“I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.”

Friedrich Nietzsche

 

There’s that old adage – never debate politics or religion at a dinner party.  Well the news coverage in recent months has certainly provided much content for that type of discussion!  But it begs the question – can we trust anyone?

Our industry often describe ‘moments of truth’ with customer interactions – BT alone manages 10 billion minutes per year of inbound voice calls to their enterprise customers’ contact centres.

Why? What are they expecting? Well, probably some explanation, affirmation or at least acknowledgement of responsibility. Perhaps a friendly voice from a financial institution after a bereavement, or some expert help if, like me, you are repeatedly challenged by technology.

 

Whatever the root cause of the call there's a huge opportunity to help rebuild trust in those one to one moments. At the end of the day each of these matters more to individual consumers faced with a daily battle of complexity.

Yes, we are all affected by the really big media issues but they should serve to remind organisations of the need to redouble their efforts to meet the needs of an increasingly anxious customer base. CCA consumer research shows that the biggest improvement sought by consumers was to speak to someone more knowledgeable?

We had a fantastic session with our Customer Experience Network this week, hosted at BT Tower, focusing on innovation in customer experience.  With 50+ members of this group debating and discussing new approaches and concepts around engaging with customers, it’s encouraging that businesses are taking this so seriously – and not just on voice channels but across all channels including self-service.

At the end of the day self-serve is a subset of customer service so let's make sure we get the correct blend of self-serve and conversation to help us all feel better about the roles we perform - we know it makes sense it sometimes needs a little convincing in other parts of the organisation.

CCA will be working this year on ‘The blue-print’ for the future of customer service.  Working with all our constituents and stakeholders, we will be launching the outputs at our Annual Convention in November.  We will agree what ‘good’ looks like and work together to make it happen.