Delivering Results: Becoming the Highest Voice of Authority

Transcript

[00:00:00] Steve: Welcome everyone to the contact center perspectives podcast. I’m Steve McDonald, your host, and today we have Madelene Motin. Now, Madelene, you’re the head of customer service at STRONGER. For years, you’ve been building up customer service teams, and you’ve actually built one of the most renowned customer service teams in Sweden. As we get through, we start talking more on the podcast today. I think everybody’s going to start to understand why. But you do a really good job of articulating how you can, as a customer service organization, become the highest voice of authority in the business because you represent the customer.

[00:00:41] Steve: You’re connected to the customer more than anybody else is, and at the same time, how you can provide insights that actually drive results and impact all the way down through bottom-line revenue. So I want to get right into this, but I want to give you a chance to expand on that introduction about what you’re doing now and your experience.

[00:01:02] Madelene: I’ve been working in customer service for eight years, starting in one company where I spent over seven years. I began as a customer representative, primarily working and talking with customers. Over time, I took on additional roles, focusing on educating the team on providing the best service to our customers. I also emphasized the importance of customer service for the entire company, advocating for our voice to be heard throughout the organization. Additionally, I developed processes to ensure that our feedback was actionable, leading to noticeable improvements in both sales and overall performance, which is a goal everyone strives for. 

[00:01:46] Steve: It’s such the opposite end of the spectrum. The industry’s general perception is that contact centers are cost centers. What are the biggest overhead costs in the business? It’s a necessary evil. What you’re talking about is the direct opposite of that.

[00:02:00] Steve: What I wanted to do is maybe we can talk a bit about how we get this feedback. How do we get this insight? What’s the process? We all understand that you’re talking to customers every day, frontline, but how does that process happen? 

[00:02:14] Madelene: So, the first company I worked in, we worked a lot with meetings to discuss what we got from the customer, what feedback we got, and what we could do to improve.

[00:02:25] Madelene: We sat down with people from different departments in the company. We also talked about the feedback that we have and what we should take action on. What is important is that not everything is important, but you have to prioritize. What can we do now? What should we focus on and so on? So, for example, we had one thing where we saw that our SEO and our search on the homepage weren’t the best, and the category that we had wasn’t the best customer.

[00:02:51] Madelene: When we contacted the customers, they found it hard to find the products they wanted, so we sat down and started a project about how we could optimize the search and categorizing on the homepage to make it easier for them. My team and a couple from custom service worked a lot on this.

[00:03:10] Madelene: We decided all the categories that we should have. We helped out with the wording because we know what words the customer wants to search for and how they actually spell it when they spell it wrong. So, we put in everything to make it easier for the customer to navigate around our product.

[00:03:28] Madelene: We did everything about this, and then we just gave it to e-commerce to put it on the homepage. So, this was one of the projects we worked on, and we saw an increase in customer search. Some wording had a 40% higher search rate and stuff like that after doing this because we got the paper from the customer, talked about the company, and took action on it. So that was one of the projects, for example, that we were involved with and worked with a lot. 

[00:03:57] Steve: You were modest in getting 40% more category searches. You’re an e-commerce company. Tell us what that means. When somebody increases search on the site, what was the internal conversation after you increased search dramatically regarding how that impacted sales? How did it impact revenues? 

[00:04:17] Madelene: Of course, we could see a higher rate when we pop up better on Google, for example, with customer searches, which increases sales because customers come directly to our site instead of the competition.

[00:04:30] Madelene: We also saw that when we contacted the customers, they found the product directly and wanted more guidance about how to use it. So it’s all about, ‘Can you link me to this product?’ or ‘I’m searching for this one but can’t find it?’ We also saw many customers return and say, ‘ I’ve looked at this product; how should I use it?’

[00:04:52] Madelene: This also helped us increase the sales because then we could actually give them guidance about the products and how they should work and be used. We could also give them some other sales, products that they could work with this one rather than just helping customers find the products. So we could also see an increase in sales from this. 

[00:05:14] Steve: So, to recap, you’re taking these insights and developing an entire recommendation on how to drive categorization based on spellings, what they’re looking for, how you can search on the site, and how searches are coming up online. You’re getting more sales because people are finding more products, the products they’re looking for.

[00:05:34] Steve: At a second level, you’re increasing sales because you’re acting as a consultant to people’s questions. You’re actually an accelerant within the sales process at the same time. How well do you think or what do you think is the perception in the industry versus what you’re talking about, which makes perfect sense? 

