Good customer service, crucial for businesses

The interest in providing quality service and serving, educating and delighting customers has awakened in many Panamanian companies, because they are aware that this is an important factor in increasing sales and remaining on the market, first of all, because when talking about a problem in the country, there is general dissatisfaction.

The above holds more value because people consider customer service the main attribute that makes them brand loyal, according to the 2020 Trends Report. Zendesk Inc., a Danish-American company that provides software-as-a-service products related to customer support, sales, and other communications with customers.

An analysis of this and other data found that when customers feel ignored, have to repeat the same things, or don’t get a quick response, the company misses an opportunity to build loyalty.

For Fausto Recinoseducational director Family 360a company that has trained more than 25,000 people at home and abroad in customer service matters, there is a great deal of indifference in our country when it comes to staff training, as management sees it as a waste of resources.

“It has a lot to do with the fact that the business model has been working like this for years and they think that because it was efficient, it will stay that way, and it’s not,” he said.

Recinos has encountered a situation where customer service and attention workers don’t know how to deal with difficult customers, which is why they react in a way that exacerbates the conflict, but he admitted that he has had approaches with several companies that are trying to improve the situation.

Hospitality does not run away from this reality, it knows it well. Abraham Az, president of the Guatemalan restaurant union and general manager of Grupo Palermo Restaurants. According to Azo, who has been in the industry for more than 29 years, arrogance has to be put aside in Panama.

“I’ll be honest, I want to be clear and not mince words: we have to stop the arrogance. I talked about it with friends, colleagues and business people, and the first thing they told me is that it’s like, if you want to come and if you don’t , anyway, that’s where we start, everything has to be attacked at the root”, explained Az, who reminded that all is not lost because Panama is progressing little by little.

In the case of restaurants, Az recommended that you need to be clear about the concept and culture you intend to offer customers in order to achieve good communication.

Another element to consider is the image of the people who are personally in charge of customer service. Tania Hyman, Panamanian speaker, image consultant and communication coach, He said that today people understand that image is not something superficial, but is part of the first impression, and the failure on this issue mainly lies in not following the code of the dressing room of the company. Casual should not be confused with disheveled.

Hyman explained that communication is also important, where there are “forbidden words” that should not be mentioned to clients, not just what is said, but how it is said.

New technologies

The advent of the pandemic has led many companies to adopt new customer service technologies. Ángela Espitia, Commercial Director of Cari AI in Latam, pioneers in building chatbots with Artificial Intelligence (AI) In Latin America, he mentioned that people are not averse to technology, as long as they feel the changes are positive, so companies must adopt friendly technologies.

“When companies move to social media to serve their customers, which is part of what the pandemic has left us with, having different channels than the phone, you can’t do that with people, because it’s a completely different conversation management; you’re waiting on the phone, but I , the user, when I talk to my family or friends on WhatsApp, I want them to respond immediately, and as a company I need to understand those patterns and behave in a similar way,” he said, recalling that if a company doesn’t do it well, its competition it probably works.

Furthermore, he reminded that it is not only about the implementation of technology, but also about planning the entire user journey and the tools necessary for it.

exactly, Carmen Gerea, international consultant, researcher and teacherhe explained that companies see digital transformation processes or becoming omnichannel as a technological challenge, but what research and cases reveal globally is that the challenge is related to how service standards are defined. and that the strategy is not a vision, but is implemented.

All the mentioned experts will be present at the second customer service congress in Panama SED 2.0 “The Power of Customer Service: Strategies for Attracting, Retaining and Converting Customers”, which will take place on November 15th and 16th at the RIU Hotel in Barcelona. Tickets are on sale at Ticketplus, through the How much does it cost application, on the @familia360org Instagram profile. They can also be purchased by calling 6063-2199 or writing to [email protected].

READ ALSO: Renowned speakers will be at SED 2.0

According to the presenters, they hope to be able to share their experiences and that participants will leave with tools they can put into practice in their business, which will help them not only charge more, but also create a culture of service in Panama.