ISO 10002

Customer service challenges

Most businesses struggle to cope with these customer service challenges:

1. They are unable to answer a (prospective) customer’s questions – Studies show that 55 percent of customers that intended to purchase a product backed out because they did not get a satisfactory response to their question.
2. Getting a human CSR (customer service representative) to answer a call – customers detest listening to pre-recorded messages and navigating through a maze of options in an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system before they can get to a human CSR.
3. CSRs are not equipped with the right tools – looking for customer information during service calls, fumbling with inadequate tools, and asking customers questions about the information that you already have, can put customers off. The key is to use the right software and train your CSRs to use these effectively. For instance, adopting visual engagement tools equips your support team to talk to customers in real-time, allowing them to share screens, access customers’ web resources, and take the right action to ensure a fast resolution.
4. Understand the customer requirement and speak in their terms – Customers may not always understand your product features and know all the associated terminology and technology. So they are unable to articulate the difficulties they face with your product. CSRs are taught to listen empathetically to customers. They can also refer to a list of FAQs and responses to quickly respond to questions.
5. The customer service workflow is not in-line with the customer journey – A customer journey map are the steps a customer goes through when interacting with your company–from purchasing to after-sales. CSRs need to adequately address support at every stage (touchpoint) of the customer journey.
6. Handling angry customers during a crisis – Angry customers are inevitable, and CSRs should be trained to deal with conflicts or dilemmas. There are specific processes and techniques to handle angry customers. One such technique is Disney’s HEARD technique (Hear, Empathize, Apologize, Resolve, Diagnose).
7. Exceed customer expectations – The key to happy customers and customer loyalty is exceeding expectations. And customer expectations do change frequently. You can stay ahead of your customers and exceed expectations by keeping your CSRs up to date through customer feedback and with the latest market trends. Customer feedback and continuous evaluation of that feedback will undoubtedly go a long way in achieving customer satisfaction and business success. This is established through best practices and standardized processes.

To cope with these 7 challenges, you need to follow a standard like ISO 10002 for deploying a Complaint Management System to resolve customer grievances.

The ISO 10002 standard

The ISO 10002 standard provides guidance on the process of complaints handling related to products within an organization. This includes planning, design, operation, maintenance, and improvement. The complaints-handling process described by this standard is suitable for use as one of the processes of an overall quality management system.

The ISO 10002:2014 standard addresses the following aspects of complaints handling:

• It enhances customer satisfaction by creating a customer-focused environment that is open to feedback (including complaints), resolving any complaints received, and enhancing the organization’s ability to improve its product and customer service;
• top management involvement and commitment through adequate acquisition and deployment of resources, including personnel training;
• recognizing and addressing the needs and expectations of complainants;
• providing complainants with an open, effective, and easy-to-use complaints process;
• analyzing and evaluating complaints to improve the product and customer service quality;
• auditing of the complaints-handling process;
• reviewing the effectiveness and efficiency of the complaints-handling process.

In brief, ISO 10002 will ensure:

• Better customer relationships
• Continual improvement of processes
• A transparent system
• Higher levels of customer satisfaction
• Brand improvement
• Management focus