A Note on Customer Relationship
Treat customers as customers; not as products or commodities. Relationship with them must be a mutually beneficial relationship and therefore mutual respect is imperative. Do not lie to them, cheat them or exploit them.
Do not engage in anti-competitive practices because they are anti-consumer practices too. A new product arrives in the market because there is a need for it, a demand for it or simply because it is an improvement over the existing one. When a company engages in anti-competitive practices to kill such products, consumers are loosing value in the form of technological progress, better design, cheaper price, etc. In effect, they are nailing users to their inferior products for a price they choose. Therefore anti-competitive practices are anti-consumer practices too.
Wherever applicable, be transparent with them: especially with the nature of products and services offered. This also includes deconstructing competitors' products, services and marketing campaigns purely in consumers' interest.
Customers do have the right to receive support when required. Make it easy for a customer to reach you and talk the issue. Today's IVR (Interactive Voice Responses) are a mess that inhibits quick connections. When connected, use short and simple greetings — she wants to talk to you at the earliest about her problem. Avoid the usual 'Thank you for calling...' greeting, for you don't actually mean it and neither you nor her wanted this call. Something unfortunate happened and here you are, both are on a call. So get to the point.
For every problem there is a simple solution. If your company has erred, admit it, accept responsibility, fix it and offer compensation. If she has erred, make her understand that without hurting her ego. If a third party has erred, communicate it to her and consider fixing it if the business can take the cost. Third parties are part of your business model as far as the customer is concerned. Their errors can be hurt your reputation at times. They can be threatening to your business on the long run. So keep an eye on third parties.
If you don't have the information she wants or the power to fix her problem, escalate it to the concerned person and ensure that the issue is taken care of. Do not wash your hands off simply because you cannot resolve the problem; she deserves a solution and you are her only point of contact. Take ownership. No customer call ends without a form of solution.
The larger the support load of an agent, the lesser her quality of support will be. This frustrates consumers. So organisations must hire and train agents accordingly.
Support process can be the longest running process of an organisation because product support is required even after the discontinuation of the product. Else it will bite back on the reputation.
Avoid outsourcing your support process if you can. Your customers do not mean as much to outsourced company as they mean to you; and agents there don't care about your consumers as much as your agents will. As far as they are concerned, your customers aren't their clients; you are their client. And to satisfy you, they have service level agreements (SLA) and standard operating procedures (SOPs). Although it may look like they are made for the customer, they are made for you.