“You’re looking for patience, how they communicate,
effectiveness of the service that’s being delivered, … time that it takes to
solve problems,” Werth says. “And then, of course, we look at the customer
surveys: How satisfied is the customer with the result of the work that was
done, and why?”
Those surveys go out to every customer after each service,
usually as an online questionnaire that pops up after the tech terminates the
remote connection. It asks how satisfied the customer is on a scale of positive
to negative, how likely the customer is to recommend the service on a scale of
0 to 10, and other open-ended questions.
Those ratings come back to the respective technicians, so
employees know how their customer satisfaction and net promoter grades compare
to the standard.
“You not only assist people through training, but you can also
monitor adherence through the tools,” Werth says. “It could be as high-level as
you [mandate] a certain customer sat as a business. It could be that we develop
the training and processes so that people understand what it takes to provide
excellent customer sat. And then we monitor 100 percent of what they do; we can
use those to build add-on training.”
But even employees who don’t deal directly with customers
should know the recipe for their satisfaction.
“It takes a fair amount of work to get someone to understand
the customer as well as they need to to do their job in a way that affects the
customer in a positive way,” Werth says. “If we don’t take the time to have
them use our service, listen to the service, talk to the end customer, they’re
really not clear on what they’re [doing].
“Get them a chance to sit down next to an agent who’s
providing service [and] listen in to the calls so they start to appreciate what
customers want. It’s really getting a chance to listen to the customers’
reactions that gives the context for understanding why we’re in business, what
we’re doing as a business.”
By hearing how customers respond to the service they receive —
and making sure employees do the same — Werth keeps PlumChoice tuned to
changing needs.
“It’s all about the customer,” he says. “If you’re not
customer-focused, you absolutely will be losing touch with how it makes you successful.”
How to reach: PlumChoice Online PC Services Inc., (866) 811-3321 or www.plumchoice.com