Examples of Bad Customer Service & Tips to Avoid Them

Introduction

In customer support services, everything depends upon the services the businesses provide. With top-notch services, companies can compete in this aggressive market. A business must uphold the significance of positive customer experience if it wants to succeed. Good customer services go a long way, whereas poor services impact customer retention rates, brand value, loyalty, etc. This allows the customers to look for the needed services or products elsewhere, causing financial harm to the company. Poor services are estimated to cost the business industry about $75 billion – 1.6 trillion per annum. 

On the other hand, call centers prioritizing customer satisfaction and training their employees tend to have lower churn rates, better brand reputation, and increased revenue.

Let us move forward and learn about bad customer service, its examples, and ways to avoid them.

What is Bad Customer Service?

Customer service means poor or inadequate support provided to customers by a service provider. It includes businesses like call centers handling customers’ calls or chats. This can be unhelpful or unresponsive employees, lengthy wait times, inconsistent or incorrect information, poor problem resolution, or a lack of attention to customer needs and preferences. The impact of bad customer service can range from frustration and inconvenience for customers to a loss of business and damage to a company’s reputation.

A call center providing bad customer service is one where the employees must be appropriately trained, understand the products or services they represent, or care about delivering a positive experience for the customer.

The foundation of a thriving call center depends on its agents’ performance; however, multiple factors are at play, and it is not all on the call center agents. Instead of blaming the agents, it is crucial to identify the problems and finding out solutions.

There are various stories on which we can focus; however, below are a few examples of bad customer service:

#1 Slow Response Time
This is one of the most common reasons for bad customer service. Customers often need help when waiting on hold for an extended period. This can lead to customers hanging up and going to a competitor.

Solution: To resolve this issue, the call centers must bring your queue times as low as possible. You must also check your staff’s response time and monitor the average waiting times. Quality assurance scorecards can also help track your agents’ performance and customers’ call times. It will also inform you whether your call center agents respond quickly.

#2 Negative/Aggressive Attitude
Customer service may demand you to be pleasant despite putting up with many furious customers with negative behavior. However, there are times when customer service employees set the tone. Unfriendly or unprofessional employees can damage the customer experience, leading to negative reviews and lost business.

Solution: The proper use of language and tone is only one component of an excellent customer service attitude. Even if the customers are rude, they still want to believe that your agents know how to solve disputes. To make them feel confident in your overall service level, the agents should accept that they cannot provide the required support rather than avoid the fact. To reduce the possibility that the customers may terminate interactions with a negative experience, it is crucial to train the call center agents to maintain positivity and address problems with a willing attitude.

#3 Not Being an Active Listener
The call center agents should be able to quickly capture data from first-time callers or get information about an existing customer (name, call history, calling frequency, and so on.). They mustn’t ask the same questions repeatedly because this should remain on their screen and be easy to scan during talks.

Multiple requests to provide the same personal information, describe the nature of your issue, or do anything else are all avoidable examples of poor customer service. 

Solution: First, giving time to your agents to ask the right questions to gain clarity without rushing into closing the call is essential. Also, if the call center agents have any particular set of targets to accomplish, they rush the call to meet their targets. Let your agents know that it is crucial to close the call only when the customers are satisfied and leaves with a positive experience.

Train them to note the details and write down customer issues actively. Notepad or sticky notes may help as it is handy and helps save the data.

#4 Lacking Empathy
Customers want to be heard and understood, but employees who need more empathy can make the customer feels dismissed or frustrated. When a product or service is flawed, customers expect an agent to stand up for them and offer an apology on behalf of the business. They want the agent to apologize and express regret for the inconvenience.

Suppose the call center agents fail to relate with the customers and follow the script without any emotional connection. In that case, the customers believe there is no acknowledgment of blame or sincere apologies. They can become so infuriated by this that they may end the call or move toward escalation.

Solution: Significantly, the leaders must ensure to have some metrics in place to evaluate how emotionally responsive and engaged the call center agents are. Regularly monitoring the response may allow you to keep track of their attitude and performance.

It is crucial to set an example to avoid repetitive mistakes. Leaders can also set up a mechanism where one or two occurrences of such mistakes can be passed off with a warning, ultimately leading to the agents’ exit. 

Treat your staff respectfully so they have the right attitude to offer informed and sympathetic decisions.

#5 Automated Systems
While automated systems can save time and improve efficiency, they can also be frustrating for customers who need help finding the information or cannot speak with an agent.

Talking to a clumsy replica of a human can be much more frustrating than being unable to communicate with a real person. From uncooperative to inconceivable, terrible bots may raise irritated customers.

Solution: Rather than using a talking bot, leaders must focus on managing the required staff based on the frequency of calls. Leaders must ensure sufficient staff to reduce the waiting period and provide human support to the customers.

Customer support businesses must only use chatbots for situations requiring a small set of questions. Moreover, bots should only support the call center staff to work quickly and smartly.

#6 Lacking Flexibility
Customers always want to interact with helpful and cooperative call center agents. They want the call center agents to go out of their way to help them if required. A typical example of poor customer service occurs when policies are strictly followed, even when they could’ve been avoided. This problem is more prevalent while dealing with larger businesses.

Solution: The customer support staff must follow established guidelines and rules. However, finding a way to help the customers can resolve their issues and provide a positive customer experience. Instead of having strict guidelines, your business must establish policies more like a roadmap.

Also, call center agents to need the authority to perform specific tasks, resulting in a bad customer experience. Leaders must ensure that the agents have the power or authority to take actions to offer customer support.

Additional Ways to Avoid Bad Customer Services

Here are some additional tips for avoiding inadequate services in call centers:

Provide proper training: Employees should be adequately trained on the company’s policies and procedures and how to handle customer inquiries and complaints.

Hire the right people: Onboard employees who are friendly, empathetic, and can handle stressful situations.

Implement wait time management: Use call queue management tools to keep wait times minimum and provide customers with an estimated wait time.

Multiple contact options: Give customers various ways to contact the call center, including phone, email, and live chat.

Encourage customer feedback: Ask customers for their input on the call center experience and use this information to improve customer service.

Foster a positive company culture: Create a positive work environment where employees feel supported and valued. This can lead to higher job satisfaction, translating into better customer service.

Our Two Cents

In conclusion, providing excellent customer service is critical for success in the call center business. By avoiding common behaviors of bad customer service and following the tips listed above, call centers can improve the overall customer experience and increase customer loyalty.

With a call center solution like NEQQO, you can grow your business, increase productivity, improve customer experience, and maintain compliance. You can now even book a quick demo.

About NEQQO

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Sources: Mindlandstech