I’m not going to hide it; I’m a somewhat content customer with #Telus Mobility. They have always managed to help me without any post billing nightmares. They answer the call quickly, although sometimes a little abrupt, they always manage to please me at the end. I really can’t say the same with #Rogers Mobility.

I was once a #Rogers mobile subscriber or what I like to call “customer” for short. This goes back about ten years ago, and nothing seems to have changed. They still offer you long and I mean extremely long wait times before speaking with a Customer Service Representative and they still promise you the world, but rarely deliver on the first attempt. It will often take you as many as three to four calls over the next several months to clear a billing issue.

This weekend, I witnessed it with Aimee from #OneHundredJobs.Ca. And as described above, it took her close to thirty minutes to have a Customer Service Representative from #Rogers Mobility to answer her call. But I witnessed something greater, a GREAT Customer Service Representative, one with feelings, experience and know how. Very rare at #Rogers and I’m willing to bet he will get reprimanded after one of his managers reviews this call. He corrected every single one of her issues and managed to save her money by modifying her plan. He was what I like to call a Customer Service Hero, one of those rare people who love their jobs and enjoy pleasing people. He also credited her $5.00 for what she thought were erroneous entries on her bill, but in fact were not. This C.S.R. was not afraid to go the extra mile and please/praise the customer at what ever cost. $5.00 can go a long way, and this C.S.R. proved just that. For less that 1% of what the customer spends per year, he managed to impress her and gain customer loyalty.

Companies can save millions of dollars, and it’s simple.

1)      Train all your employees properly and efficiently. This should take about 2 months. Take all your Customer Service Heroes out of the box/front lines and have them train your staff properly.

2)      Give your Customer Service Representatives the tools to fix problems, right away!

3)      Makes your plans more straight forward and stop hidden fees, they aggravate customers and complicate tasks for your Customer Service Representatives.

4)      Maintain a good Customer Service / Customer ratio. A customer should never have to wait on hold more than two minutes or you will give them the chance to think and get extremely aggravated. Most important of all you will need less staff over the years to service your customers, possibly cutting your departments by as much as 50%. Take that number to share holders!

5)      Listen to your customers, takes notes and enter them in a Database where managers can review and compile reports on a regular basis. They are upset for a reason, and you need to know why and what is most repetitive.

6)      Always offer an explanation (Good or bad) to the customer and reassure your customers what the company will do to resolve the problem.

7)      Always follow up with an upset customer, this shows you care and only takes a couple of minutes. This will also help you gain customer loyalty and cost you very little.

8)      A manager should always be available to speak with a customer when requested. If a manager is not available, you will need a Team Leader to play this role.

9)      If a problem does not get solved the first time, a manager must be assigned to make sure this situation happens again. This theory is simple, look into the problem, listen to all phone calls relating to the problem and modify your internal policies to avoid this issue in the future. You may need to send your team an internal memo to avoid others from making the same mistake. Remember that it’s not generally the C.S.R.’s fault, it’s it more often than not caused by Company policy and procedure.

10)  Thank your customer for bringing anything to your attention and makes sure that everything is resolved immediately in real time before hanging up the phone.

Most companies postpone issues, and this caused by a Customer Service Representative not having the right tools, time or training to correct the problem initially. You can sit here for hours blaming the representative, but the problem is generally based on training and tools such as system access or system clearance.

Rome was not built in one day, but by starting to make changes, training staff properly; Companies can save millions by simply listening and reacting right away! It’s that simple!

Eric