[00:05:58] Steve: You’ve got to execute extremely well. However, there is a difference in the perception of a contact center as a sales consultant. Being seen that way as a product consultant and marketing consultant, you’re helping out with SEO and searches in the way that people are thinking about the product.

[00:06:19] Steve: What do you think is the industry perception of the contact center’s role? As a consultant across the board like that, is that prevalent or is it lost in most companies? 

[00:06:32] Madelene: I could say it can be lost in some companies because I think you need to really like it. I am working as head of customer service; that is my role, and I’m really good at what I do.

[00:06:41] Madelene: But I also have insights to give in another part, and even if you are like, ‘Oh, I’m the head of e-commerce, I’m the head of SEO or whatever,’ you need to see that other people have abilities that can help you build a company and grow it from the inside so you don’t have to like stick in your role and say, ‘This is my role. This is what I’m doing.’

[00:07:01] Madelene: You need to open up, listen in, and share knowledge because that is the best way to build up the company. I think that is something that can be quite hard in some companies and that they are stuck in, ‘Okay, I’m working in customer service. That’s what I’m doing.’

[00:07:17] Madelene: Many customers or companies need to open up and start talking between departments more because I think that is the best way to build a company. 

[00:07:32] Steve: Now, that’s great advice to open up those lines of communication.

[00:07:35] Steve: To accentuate, you told me when we had a conversation before that it’s not easy for an e-commerce company to tell the e-commerce group how to structure the website. It’s difficult to tell a product group how to name products. You earned that seat at the table.

[00:07:55] Steve: You are the voice of the highest authority. Tell me a bit about your partnership and that working relationship. I think everybody listening here right now would love to have that kind of relationship with their cross-department teams.

[00:08:13] Madelene: Yeah. I think it’s starting slow and building trust; that’s what you need to do. Also, show statistics when you come up with an opinion or something. This is actually helping because that is how it has been, at least for me and when I’ve been working.

[00:08:33] Madelene: Okay, now I can see what you mean. I can see this in black and white. I can see the sales going up and you getting fewer tickets about this and so on. For me, it has been like starting low, building trust, and trying to show them what I know and do because I’m best at what I’m doing, and I’ve been working a lot with the customers. I’ve talked to customers for so many years and have learned much about that because, as we discussed last time, customer service is the heart of a company. We get all the customer feedback directly, and it’s super important that all companies and all e-commerce know that customer service is the one sitting on the gold.

[00:09:10] Madelene: Basically, we know what the customer wants, what they don’t want, and so on. So, customer service also needs to share more and show that I got this information directly from the customer. I want to show you what we can do with this information and build trust.

[00:09:27] Madelene: All companies need to work and be more open to listening to customer service. But that is even harder in some companies. As I said, you have to build that trust and start slow. We’ve created processes where we have meetings where different departments can discuss different subjects. For example, when I started at the company where I’m working now, I saw that we had many questions about where my order was, even though we had what I thought was a good way for customers to search for their orders. Basically, we still have a lot of these questions. 

[00:09:58] Madelene: I said, ‘Okay, we need to build a site where they can search the order. We need to get this in order. We need to work more with this because this is a question that we get a lot that the customer can self-serve like they can find the answer themselves; they don’t have to contact customer service. But for me, customer service should be working towards giving advice about the products and helping out because that increases sales.

[00:10:21] Madelene: When you talk to people in the company about this, everyone wants to hear that if we do this, it can increase sales because everyone wants sales to go up. If we can build this, it will give my team more time to focus on giving advice and helping customers out; they will buy more. Statistics have also shown that customers who have contact with customer service usually buy more products and are more loyal than those who only visit the site and shop. When I tell them this, they actually show their interest. They think, okay, then we need to build this for you because this will help you be more available for the customers and increase sales. 

[00:11:03] Steve: So, what you’re doing there, which is fantastic, is you’re being your own internal salesperson. You’re understanding the audience. We’re all here because we want to increase sales. If you let me do this, here’s how I will help you accomplish that. You’ve got the perspective, the larger perspective, even a board-level perspective regarding what we’re supposed to do. 

[00:11:20] Steve: But I also love that you have an agent’s perspective. You were there, an agent. The value that agents represent is gold. Big studies show that even contact center leaders need to have more trust in their agents, let alone the rest of the company. I think your background has made you uniquely suited to understand the value that can be mined and the value that can be provided.

