Working in Customer care in the Construction Industry can be a very difficult job.
Whether you are dealing with a new home-owner or a large public sector client, they expect the same level of Customer service that you promised them at the start of the contract or reservation of their new home.
Ensuring that your Customer Care team have the resources available and support from senior management is fundamental to the success or failure of the Customer Service experience your company delivers.
Consumers in the UK today combine research and shopping into one continuous process with most of it happening on-line across a range of devices.
They may start on a laptop or tablet and continue the process on their smart phone.
Your clients and home-owners can find most of the pre-purchase information they want on-line, relying less and less on sales people and direct interaction with your companies’ representatives.
Construction companies still underestimate the impact that the quality of customer service has on their relationship with their customers and prospects.
Traditionally a Customer Care telephone number and an e-mail address will be provided on handover, but is this enough?
Could your company provide a seamless Omni channel experience to meet your Customers pre-sales experience expectations?
Enabling purchasers and clients to find answers and report issues quickly through on-line platforms is the present accepted norm for Customer Care in other sectors but not in the Construction Industry.
Self service Customer care should inspire businesses to improve.
Here are 4 basic guidelines that any company can implement to create a foundation for excellent customer service and empower the whole team.
1. Store all your knowledge in one place.
Upload all of your product information, handover forms, appliance manuals, new home-owner guides, and O&M manuals for true collaboration with the new home-owners and clients. All users can login and view the information in real-time and can request further information if required.
Traditionally, this information has been stored on folders within separate departments and not accessible from a unified view or by everyone. This prevents customer care team members from having all of the information required to give accurate information. When you continually provide the resources required for clients and purchasers, next time they have a need they will turn to you as the trusted source of information instead of searching elsewhere or on social channels.
2. The whole team has access to the single-truth.
Ensure all historic correspondence and milestones are stored on one platform, accessible to all of the team.
This enables all of your team to view each client or home-owners information in real-time. No customer or client likes to explain their issues twice; view their data, provide an accurate up-date and solve their problems quickly.
This clear audit trail provides all historical correspondence and enables other members of the team not involved in Customer Care to catch up on an escalated issues in seconds to provide an accurate up-dates. This eliminates your clients and home-owners getting different versions of the truth from other members of your team and taking to social networks to air their grievance…
3. Never ask your home-owners or clients to take a leap of faith.
Many companies forget about the customer after they’ve made the purchase, but the post-purchase experience is just as important as the pre-purchase or pre-contract.
New home-owners and clients who have a bad support experience are far more likely to spread their unhappiness through social channels, blogs, and other avenues… which influences others to go to your competition.
Enabling the New home-owners and clients to login to their personalised dashboard area to capture defects and repairs, view support documents and view product information instantly can be invaluable. This Omni channel approach is consistent with their pre-sales experience and will cement your companies’ reputation for excellent Customer Care.
4. Don’t forget your Sub-contractors:
Your company can’t commit to your Customer care expectations if your sub-contractors are not aware of your policy. Your Sub-Contractors are pivotal to your Service levels. They should be made aware of what is expected of them when they are representing your company on-site or in occupied homes.
Provide a collaborative platform to work together on defects and repairs, sharing documents, encouraging teamwork and creating efficiencies.
Take control of your Customer Care today, empower your purchasers and clients to collaborate with you on their defects and repairs. clixifix will provide your business with a platform for your invited users to sign in and report their issues regarding their new home in real-time from anywhere that has an Internet connection. 100% web-based, no software to download or install, no training required. You and your team will see the benefits in a matter of days.
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