Digital Customer Service: Go for the Gold Creating a Service Culture of Excellence
Most service industries look at their competitors when trying to create standards for their own customer service. But copying what others are doing doesn’t have the desired effect of making you stand out from the crowd.
This is particularly evident in the title insurance industry where agencies often get their ideas from what other agents are doing or adopt ideas from new hires who share their experiences from positions they have held at other agencies in the past.
If you really want to raise the bar in your area it might be time to look farther afield.
Mining other service industries for ideas
It’s instructive to note that throughout the real estate, mortgage and title insurance industries, companies have shifted to online processes because the up-and-coming tech savvy generations were frustrated by:
- the physical trekking from the real estate office to the lender’s office to the title insurance agency
- the lengthy processes they were being put through to buy a house
- the foreign nature of the legal documents
- the lack of communication throughout the weeks between signing a contract and closing
Companies have tried to address these concerns by making it easier for homebuyers and sellers to move through the process from their desktops or smartphones. As a result, we now have a kind of bifurcated customer service challenge: in-person and digital.
Instead of just looking at what other title agencies are doing to improve customer service on both fronts, it might be helpful to look at what other industries have done to improve the customer experience in a way that optimizes in person service as well as the digital experience.
What companies have the best in-person customer service?
Do a deep dive on some of the top companies for in-person customer service. Look specifically for companies who focus on the in-person experience, Disney is often mentioned in Top 10 lists for best customer service but take a look at a variety of companies as well such as Starbucks, Trader Joe’s, the Ritz Carlton, Apple Stores. Study their philosophy and their approach to customer service and come up with a plan for adapting their award-winning tactics to your own approach to servicing your customers.
What companies offer the best digital customer service?
Companies like Uber, FedEx and HubSpot consistently come up on the radar as offering some of the best customer service in the digital world. Do some research into their approach and their methods and analyze your own digital communications to see where you can inject some of the top companies’ best practices.
Engage your staff in the process
Want to have a little bit of fun with this? Create a little internal competition within your own company, asking your employees to each choose a company to research and then have them present what they learned and any ideas they feel they could adapt to improving your in-person or digital customer service. Offer prizes to those who come up with the best ideas, such as a gift card or a free afternoon off.
At Alanna, we are all about helping you improve your customer experience protocols and would be happy to work with you on setting up effective text messages to all parties to the transaction, walking consumers through the title process or creating marketing campaigns for post-closing follow-up and client retention. Call us today to learn how we can enhance your customer service with our automated communications.