Question

Customer Service 7 Journal

What is the problem?

As you learned in the Discussion, the most crucial aspect of providing stellar customer service involves being able to define the problem so you can prioritize the solution(s). It only takes one or two interactions with a customer service department that cannot understand what the problem is, and thus cannot resolve it, for a customer to lose confidence in a company’s support system. Experiencing issues with a customer service department can cause a lack of trust for the customer and result in the customer taking their business elsewhere.

Using the 5 Ws from the CSR Toolbelt see if you can resolve the following problem.

Scenario: Using the 5 Ws in a Live Chat

Company overview: AutoBill is a service which aggregates all of your bills in one central file and pays them all for you based on several different options: customers can pay by one monthly check sent to AutoBill’s offices through regular mail, directly online using a checking account direct debit, or by using a credit card or debit card either online, or over the phone.

The following interaction takes place on AutoBill’s Live Chat on a Monday morning:

After entering their account number, and selecting “Live Chat now”, the following appears:

CSR: This is Gabriel. How may I help you today?

Female Customer: I need to know how to pay this bill as there is no address on the bill.

CSR: What address did you use previously on your last bill?

Female Customer: I didn’t.

CSR: Okay, so you want to start paying online then?

Female Customer: No, I don’t. I just need an address.

CSR: There should have been an address that was sent with the bill payment request.

Female Customer: No, there is no address, and I need to pay this. Can you help me?

CSR: You can just pay it online so you won’t be late. Just enter your last four digits of your social security number.

Female Customer: First of all, I don’t know it, as I am paying this for my Uncle who just died. Secondly, it is due in three days’ time, so I want to FedEx this. Can I get an address?

(pause for a few minutes while CSR answers another customer in a separate chat)

CSR: I am sorry I don’t have an address available; but do please feel free to use our on-line payment system. Thank you.

Checklist:

• Briefly describe the overall customer service problem.
• Using the 5 Ws identify the problems in the customer interaction from the standpoint of the customer.
• Consulting your CSR Toolbelt, and the Customer Service Resolution Strategies from the Learning Activity, explain what tools and strategies are not being used properly in this scenario, and how they are not being used properly.

Answer 1

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Briefly describe the overall customer service problem.

In my view this situation is very tricky because the consumer is trying to pay a loved one bill. This is tricky because a CSR usually can not access the account of another person without their consent. To do this post though I'm going to assume this isn't the case. The first thing that I found was that the CSR wasn't listening to the customer. A customer wants to know the CSR is listening and not being distracted. The customer said she wanted to topay the bill through the mail yet the CSR kept asking the customer if they wanted to pay online. Another thing I found was the CSR hadn't tried to help the client, the CSR could have taken the billing company's name down and reached out to get an address to give the customer.

The CSR does not pay adequate attention to the customer to fully understand their problem and find a solution to their problem at some stage it deviates from attending to another customer who leaves the first unattended.

Using the 5 Ws identify the problems in the customer interaction from the standpoint of the customer.

The 5 Ws are as follows:

Who: the female customer and the CSR.

What: address so she can pay the bill.

When: bill is due in 3 days’ time.

Why: Uncle passed away and the address she needs to pay the bill.

Where: she is on chat with the CSR.

Consulting your CSR Toolbelt, and the Customer Service Resolution Strategies from the Learning Activity, explain what tools and strategies are not being used properly in this scenario, and how they are not being used properly.

Keeping in mind that this is not the first time this bill is to be paid, the CSR should have a record of the previous bills paid by the late uncle and should be in a position to help the lady. The CSR does not pay enough attention to the customer to fully understand her problem and come up with solution to her problem at some point he deviates to attend to another customer leaving the first one unattended. The CSR ought to listen to all the customer’s complains, take any blame or mistake of the company, compensate the loss of the customer, respond timely to the customer’s problem making sure it is remedied and negotiate a solution. This ensures that the company maintains its customers and wins the customers trust. Considering that the lady customer is not the one who have been paying the previous bills belonging to her late uncle, the customer service representative ought to help the customer establish the address to the bill and get the bill paid before its due date.