example: calls not being returned, letters or emails sent not being acknowledged, notes about previous conversations not being logged on systems, information not passed between different members of the team.

Ofgem highlight similar key findings in their 2012 Complaints report: “calling a customer if promised or agreed will ultimately improve overall customer satisfaction”.

Background to the study • A benchmark study of complaint resolution behaviours

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Background to the study • A benchmark study of complaint resolution behaviours

Identifying successIn sales calls, we can measure a successful outcome as a sale being made, or by achieving a significant move forward in the sales process. In complaint calls, we quickly realised that using outcome achieved as a measure of success would not necessarily give us a clear and accurate profile, as in many instances advisers were unable to resolve the issue within the call. What did seem to be affected by the adviser’s behaviour, however, was the attitude of the customer at the end of the call. We therefore selected final customer attitude as the key measure of success, and defined three outcomes:

• Good (G) – the customer specifically stated how helpful the adviser had been at the end of the call.

• Acceptable (A) – the customer said goodbye and thank you, but did not acknowledge the helpfulness of the adviser.

• Unacceptable (U) – the customer was clearly unhappy with the adviser at the end of the call.

The graph shows the percentage of calls analysed in each outcome category.

CALL OUTCOMES (%)

Good (G)

58%

16%26%

Unacceptable (U)

Acceptable (A)

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The findingsGeneral observationsWe made some general observations about the calls we analysed in the research.

First impressions The way advisers opened conversations in terms of the Tone of Voice used and their initial response to the customer had an impact on the climate of the conversation, the attitude of the customer and, ultimately, the outcome achieved.

Dealing with issues Advisers generally achieved more successful outcomes when they could actively comply with the customer’s request. They were more likely to achieve Unacceptable outcomes when the customer was requesting something that they could not provide, i.e. there was conflict and agreement. With our experience in negotiation research, we could clearly see how some of the skills and approaches that are effective in large-scale negotiations also apply to complaint situations.

Outstanding service is about getting a Win/Win for both sides.

Building Value Many customer service training programmes focus on how to exceed customer expectations. This can be dangerous as, in our research, we found examples of customer service personnel ‘going the extra mile’ for a customer, but in doing so putting pressure on the resources available to serve other customers. So, in Huthwaite, we prefer to talk about Building Value for

BOTH the customer and the organisation. This means only ‘going the extra mile’ when the benefits outweigh the costs.

Following up As we have already said, most customer complaints result from breaks in the communication chain. Good calls involve advisers making sure that, at the end of the interaction, they have done everything necessary to ensure there would be no breaks in the communication chain going forward.

The findings • A benchmark study of complaint resolution behaviours

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QUALITY OF PROPOSALS

The research revealed a number of ‘behavioural trends’. First of all, what was clearly apparent is that the most important aspect of a complaint or problem call is how the adviser responds to the customer. This is reflected in two behavioural strategies:

• the types of Proposal made

• how much the adviser demonstrates taking personal responsibility for resolving the issue

Types of Proposal

When measuring types of Proposal, we split them into two groups:

• those that were just Proposals of action

• those that were Proposals of action which were related to the solution/action requested by the customer - this second group we called Benefit statements

Effective service is the same as effective sales – it’s about giving the customer what they say they want.The graph shows the difference between the average number of Proposals and Benefits in Good, Acceptable and Unacceptable calls. Benefits were much smaller in number, but were highly effective. This finding correlates with all the research Huthwaite have done into successful selling behaviours over the years, which leads us to the ultimate conclusion: successful customer service, like successful selling, is about giving the customer what they want.

Behavioural trends

Behavioural trends • A benchmark study of complaint resolution behaviours

G

A

U

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3

Average no. behaviours per call

Benefit

Proposal

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Taking Responsibility Given that complaints usually arise from a breakdown in communication and/or people not doing what they have promised to the customer, it comes as no surprise that Taking Responsibility is so important in customer service calls.

We measured Taking Responsibility as advisers making Proposals that used the word “I”, rather than the words “We” or “You”. We called Proposals using the ‘I’ word Proposing Own Action. This behaviour was prolific in Good calls. Where advisers proactively took action, we categorised it as Proposing Own Added Action. We identified very little of this behaviour, but when it was used, it was highly effective.

Ofgem key findings: “taking a proactive approach will ultimately improve overall customer satisfaction”.Finally, the opposite of Taking Responsibility, where the adviser is Abdicating Responsibility for taking any action, was found to have the opposite effect on customer satisfaction, i.e. it was highly significant in Unacceptable calls.

Use the ‘I’ word rather than the ‘We’ word.

TAKING RESPONSIBILITY

G

A

U

0 2 4 6


Proposing Own Added Action

Abdicating Responsibility

Proposing Own Action

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Quality of information

Complaining customers may value the taking of appropriate action above everything else; however, what they also want is information! How advisers provide information is really important, especially in terms of its clarity and value in helping the customer understand why something has happened.

The graph illustrates the key behaviours relating to quality of information. Giving Advice/Explanations is much higher in Good calls. Summarising was not a behaviour we heard often, but when we did, it proved powerful.

