In extraordinary times like these, customer service is more important than ever. As the COVID-19 pandemic upends all aspects of daily life, customers are anxious and worried, and they have questions. They need advice and calm words.
Service leaders must prepare not only for increased service calls from panicked customers, but for wide-ranging disruptions to their business caused by the pandemic. This crisis presents a true test, and service leaders who step up to the challenge will forge long-lasting bonds with their customers.
Here are five challenges service leaders face in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and steps they can take to address them.
Pandemic response: What service leaders need to do, now
Stretched staff
Customer service staff will be under pressure and staffing levels will drop due to illness. You need to take steps to reduce the strain and increase capacity.
Consider shifting resources within the organization; perhaps you can move employees from other departments to where help is most needed. Make sure these employees have ready access to training and collaboration tools so they can ramp up quickly.
With customer service overtaxed, try to streamline work to reduce the burden. Look at ways to leverage chatbots to answer the most repetitive questions or to gather essential information from the customer before connecting them to an agent.
Good old IVR (interactive voice response) ensures customer contacts are routed to the service reps who are best able to help, which saves time by avoiding the need to transfer calls.
Customer communication
Clear communication is critical during a crisis – and proactively providing customers with the latest information – will go a long way in assuaging their anxiety and countering misinformation spawned by COVID-19.
Collect information from your customer service staff on the most common questions they’re getting and provide answers on your website and through social media.
A steady communication stream will help customers so they don’t always have to contact customer service, reducing the strain on your staff.
Field service
The pandemic poses a particularly tough challenge in the field, where technicians must go to customer sites to resolve problems. But there are ways to reduce unnecessary human interaction for them.
Make sure technicians have mobile access to all the customer, product, and repair information they need so they don’t have to come to the office at all. They only need access to replacement parts. Consider ways they could use video to diagnose problems or even make repairs remotely.
The internet of things helps detect issues early on, but also can be used to gather as much data from a customer’s equipment as possible. That helps to plan site visits and ensures the technician has all the necessary spare parts. It also reduces the need for repeat visits.
Training and support
Service leaders need to provide extra support for their customer service teams to help them manage through this difficult time. Employees need to be able to contact managers quickly for guidance as they deal with stressed customers. Maintaining clear, open lines of communication with employees is critical.
Without the option of in-person training, employees need ample access to online training tools that can provide them with the latest updates. Managers can make sure all employees have received the updates by conducting small, ad hoc online quizzes.
Supply chain issues
For field service leaders, disruptions in the global supply chain caused by the pandemic could mean a shortage of parts and the need to track down alternative suppliers. Organizations should examine ways to manage their risk by diversifying their suppliers.
Those dealing with a shortage can post their immediate needs for free to the SAP Ariba Network, and suppliers can post responses for free.
Prepare for long-term impact
Without a doubt, the COVID-19 pandemic presents an unprecedented challenge for service leaders, as it does for business leaders across all sectors. The massive upheaval of life and business as we’ve known it is likely to have long-lasting effects.
As you take care of your customers and employees, remember to take care of yourself. Don’t let yourself doubt for a moment that we will make it through this crisis.
