A team of three researchers have published an interesting study on how companies can improve customer service by identifying their customers’ stress levels before they even connect with them.
For example, customers often feel uneasy about using certain services, such as a funeral director or divorce lawyer. By better understanding how your customers feel when they call your business, you can better manage their experience, which in turn helps you more effectively build a customer base of referrals and repeat business.
Researchers identified the following steps to managing stressed customers:
1. Find out how your customers feel when they need your services.
One of the reasons many breast cancer treatment centers are located in separate locations away from main hospital facilities is because women made their voices heard by the medical teams responsible for designing them: They wanted coordinated care in one place, but didn't feel comfortable in a hospital.
Use empathy to put yourself in your customers' shoes and transform their experience.
2. Hire not just for skills, but for attitude and personality.
Employees who love their jobs can't be trained. Passion and enthusiasm can't be taught, even in stressful professions like cancer nurses or funeral directors.
Make sure you hire team members who have empathy for customers and understand that business is all about customer service. It's much easier to teach the skills needed to do the job than it is to teach the desire to do the job.
3. Study your approach to customer behavior.
How does your business interact with customers? What is their experience like, from the first link online or over the phone to the payment option? Are your customers more stressed or less stressed than before?
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Address stressful interactions by providing information about your services. For example, what can customers expect when they call to view a listing?
4. Give customers more control over their services.
Dealing with a mechanic telling you that your engine is broken can be very stressful. Instead, be more specific and speak to your customers in language that even non-technical people can understand. Make sure your customer has a single point of contact throughout the entire interaction. Have a backup plan in case that person gets sick or goes on vacation.
Empower your customers through today's technology, for example, apps that track sales. Nowadays, there is no excuse for poor customer service or information.
We recommend the Harvard Business Review study for all real estate professionals. Leonard L. Berry, Scott W. Davis, and Jody Wilmet packed so much information into their report that it's impossible to cover it all here.