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Customer Care: Get Pissed Off!

Written by Tom Martin | Aug 5, 2014 7:25:27 PM

Change is hard. This is no less true in customer care than it is in any other aspect of life.

It’s easy to mosey along, avoiding the potential hassle of diverging from the well-worn path. The status quo is comfortable. Why do anything differently?

The fact of the matter is that the underlying belief in continuing with the status quo is the thought that “we’ve achieved all that we can.” You may give lip service to new ideas, but the reality is that you’re perfectly satisfied staying where you are. It’s good enough.

But is it really?

Read: Top Three Ways Companies Are Changing to Meet Customer Requirements

What happens when you start to get frustrated with the fact that your customers call back three or four times, trying fruitlessly to explain the issues they’re experiencing to your agents?

How about when your prospects don’t have confidence in your sales personnel because simply hearing a voice through the phone isn’t enough to build trust and empathy?

And when your customers start going to your competitors because they provide better customer support?

Read: The Importance of Humanization in Online Customer Experience

How does that make you feel? Are you pissed off yet?

With Customer Care, A Little Anger is a Good Thing

Most changes require a lot of work. The process can be painful and unpleasant. No one would voluntarily dive into a big change without motivation. And passionate emotion is just the motivation you may need. In fact, according to this video by Tom Peters, angry people are the number one motivators for change.

Well-known authors Dan and Chip Heath label this as the see-feel-change cycle. You see something – a problem in yourself, the company, the world – that causes you to feel an intense emotion – in this case, anger. That emotion is the stimulus to make you begin the change and the motivation to see the change through to the end.

Still not convinced that a little anger goes a long way? Take a look at this list of awesome angry people (and read this article for an even longer list):

  • Steve Jobs, the classic angry man who takes mediocre ideas and innovates the heck out of them.
  • James Dyson, used his anger to improve vacuum cleaner design (sitting through more than 5,000 design revisions).
  • Tony Hsieh, the Zappos.com CEO who is pissed off when customer service isn’t at its best.

The Right Kind of Angry

Of course, not all anger is a good thing. Anger that spurs you to make radical customer care improvements: good. Anger that spurs you to whine, complain, hurt others, or cut down the company from the inside: bad.

As this BusinessWeek article discusses, people who allow unhappiness with the current situation to make them become victims, nonbelievers, or know-it-alls are not helpful. In fact, they are exactly the kind of people who can block innovation.

Getting angry is one thing, but be sure to use that anger to fuel your passion for change.

Anger Management

Don’t just watch your customers walk away. Get pissed off and channel that energy into breaking down the barriers that might be barring the way to customer care improvement.

Is the steam coming out of your ears yet? Do you feel that adrenaline rush? Are you mad enough to improve the customer experience and cycle? Are you prepared to make change happen at your company?

Go for it. Get pissed off – for the good of us all!

Are you ready to discover how Glance visual engagement solutions can improve customer engagement and increase sales for your business?

Sign up for your personalized Glance demo today!

About Glance Networks

Glance helps enterprise organizations create the ultimate customer experience with smart, omni-channel visual engagement solutions based around integrated cobrowse, screen share, and one-way agent video. We are one of the world’s simplest, most reliable and secure platforms that enable companies to see, show and share anything online, creating a frictionless path to great experiences in sales, support and customer service. The result is improved customer satisfaction and loyalty, increased revenue growth and operational savings. From financial services and healthcare to retail and travel and leisure, even the most advanced technology and SaaS organizations – we transform the customer experience for today’s business. Learn More »

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