By Sanya Weathers

When it comes time for a company to choose a new senior executive, there’s a careful search. The best candidates are of such value that they’re courted with ownership stakes, golden parachutes, and steak dinners. (I’ve always wished I could be there when one of those top candidates arrives at Ruth’s Chris and announces that he’s a vegetarian.) The potential leader’s resume is carefully vetted. Heck, some companies even run actual background checks.

The odds of this meticulously selected employee ever speaking directly to an angry customer are so close to nil as to not matter. Instead, that job goes to someone who gets paid by the hour and treated like a steer in a stockyard.

Most customers do not read the official website. They would rather gouge out their own eyes than read the official forums. If your community team has made the blog/Twitter/FB sufficiently fun and interesting, users may casually follow those outlets. Emphasis “casually” – customers certainly aren’t hanging onto every golden word.

Their sole interaction with an actual employee of the company is almost certainly going to be a front line customer service agent. That interaction may well determine whether or not the company is going to retain that customer.

Here are some things that can maximize the retention opportunity:

–    Hire enough actual customer service professionals (who have chosen CS as their career) to maintain standards when the temporary types finish “paying their dues” and flee for jobs on the dev team. Consider paying these “permanent CSRs” a salary instead of an hourly wage.

–    Close communication between Community and CS. CS has to handle a lot of volume, and if your procedures were designed by a pro, those procedures will work for most customers. Let community help with the exceptions, who need special handling.

More than just that, a close bond between CS and Community means that the issues actually affecting the customers will get the attention they need – and that the previously mentioned communications channels will be used for something besides sales fluff. That will have the nice side benefit of increasing readership.

–    Expedited customer service for bulk customers. A guild leader with two hundred members shouldn’t get special service for her own personal needs – but if she is having a problem that affects two hundred people, would you rather answer two hundred requests for help, or one?

–    A slow day is a followup day. Your off-peak workers may not be that busy. Some days are just naturally free of drama. Why not use that time to follow up with customers and see if their problem was resolved well? The time to get feedback on your customer service is not when the customer is upset or having a problem. Following up when no one is pressed for time yields dividends in both feedback and the creation of a relationship.

–    If you have phone support, there should not be more than two multi-option menus between me and the person empowered to help me. Not that I’m bitter or anything.

This entry was posted in Community, Partners. Bookmark the permalink.