The same customer question answered by hand, every day
Where is my order? Did you get my payment?
Customers ask the same few questions every day, and somebody looks up each answer by hand.
Not every business has this problem, and some should leave it alone.
Most of these can be handled better. Whether it's worth doing is a separate question. What follows is one common form of the problem, described in general terms, because your version will differ. These are possible challenges, not a description of your business, and some should be left exactly as they are. If it sounds like your week, that's worth a conversation.
Sound familiar?
- The phone is mostly people asking for a status.
- Answering means looking in two or three places.
- The answer depends on who picks up.
- Status calls interrupt the work that would answer them.
What it looks like
Where is my order? Did you get my payment? Is the part in yet? The questions are the same every day. Each answer means somebody stops what they are doing, finds the customer, looks in one or two systems, and calls or writes back.
Each lookup is small. Together, they fill part of somebody's day and interrupt the rest of it.
What it costs
Interruptions cost more than the calls. Each question breaks into other work.
Answers vary. Different people look in different places and say different things.
The information already exists. The answer is in a system. Only a person can reach it.
Where it goes wrong
- The answer is in several places. No single view shows a customer's status.
- Customers cannot look it up themselves. So they call.
- Updates are not sent. Customers ask because nobody told them.
- The busiest times get the most calls. When a job is late, everybody asks at once.
What a better version looks like
Where it fits, a status customers often ask about, like an order or a payment, is sent to them when it changes, in plain words. The office has one view of each customer's status, so a question that still comes in takes a moment to answer. Questions that need a person reach a person.
What still needs a person
A person handles anything that is not a status: a problem, a complaint, a change. A person decides what customers should be told when something goes wrong.
Questions worth asking about your own operation
- What are the three questions customers ask most?
- Where does somebody look to answer each one?
- Could the customer have been told before they asked?
- Who answers when the office is busy?
If this sounds familiar
Bring me the version you actually have. I'll learn how the process really works before I suggest anything. If it isn't worth changing, or isn't a fit for me, I'll say so. Talk through a problem