We also have the opposite of providing clear, quality advice, which is when the adviser uses jargon. This fell into the category of being highly significant in Unacceptable calls.


CLARITY OF INFORMATION

G

A

U

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14


Giving Advice

Summarising

Giving Information

Using Jargon

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SEEKING AGREEMENT


Seeking agreement

It came as a surprise to Huthwaite people steeped in the importance and value of questions that, as a behaviour, asking questions did not emerge as particularly significant in this research. We attributed this to the fact that what complaining customers want is action, rather than lots of questions. It may also be influenced by the fact that advisers obtain a lot of the information that they need to solve the problem through asking scripted questions, which were excluded from the analysis.

Complaining customers don’t want questions, they want action!The only question types that emerged as significant were those that were about seeking agreement.

The most important of these was what we called Explaining the Process – a behaviour that combines explaining what is happening in the call and seeking permission/agreement from the customer to the process. The other questioning behaviour that was significant was Seeking Feelings/Reactions.

G

A

U

0 1 2 3


Explaining the Process

Seeking Feelings/Reactions

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Showing agreement

It’s not elementary to say that if customer service advisers agree with the customer and say ‘Yes’ to them then this will result in a happier customer at the end of the call than if the adviser keeps saying ‘No’. The graph illustrates this point.

What’s more important to consider is how advisers can emphasise the positive in a call at the expense of the negative, as it’s very easy for advisers to slip into a negative mindset.

SHOWING AGREEMENT


G

A

U

0 1 2 3 4 5


Support

Disagreement

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DEFUSING EMOTION


Defusing Emotion

Many customer service programmes focus on how to deal with emotional customers, as often this is what advisers find most challenging. Much is made of the need to show Empathy when handling these potentially fraught situations.

Empathy and Apologising defuse the situation, nothing more.Our research found that, when it came to handling emotional situations, it was the ability to reassure the customer that was most important, and more significant than Empathy. Empathy emerged as more powerful than Sympathy, which was not found to be significant.

Both Empathy and Apologising were significant because they helped to defuse emotional situations. However, it was also apparent that it is not enough just to empathise with or apologise to the customer. Action is still the most important.

G

A

U

0 0.5 1 1.5


Reassurance

Empathy

Apologising

Sympathy

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Summary • A benchmark study of complaint resolution behaviours

SummaryMany of the current trends in customer service are supported with these research findings, especially in relation to being proactive, offering solutions, and being able to take responsibility for resolving customer issues. Some of the softer skills, such as Empathy, emerged as significant in achieving a successful outcome, but not as effective as Taking Responsibility.

The challenge for organisations is that effective use of these behaviours does not just require equipping advisers with the skills and knowledge to use them appropriately; it also requires the organisation to consider how much knowledge and empowerment they can allow advisers to have within the structural, legal and political constraints of the company.

Ofgem’s report also emphasises the importance of empowerment by giving advisers “the ability to make decisions there and then”. Indeed one company’s particular response to their involvement in this project was to consider the degree of empowerment they gave to their frontline complaints team. Ofgem’s results suggest there is still further work to be done in this area but this also highlights the challenges of finding the level of empowerment that delivers results to the customer but is also acceptable to the organisation.

These are behaviours that cannot be taught through a script or by rote; instead they require a certain level of intelligence and sophistication on the part of the adviser. For example, when is it appropriate to propose an added action that will delight the customer in question, but may impact on the service delivery to other customers waiting in the queue behind them? Much of the seemingly no-win situations that advisers find themselves in with customers are often related to restrictions that the organisation places on them. Implementing

outstanding service must therefore start at the top of the organisation, by embedding a culture of empowerment and accountability.

The value in developing outstanding behavioural skills and strategies cannot be underestimated – ending a complaint call with a satisfied customer means that the customer is more likely to remain loyal, and recommend the organisation to others. Measures such as the Net Promoter Score (Reichheld F., 2003, Harvard Business Review) demonstrate that the more likely a customer is to recommend your organisation to others, the more growth you are likely to experience as a business.

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Report author • A benchmark study of complaint resolution behaviours

Dr Janet Curran Head of Thought Leadership, Huthwaite International

For over 30 years, Huthwaite has built an enviable reputation for being thought leaders in the arena of verbal behavioural skills. Janet’s role as Head of Thought Leadership is to carry forward the beacon of respected research. With a PhD in retail marketing, she brings extensive experience of both academic research and of Huthwaite’s own unique research methodology to the role.

Janet’s research output to date within Huthwaite has focused on retail, prospecting and customer service, contributing to a deeper understanding of the behavioural strategies that deliver results in these areas. She has used this knowledge to help align Huthwaite’s customer service and prospecting offerings with other key products such as SPIN® Selling and Negotiation Skills. She has also used her research expertise to develop sales competency frameworks from Sales Director to Account Manager level, which support the implementation of global sales academies.

Our research never stops. If you would like to know more about our current projects follow Janet on @janet_curran, or email her at [email protected]

Report author

Huthwaite International +44 (0) 1709 710 081 [email protected] www.huthwaite.co.uk t: @Huthwaite_Intl

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