Steps to Exceptional Customer Service

27 Mar

There are three certainties in Life today: Birth, Death, and massive job losses. (some people have worked out how to avoid taxation).

At least 41% of companies globally plan to reduce their workforce by 2030 as a result of AI. All business sectors will be impacted in varying degrees of both type and speed.

Gartner has even predicted that 95% of all customer service interactions will be powered by AI by the end of this year. Chatbots and virtual assistants will be handling all routine inquiries.

And therein lies a major challenge for the survival of any business. For whilst some companies will inevitably embrace AI faster than others, gaining massive initial competitive advantage – Spotify, Mailchimp and Grammarly, spring to mind – in the end, automation will be the norm. Every organisation will have it and all will be expected to offer quality services and products at lightning speed and at minimal cost.

The need to differentiate – not just from industry competitors, but also from technological substitutes – will be increasingly intense. Building a brand that clearly demonstrates added Value will be critical for survival.

There’ll be much scratching of heads in boardrooms around the world as to how best to achieve this, of how to stand out. And of the 8 ways to differentiate, there’s one that stands head and shoulders above the rest: customer service.

Not just ‘customer service’. That’s a given.

It has to be ‘exceptional customer service’.

So all that head scratching will be in trying to decide exactly what that looks like.

Every company will have its own unique way of achieving this. By definition, in order to differentiate, it has to be unique, or as close as possible.

An example of this is the Ritz Carlton, Singapore.

There was a time when no hotel could charge more than the Ritz Carlton. For one simple reason: customer service.

And my goodness, it was spectacular.

During one of my stays there back in 2010, my wife happened to make herself a gin and tonic from the minibar in our room. Then some weeks later, staying there this time on my own, I was amazed to find an ice-cold gin and tonic waiting for me in my room.

Next morning, hanging on my door handle, was a copy of the International Herald Tribune (as requested). However, as excellent as the Tribune was, it lacked any significant coverage of the English Premier League. Back then, in-depth reporting on football in England was best done by The Straits Times. So while having breakfast that morning in the hotel restaurant, I asked the waiter for a copy.

The next morning, hanging on my door handle was the International Herald Tribune, and, yes, a copy of The Straits Times.

Of course, technology can now do this. Provided my wife orders her gin and tonic online, and I read a digital version of The Straits Times, chances are that the algorithms will follow up with unwarranted enthusiasm. We’ll no doubt be inundated with recommendations for trying different types of gin and asking to subscribe to Singapore’s local rag (as in Media, not AI!).

This will be ‘customer service’.

But it won’t be exceptional. It’ll simply be the norm. There’ll be no added Value. It won’t differentiate.

After all, Artificial Intelligence is exactly that - Artificial