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How Customer Service Became A Product Itself At Mitsubishi

by Errol Greene, Clear Harbor LLC - November 21, 2016

How Customer Service Became a Product Itself at Mitsubishi

By Errol Greene, Clear Harbor LLC
 
To say Michelle Smith, Manager of Customer Care at Mitsubishi’s Suwanee, Georgia operations center, takes customer service seriously is an understatement. She’s a woman on a mission.
 
When Smith took over the position late in 2015, she had a vision for what she wanted from her team.    “I wanted our agents to relate to our customers as if they were their friend or relative. And I wanted our internal teams to feel and work as a family, as well.  I envisioned our service being so exceptional that it became a product in and of itself. But I knew there was work in front of us to get to that level.”
 
Needless to say, this service level would present a lofty goal for any support operation. Mitsubishi’s agents were definitely up to the task, but even the best CSR’s wouldn’t be able to achieve consistently high customer satisfaction without the tools they would need to enable this level of service.
 
Beginning with the understanding that you never get a second chance to make a first impression in customer service, Smith realized she had to get it right the first time. She decided that her agents needed to be experts that people trusted when they had a customer service challenge. She also didn’t want customers calling distributors regarding issues they should be calling the manufacturer for.
 
“I knew we would have to have consistent, standardized training, covering everything from very latest cutting-edge technical training to customer empathy. So I needed two strong skillsets in everyone I hired. And our team needed to understand and be able to relate this information before anyone else did, as we’re supporting our own technology.”
 
Step one was re-evaluating Mitsubishi’s IVR, making sure that there was no garbage talk or dead air, as most of their support calls were with technicians in the –often extremely hot—field. If someone is on a phone in a cool, comfortable building, it’s probably not a big deal if there are multiple IVR options to endure. However, being in a hot, humid area, or in freezing cold conditions, extra minutes wading through irrelevant options often equates to an angry call from pick up. By evaluating Mitsubishi’s IVR options to make sure they were direct and to the point, CSAT scores began to climb.
 
Step two began assembling with a group of well-trained, personable experts, with a proven proficiency at quickly solving problems and being able to relate often technical fixes to the customer. “On-going technical training is critical at Mitsubishi,” says Smith. “We continually provide classes that educate our CSR’s at the highest level, guaranteeing that when they are on the phone with an HVAC contractor, the contractor realizes they are talking with an expert who can and will solve their problem in minimal time.”
 
But no world class support operation can exist on technical skill alone. Soft skills training has been incorporated as well in order to handle the various personalities and challenges agents will face talking with customers in challenging situations.
 
“One soft-skills aspect of our technical training was learning how to empathetically end a phone call without the customer realizing they were being asked to hang up. To do this effectively, we first make sure the agents understand that the caller’s problem is 100% resolved to their satisfaction.
 
Once that’s clear, we have them ask, ‘What else can I help you with?’ or, ‘Is there anything else I can do for you?” Then, quickly thank them for calling. If done with the right tone, support calls are then completed in a timeframe that helps keep our AHT metrics consistently in the ‘good to excellent’ range.”
 
Finally, Smith continually looks for new, innovative ways to improve customer experience. From shortening time in the IVR to using InContact CRM to quickly pull up relevant customer and repair information; her goals are to continually seek ways to make Mitsubishi’s service so good that it becomes a sellable product in and of itself.
 
“My goal is to continuously seek ways we can improve and do things just a little better than we’re doing them today. By doing so, our service levels will reach a point that our competitors will be hard-pressed to match. We’ll have succeeded in making service at this level a deliverable that you only can get with Mitsubishi.”
 
And based on their recent metrics improvements, Michelle Smith seems well on her way to achieving that goal.
 
 
 

 
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