Having and maintaining happy customers is the goal of every developing business.
Customers want to be heard, and your customer service team must provide immediate solutions. Of course some complaint cases will take a prolonged time to resolve, and that is where effective escalation management techniques become useful. How do you address potentially aggravated customers? Or how do you calm an aggrieved client that demands immediate solutions? That’s what this post addresses.
"We will discuss important escalation management principles and how to implement them in your customer service teams. We will also cover fundamental tips to manage complicated customer service scenarios."
What is customer service escalation?
Imagine a scenario where a customer experiences difficulties with a product. The client messages the support agent who couldn’t provide the best solution. So, he passes the issue to another agent or department. Now, that’s escalation management. We have two customer escalation types: functional and hierarchical escalation. You might use either or both, depending on the specific situation.
What is functional escalation?
This escalation occurs when the support agent immediately discovers they don’t have the resources to solve the received client’s enquiry. Either it is beyond their normal duties or another support department's scope. So, the agent transfers the customer’s request to a more qualified agent. That’s referred to as functional escalation.
What is hierarchical escalation?
See this situation where a solution to a customer’s request is unduly taking longer than expected, or the customer is impatient to allow the normal escalation process.
Ideally, such cases are transferred to a higher level staff or supervisor better qualified to handle the situation. The time frame stipulated before it gets transferred to a more senior member is the Service Level Agreement (SLA). Another situation is where a customer interacts with a live chatbot that automatically redirects the chat to a human support agent for more personalized solutions. Hierarchical escalation strategies are put in place to ensure customers are satisfied when they mention their complaints.
Here are 5 escalation management tips for your business:
Now that we have explained the escalation management types let’s check the best escalation management strategies to implement.
1. Set up an internal service level agreement (SLA). Creating SLAs vary among different companies. They are simply agreements that explain the quality of service a business promises to provide the customers. For instance, the SLA for your customer support team will regulate how your rep serves the customers. It guides how service-related emails are treated and a benchmark time to respond to them. Hence, it is a strategy to regulate internal business standards between team members with specific reference to escalation management. A good internal SLA should determine how you prioritize all received customer enquiries.
2. Have a planned escalation management strategy. The established escalation management structure is fundamental to the success of the process. An ideal strategy is having an automatic process that the client’s queries pass through before getting resolved. Teams should be assigned to the simple escalation processes, with specialists available for the more complex technical ones. It’s also best to have different pathways, depending on the platform the customer chose to send their issues. These platforms should all be connected to allow a standard omnichannel experience.
It’s all about providing the required assistance to the customer. Complicated issues are referred to higher-level staff. Time is also crucial. Therefore, always involve the right person on time. That’s why automation of the internal SLA is usually recommended.
3. Train your members on better escalation management methods. Provide your team members with adequate support tools to help them manage customer complaints and issues. Every developing company should have customer service software integrated with the internal SLAs. It allows support materials such as a shared inbox system. Other physical hardware like noise cancelling headsets or equipment for high audio and quality phone support should be considered.
4. Educate customer support agents. Soft skills like empathy, active listening and clarity are fundamental in engaging customer interactions. Your support agents must be empathetic when attending to customer challenges. They should prioritize the customer and find ways to align with their expectations. Additional skills like active listening are also beneficial since it helps your support reps to discover the root cause of a customer issue and the best solution. It is not just about listening and jotting down what they say. Customer agents should also be able to analyze stated facts and know how to ask important questions that smoothen the escalation management process. The other soft skill is clarity, which explains how customers like to be in the know. Keep them posted about the resolution process and further explain the root causes of the specific challenges they face. They feel informed, act more patiently and contribute whatever information you require. Remember that effective education strategies are essential for building these core values among your support agents. Customer support training is worth the investment.
5. Learn from previous escalations and work towards more successful implementations. We understand that some escalation management processes might not turn out as desired. That should not discourage you. Rather, evaluate the whole process. Think of possible points you got wrong and how things could have been improved. It helps improve and avoid repeating previous mistakes. You can start by tracking every stage of the escalation management phase. It allows a reevaluation after the process is complete and ensures accountability. You discover your weaknesses and work on solving them.
Improving customer escalation management practices. One bad experience. Just one! That's all it takes for customers to lose interest n your business and check the competitors. Also, one very good escalation management phase can be all it takes for the client to gain full trust in your services. That’s the beauty of customer escalation, and it explains why it is so essential that your team is properly trained. Establish an effective strategy to manage customer expectations and resolve arising pain points.
