It’s probably more subtle than you think but customer service is entering into a new phase. And there’s more than just a brief conjecture here. In the software services realm where signing up more users is really the only meaningful metric, companies are increasingly turning to customer service as a premium offering rather than a core offering. This is relatively insignificant if you don’t pay attention to what you’re paying for. “Oh, I get 24/7 support with this purchase.” “Nice, with gold status, I’m entitled to a special phone number that I can call for support.” Customer service is used as a motivator to nudge users beyond “freemium”, or something that is distorted in advertisements and special perk offerings. And rightly so, this type of selling makes sense in an economic reality where machines are far cheaper than humans.
But is this all the companies’ faults? Truth is, we as consumers have changed as well. When we buy into products and services, we expect to be left alone. When we run into problems, we don’t immediately turn to phoning or emailing customer support anymore. We turn to things like Google, knowledgebases, and community forums. We search and search until we’ve exhausted a practical amount of time and resources before phoning it in. As a result, companies have had to adapt to this trend in a strange paradox where neither doing more nor doing less is the right solution.
Just yesterday, we bought a new Moto X as a mobile testbed for Reamaze. We could have picked any phone but the Moto X seemed like a fun choice. We spent hours in Google and forums searching for pros and cons of the device. Never once did calling customer support, going to live chat, or emailing Motorola come across our minds to answer the questions we had. We will probably use the forums again when we run into development issues on the OS. The same story goes for software. In a way, we have all become much more independent. However, because of this strange paradox, customer service has actually become even more crucial to the way companies conduct themselves. As consumers’ “last resort”, you can’t fail. You can’t afford to lose.
The next phase of customer isn’t really about finding ways to delight customers where they hang out. Well, it sort of is but it isn’t the answer to everything. The next phase of customer service is about realizing that it’s no longer about focusing on post-sales support cycles, upsell cycles, or even about becoming more hip with customer service but about understanding customers. It’s about understanding how customers value the fact that you understand them and thrill them even if they’re not actively “using” support. When you understand this, things become much easier. Customer service is no longer a standalone function for when something goes wrong. It’s something that needs to be “threaded” throughout the customer experience from awareness to loyalty. In short, the service experience now flows bilaterally rather than unilaterally. Your job is to figure out how to be on both ends.