As we shift our goals from simply satisfying customers to delivering consistent and amazing holistic customer experiences, we need to reexamine each element of our customer-facing processes. Today, we’re diving deep into customer service.<\/p>\n
Buyers of cars, vacuum cleaners, mobile devices, cameras, refrigerators, and thousands of other categories expect the brand sponsors to deliver a service package that enhances product lifecycles and functionality. For example, when we buy Tesla, Dyson, Sub-Zero, Nikon, Microsoft, or Apple products, we invest in much more than their physicality. Indeed, they wouldn’t get far without offering their customers online, call center, or technical support.<\/p>\n
Leaders would begin to lose ground in the marketplace if loyalty programs, warranty options, preventive maintenance readiness, and (in the case of electric vehicles) charging stations failed to enter the promotional equation. And that’s only the tip of a gigantic customer service iceberg.<\/p>\n
Entities like American Express (credit cards), Wells Fargo (banking), Fannie Mae (mortgages), and State Farm (insurance) selling CXs in a financial services arena are several category examples. Others are healthcare (e.g., Delta and Blue Cross Blue Shield), air travel (e.g., Delta, Jet Blue, Southwest, etc.), hospitality (e.g., Hilton, Wyndham), legal\/accounting firms (like Deloitte<\/a> and Paul Hastings), and realtor firms (Compass and Sotheby’s); the list is extensive.<\/p>\n We pay premiums, fees, and subscriptions to these companies to enrich our lifestyles, protect our assets, secure our families, maintain our well-being, and more. The “more” extends to peace of mind, relaxation, and stress release by accessing customer services. All of it revolves around expert advice, specialized professionalism, and patented or proprietary strategy models.<\/p>\n It may often include wealth backing, ambiance settings, accommodations, digital customer support channels, or brick-and-mortar outlets similar to the product categories described above.<\/p>\n Lump it all together and what do you have? NJBIA’s detailed survey<\/a> shows that entities representing $3.7 trillion in annual services revenue compete for market position across multiple industries in twenty-five countries. So, for businesses in the services arena, after fighting tooth and nail to secure long-term brand loyalists, how easy is it to see them leave the fold? Consider a recent Vonage Global Customer Engagement Report<\/a> focused on that question. It points out:<\/p>\n Given the above, anyone can see that probing customers’ minds and emotions when transacting customer services is crucial to propelling CX and generating impressive customer satisfaction scores. How? Developing customer service survey questions that can deliver insights into what lights customers’ fires, retaining their ambassadorship, and growing revenues.<\/p>\n On the one hand, we design customer service survey questions to probe and identify churn drivers (i.e., dissatisfaction touchpoints) as they emerge, derailing the CX. On the other hand, this survey category investigates the trends, benefits, and meaningful differences consumers highlight as consolidating brand loyalty<\/a>, boosting service satisfaction, and fostering cultural relationships. The idea is to maintain or maximize touchpoints working in the brand’s favor and erase those obstructing customer journeys<\/a> to complete satisfaction.<\/p>\n Survey strategies can go in several directions and dimensions<\/a>, including surveys focused on:<\/p>\n For example, we all get those instantaneous email pulse surveys or \u201cstay on the line to give us your feedback\u201d audio requests when a call center agent connection ends. In these cases, the company wants you to rate the conversation on helpfulness and sometimes provide reasons for your sentiments. Other typical survey-centric opportunities arise:<\/p>\n As intimated above, knowing your research objectives is vital to surveying the marketplace and bringing timing into focus. As a rule, you need a response close to the event\/happening\/interaction you want data on. Why? Wait too long, and respondents will likely forget it.<\/li>\n Companies like Sogolytics have designed online survey software<\/a> that can seamlessly deliver customized formats containing customer service survey questions that arrive:<\/p>\n Stakeholders receive responses off the described platforms as voice messages, phone digit reactions (e.g., Press \u201cone for yes or two for no\u201d), and text simultaneously merging with data analytics tools (also in the Sogolytics resource pool) with the desired insights emerging soon after the customer interaction closes. A central thread that defines all successful surveys includes:<\/p>\n Most surveys uphold complete respondent confidentiality by not requiring personal details to enter the questionnaire. Others may involve rewards or situations where IDs make sense (e.g., customer loyalty program<\/a> surveys). Stakeholders must decide which way to go, knowing it can make the difference between success and failure. Whatever the decision, personalize the survey delivery as much as possible, but ensure that your choices (“Hello, Sarah! This survey is anonymous<\/a>.”) don’t confuse participants with mixed signals.<\/li>\n Customers bounce in the blink of an eye if they’re time-pressured, bored, or don’t understand the questions. So, the most effective probes are one-question formats with yes\/no, agree\/disagree, or rating responses (e.g., 0 = poor, 10 = excellent) required. However, there’s no harm in adding an open-ended question<\/a>, aimed at understanding why respondents answered the way they did to the previous question (see more below). Respondents welcome the latitude to express feelings or thoughts on interactions that disappoint or meet expectations. In every instance, apply clearly defined CTAs to encourage customer feedback<\/a>.<\/li>\n This aspect is the most crucial aspect of the design strategy, so we’ve dedicated the next section of this article to this topic. The option range under this design category requires extraordinary expertise, such as the many years of accumulated experience the Sogolytics team can provide.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n Every company offering call center agent support for technical issues, returns, accounting, fraud, insurance claims, and more is obsessed with knowing how the interaction went. Why? They know these touchpoints<\/a>, when they go wrong, are enough to turn customer loyalty off like a light switch. Routing to the wrong agent, getting fobbed off to others in a frustrating \u201cpass the buck\u201d process, agent incompetence, or impatient and rude interactions are pain points companies want to hear about. Here are question examples compartmentalized into five primary categories:<\/p>\n This goes directly to the omnichannel recommendation above, opening our understanding of communication reach and which connections resonated with your audience:<\/p>\n CSAT<\/a> and CES<\/a> are focused questionnaire types with a distinct questioning style to score satisfaction or how easy\/challenging it was for customers to resolve their issues. In both cases, It uses the scale rating of responses demonstrated above. For example, regarding:<\/p>\nThe rise of customer service as an independent industry<\/h3>\n
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What are customer service surveys?<\/h2>\n
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It\u2019s all in the survey design: 5 crucial considerations<\/h2>\n
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Choose the right timing.<\/h3>\n
Determine your delivery channel\/s.<\/h3>\n
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Decide on anonymity (or not).<\/h3>\n
Make customer service survey questions short and sweet.<\/h3>\n
Finalize the questions you want to ask.<\/h3>\n
Customer service survey questions<\/h2>\n
Agent-specific questions:<\/h3>\n
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Channel-specific questions:<\/h3>\n
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Standard CX metric questions: CES, CSAT,NPS<\/h3>\n