[00:11:51] Madelene: So just in one month, we could see a decrease of 10% with tickets like, ‘Where is my order?’

[00:11:58] Madelene: That is something we see decreasing every month now because we have worked with that so much. What we have also worked with a lot is our FAQ. That’s when I started; it wasn’t that developed. I see that we want the customer to self-serve themself with typical customer service questions as much as possible.

[00:12:20] Madelene: For example, customers might ask, “Where’s my order?” or “How do I make a return?” Agents should be available to advise on increasing sales and help customers find the right products, making them the happiest. We decided that customer service has the best knowledge about the types of questions customers ask and what they need help with.

[00:12:45] Madelene: I want my team to own the FAQ. It shouldn’t be e-commerce. It should be customer service. So, that is something we did. We took ownership. We are putting in all the articles, rewriting them, changing the information when needed, and really building this up. We have seen this type of ticket decrease since we started building this one because we talk in the way that the customer wants.

[00:13:12] Madelene: We write in a way they understand, making it clear for them. We have also worked with SEO teams to use words we know are good to have when customers search for the right articles, etc. So, we have collaborated, but the customer service team owns the FAQ.

[00:13:30] Madelene: We have built that up and done an amazing job. My team did a really good job with this one. We can see that we can now be more on the chat, for example, helping out with product questions and so on, and due to that, we are decreasing in tickets. 

[00:13:46] Steve: I love that, too, because I can only imagine that if you and your team are actually writing the articles and the FAQs. You’re going to be much more inclined to use them as well. What you know and what you need exactly. I didn’t want that point to get lost. So you’re meeting the customers’ needs and spending more time with them. They are self-serve; they’re able to help themselves. They’re getting their answers quicker. The CSAT scores go up.

[00:14:11] Steve: I know a major initiative is tracking your trust pilot ratings. That’s a major goal because it will also help sales. Tell us a little bit about what we’ve been discussing here and how that’s affected your trust pilot rating. 

[00:14:26] Madelene: We have worked hard to raise our Trustpilot rating, and as I said, we have built up the FAQ.

[00:14:32] Madelene: We have also found a new tone of voice that we want to use when talking to customers. Usually, I would say that many customer service teams only answer the customer’s questions when they get a ticket or a chat, and so on. But I wanted to work more with open questions like, ‘I’m here; do you need any help?’

[00:14:54] Madelene: I would love to give you more advice or check out this product because it is one of my favorites, and I think you would like it. We help them with their questions; we try to interact more with the customers and work more with them. ‘I’m here. I can talk to you as long as you want.’

[00:15:08] Madelene: It’s not stress; it’s not like something like that. We want to be there for the customer. We want them to feel like we are not stressed; we want to help and guide them. That is also something that really helps with more sales. Customers want to build trust, making us a company they want to buy from again. They talk to friends and family and say, I got really nice service here, giving us a really good score on Trustpilot. I think it’s important for a customer service team, even if you have a lot to do and it’s super stressful with many errands coming in, to feel like, ‘Now I’m with this customer, and I’m going to focus 100 percent on this customer,’ because that is something that builds trust and giving you more happy customers. 

[00:15:57] Steve: You’ve worked hard to ensure that can happen. If you hadn’t done those self-service initiatives, your team wouldn’t have the time to be proactive. They would be more stressed. I imagine some pretty important KPIs are being affected in a traditionally negative way

[00:16:14] Steve: If you ask open-ended questions, your average handle time will probably suffer a bit. 

[00:16:20] Madelene: It’s going to, but I talk so much about this with my team because I know a lot of customer service teams; you should have a really high number of one-touch tickets, basically.

[00:16:29] Madelene: I’ve said, ‘You know what? I want this one to go down because when this goes down, usually the CSAT goes up.’ We’ve seen that, so I worked a lot to not just end with having a lovely day. Always end with I’m here if you have any more questions. I would love to guide you through the products.

[00:16:46] Madelene: We have also started to put in; if you’re happy with our service, we would love you to go in and rate us at Trustpilot. We are talking more with customers about this, which also makes us get back more. ‘Thank you so much for the lovely answers,’ and they are coming back and saying, ‘Oh, you know what? When you say that, I would love to have advice about this product,’ and so on.

[00:17:03] Madelene: Of course, this is affecting our one touch, but it is also increasing our CSAT and Trustpilot score. Having happy customers should be the most important thing in the company. Even if you have to work a little longer on one ticket or a little longer with one customer, the result is a happier customer, and that should be the focus.

