Customer care is one of the crucial tools for maintaining a good relationship with existing and potential customers.
It can also be instrumental in breaking your relationship with customers. This should be common understanding – and yet, bad customer service is not uncommon.
Some common mistakes by the customer care representatives can trigger your customers, cause them to stop doing business with you, and even share negative feedback about the company with others.
Companies have lost billions because of erroneous interactions.
Today, we will discuss some bad customer service examples and share tips on avoiding them.
A. What is bad customer service?
A straightforward way to define bad customer service would be when the company’s contact center fails to provide proper support or information expected by their existing or potential customers.
But that’s not all. Other factors also contribute to the overall experience of the customer.
Customers have certain expectations from the company in terms of support quality, the responsiveness of the relationship manager, empathy and behavior of the executive, etc.
It is not enough to just respond to queries or solve problems. Agents need to deliver these at the highest standards.
As a consequence of poor customer service, dissatisfied customers can switch to competitors.
This can start as early as the first disappointing interaction.
Loyalty from customers doesn’t come easily – especially during and after the pandemic when people are online more often and often on edge.
B. 11 examples of poor customer service – and how to fix it
Let’s look at some of the most common mistakes that customer care agents often make.
1. Difficult to reach customer care agents
Customers hate it when they desperately try to reach out to you, but they end up talking to your chatbots.
Or they might have one-sided conversations via email.
Don’t expect chatbots on the app, website, or social media to solve all customer problems.
Instead, give your customers an easy option to talk to a human.
How to fix:
They should also be equipped with tools to provide customer support smoothly and record responses for better market insight.
2. Long wait time
Keeping your customers on hold for a ridiculously long time is a surefire way to lose them.
Customers expect quick responses, and a long wait time can try the patience of even upbeat customers, let alone those who are already frustrated and angry.
How to fix:
Focus on managing and improving the process. Use tools like automated workflow routing, sending tickets to the right agents, auto-responses with information about wait time, etc., and responding to priority customers faster. The key metric that one should optimize here is the Average Handle Time.
3. Requesting customers to repeat their query
Repeatedly asking for the same information, like personal details or the problem or query with which they have contacted, is an example of bad customer service and this reduces call center efficiency.
This makes the customer impatient and makes them feel that their concerns and time are not valued.
How to fix:
It should also let agents access customer information quickly. Agents should be in front of the screen and scan all the customer data.
4. Repeated call transfers
One of the major turn-offs for customers is to get the call transferred from one agent to the other.
This increases the time to solve the problem and shows that the agents don’t have a solution.
Plus, the customer may be required to repeat their problems.
How to fix:
They must also know whom to transfer the call to in case of specialized solutions. A series of prompts in the first call (also called first call resolution) should help agents understand the exact issue and immediately direct the customer to the right agent.
5. Lack of empathy
Making the customers realize that their problems are not being heard or understood can be a huge mistake.
When customers are already agitated, they need to feel that the person on the other side of the call is making a genuine effort to feel their pain points to avoid customer churn.
Example:
How to fix:
Agents must engage and be emotionally responsive.
Metrics help measure your agent’s ability to convey these.
Empathy statements can go a long way in showing that the agents care, but they must be implemented in their own language to avoid sounding fake.
Use conversation intelligence tools to monitor and track your customer calls.
6. Using negative language
Agents often have the tendency to use a negative stance, which can give customers one of their worst experiences.
Customers expect agents to solve all their problems, and the no-can-do attitude of agents hampers their confidence in your company.
How to fix:
They must replace pessimistic words with optimistic promises and tone. Don’t forget to monitor and evaluate the customer care agents’ go-getter attitude.
7. Rude Behavior
Rude behavior from contact center agents is not just abuse or a loud voice.
It can include sarcasm, demeaning customers for their lack of understanding, etc.
Customers may even consider it impolite if you don’t greet them, listen to them, or respond on time.
How to fix:
Handling difficult and ignorant customers calmly is their job role. But they must know that they don’t need to go out of their way to please customers, especially the abusive ones which increases customer retention rate.
8. Forced phone calls
When customers initiate a conversation by email or chat and show no interest in calls, it is just wrong to try to engage them in conversation over the phone.
Many companies also want customers to call if they want to modify their account or make a cancellation.
How to fix:
Agents prefer phone calls as it is easier to convey empathy and enthusiasm to help through their tone. But they must respect their customers. They should also allow customers complete operations online.
9. Inconsistent information across channels
Customers frequently face confusion and irritation when they receive contradicting information or answers based on the communication channel used.
This discrepancy might cause delays in issue resolution and erode trust in the company’s reliability and competency.
How to fix:
To address this issue, businesses should keep a single knowledge base available to all customer support representatives.
This ensures that agents have access to the same information and can respond consistently across phone, email, chat, and social media channels.
Additionally, cross-channel training programs should be created to educate agents on providing consistent information and solutions, hence improving the entire customer experience and trust in the firm.
10. Lack of transparency
Customers often feel misled or distrustful when businesses fail to give clear information about policies, pricing, or terms and conditions.
This lack of openness can result in misunderstandings, disagreements, and a negative view of the company’s integrity.
How to fix:
Keeping honesty and integrity in all conversations, such as identifying constraints, delays, or errors and giving suitable solutions or compensation as needed, promotes openness and excellent customer connections.
(Image) Example: Customer is charged unexpectedly post-trial due to unclear billing terms, leading to frustration.
11. Customer feedback
Customers feel disappointed and devalued when companies overlook their feedback or issues.
This lack of attention can make customers feel unheard and unsatisfied, potentially leading to lower loyalty and negative word-of-mouth.
How to fix:
It is important to reply quickly to customer feedback, acknowledge their concerns, and provide solutions on how issues are being rectified.
This proactive approach indicates a focus on the needs of customers, enhances satisfaction and loyalty.
Conclusion
Many companies now invest a small fortune to set up a contact center with empathetic and professional agents to provide prompt help.
For that, it’s not enough to have a customer care department.
You also need to train & coach your agents to identify and avoid bad customer service and provide them with tools to make the activities smoother.
FAQs
1. What are the 7 qualities of bad customer service?
The seven qualities of bad customer service are unresponsiveness, rudeness, a lack of knowledge, inefficiency, poor communication, a lack of empathy, and inconsistency. These attributes cause customer frustration and have a negative effect on the company’s reputation.
2. What is an example of a bad service review?
The service was poor! The staff was rude and unhelpful I waited forever, and my problem was never fixed. I will not be returning and would not suggest this place to anyone. Very disappointing experience!
3. What to do when bad customer service?
When faced with bad customer service, you can escalate the issue to a supervisor, provide feedback, seek alternative channels for assistance, or switch to a competitor with better service.
