Customer Interactions: Interruptions or Opportunities?

The best customer service is if the customer doesn’t need to call you, doesn’t need to talk to you. It just works. – Jeff Bezos

This quote resonated with me this week, and it called to mind what Monika Gotzmann said in her recent blog post, “How to Gain a Competitive Edge by Updating Your Customer Service Culture,” about how businesses must make sure to provide access to DIY customer service materials. We know customers appreciate a well-stocked FAQ section, video tutorials, and forums to trade questions and answers.

As Monika said, we must be proactive in providing customers the materials they need to make progress on their own, and in most cases, an even better customer service experience is one in which the path forward is so clear that no problems or questions are encountered at all.

If customers are interacting with us for solutions and answers, are we already failing them?

Maybe. But on the flip side…

Is eliminating conversations with our customers in our best interest? Is that what we want?

Great customer service has the opportunity to do more than simply provide basic answers, though often, that’s exactly what the customer wants, and that’s the best thing to provide.

We have other opportunities when we speak to our customers. Opportunities to learn from their questions, in order to make the experience better for all; to allow our customers to inform our product roadmap
; and to make sure the customer is taking full advantage of the tools they have at their fingertips.

I think the best customer service is whatever helps the customer get to where they need to be, easily, quickly, and with the least amount of disruption, whether it requires interaction with us, or not.