[00:17:25] Steve: How does that impact agent satisfaction? You just mentioned CSAT, but as an agent, tell us if I’m able to act as a consultant, I’m able to help, I’m able not just to troubleshoot problems all day, but I’m able to do something that makes me feel good and that I’m aware that I’m actually helping the customer.

[00:17:45] Steve: How does that affect agent satisfaction and then, therefore, customer satisfaction? 

[00:17:51] Madelene: I think many customer service teams have a problem with a lot of people not staying that long because it is quite a hard job. You get a lot of angry customers.

[00:18:03] Madelene: You get a lot of pressure on yourself with this type of stuff that can really cause low confidence in work. When I made these changes and really talked to my agent, I wanted you to open up. I want you to interact more with the customer, ask more questions, give your personal tips, and work like this.

[00:18:19] Madelene: My team has been more like, ‘You know what? This is more fun. This is much more fun.’ I feel that I’m evolving more in how I work and making my team happier, which is important because I want to build a team that thinks customer service can be happy and fun. Interacting with customers doesn’t always need to be about claims or dealing with disappointed customers. When you work like this and get so many more happy customers returning, it really increases the fun and builds up the agents.

[00:18:54] Steve: I want to really stress the importance of what you’re saying here because if they like what they’re doing and they know that they’re helping, we don’t want to alienate them; we want to help. At the same time, we want to be recognized for the fact that what I have to say can actually help the company overall.

[00:19:12] Steve: So, I’m not just this agent who’s there as a cost center where the board is constantly asking how we are driving costs down. You’re being recognized as somebody contributing to the business’s success. You’re somebody who can actually make an impact, one customer at a time, and actually have a good time doing it.

[00:19:31] Steve: I’m going to ask you a question. If you wouldn’t mind answering on a scale of one to ten, it’s about agents and agent turnover. How important is agent turnover to the overall growth and vitality of the company? One means it’s unimportant, and you couldn’t care less. Ten means it’s vital to the company’s growth and vitality. Where would you put it on a scale of one to ten? 

[00:19:56] Madelene: I would say it’s a ten for sure. I would say it’s super important. I’m responsible for the customer service team, but my team is the one that has all the knowledge.

[00:20:07] Madelene: So they have to tell me this, but I’m also really working with them to speak out in the company. They don’t have to come to me for me to take it forward. They can speak out. They can say, ‘I see this,’ or ‘Can we do this?’ or ‘Can we change this?’ or whatever it may be because they are sitting with the customers every day. 

[00:20:23] Madelene: Even if one person thinks this is a small thing, it is a huge matter for my agents and super important today. It could be a word in a confirmation that we need to change because they see that we get a lot of tickets about this; customers don’t understand what we mean. 

[00:20:38] Madelene: When they see that the company is actually taking action and listening to them, it’s something that motivates them. They see that what I say also has an impact. I think it’s super important that people responsible for a customer service team also let their agents speak out to others in the company. 

[00:20:56] Madelene: They don’t have to tell you. They can also speak out for themselves. It’s super important. 

[00:21:03] Steve: That’s giving power, as empowering agents and trusting agents at levels that are not typical. We’ve talked about a lot of territory.

[00:21:13] Steve: If there was one thing you wanted folks tuning into this podcast to take away, what would it be?

[00:21:22] Madelene: I would say stop looking so much at numbers that are like one touch and how many tickets your team is solving and start focusing more on. What are they writing? What is the context? How are they talking? With the customers: Are they working with the sales? In every ticket you have, even if a customer asks about the return, you can always say, ‘You know what? I would love also to help you guide you through the products.’

[00:21:50] Madelene: If you have any questions, you can always end with this one. Some customers come back, some don’t, but at least they have seen that you are there. You care about them. You focus on them, which means that maybe the next time they go to your site, they are like, ‘I’m going to ask them for advice because I know that they want to help out.’

[00:22:09] Madelene: Look at what the agents are writing and saying to the customers and less about the numbers. 

[00:22:16] Steve: Fantastic. Madelene, I have to thank you for coming on and sharing. Is it appropriate to give out the link to your LinkedIn profile so that if people have questions, they can reach out to you?

[00:22:29] Madelene: Yes, of course. I would love that. 

[00:22:30] Steve: Fantastic. Thank you very much. You’re doing a fantastic job. 

[00:22:35] Madelene: Thank you.