YouSee want to create great customer experiences as well as reduce unacceptable events for the customers. In order to succeed, the complaints team needed to fully understand the emotional dimensions of the customer journey. Being able to empathize with the customers in this touchpoint was critical in order to both help solve the problems and convert prior negative feeling into overall positive experiences.
We decided to explore and map the predominant feelings of the customers in the complaint process. These insights were gathered through exploratory qualitative interviews with customers who had recently been in contact with the complaints department. The insights were activated and prioritized in workshops with the complaints department, and further we co-created ideas and prototypes for how the team could work with the 3 predominant feelings which had been mapped.
YouSee have introduced a new way of working with feelings as a strategic tool. Not only did it show great impact on the customer satisfaction and customer experiences, it also affected the employees’ perception positively resulting in better work-life. The complaints department now uses ‘conversation guides’ with detailed descriptions of the three predominant feelings identified, how to detect them, and how to handle them. Working strategically with the emotional dimension of the customer journey YouSee have converted the customers feeling from irritated, powerless or disappointed into feelings of increased satisfaction and held in hand.
What should the complaints department team do differently in order to improve the customer's emotional experience of contact with complaints handling?
Handling complex emotions
When a customer ends up in the complaints department, they’ve probably had one or several bad experiences related to the product or service they are buying. The emotions these customers show toward the service agents who is processing the complaint is therefore seldom based on the actual interaction but reflects the overall journey through the company.
YouSee have decided to strategically focus on improving the customer centric starting point of the business as well as improving the customer experience by focusing on the emotional dimension of the touchpoints of the complaints department. Although YouSee were aware of pains rooted elsewhere in the customer journey, the complaints department needed tools and support in order to improve the customer contact as well as the customer experience.
How did we approach the problem
In order to gain the right insights with the right depth for YouSee we conducted explorative qualitative interviews. We covered the needs and emotional states of the target group using the qualitative methods by means of the framework jobs-to-be done. Using the explorative framework we were able to get under the skin of the customers.
The identified job-to-be-done were then prioritized in a co-creation process with YouSee, defining gaps for YouSee to close, as well as practical solutions and execution plans based on the insights.
The methods applied were inspired by Tempkin’s customer experience approach characterized by the three main drivers of the customer experience - Success, Emotion and Effort.
Key outputs for YouSEE
The complaints team was able to improve the customer experience by meeting customers differently, understanding and handling their needs and emotions in the customer contact.
Tools enabling the employees to detect, understand and handle the customer’s feelings.
A new structured and customer centric approach to working with and handling complaints - getting closer to the customers and ergo being able to convert them into positive feelings.
Identifying the customers’ feelings, the jobs to be done as well as the drivers of the customers’ feelings (their emotional spectrum)
Providing KPI’s and monitoring tools for YouSee enabling them to monitor the progress in the customer experience and customer satisfaction
Improving the customer experience by developing clear descriptions of the three predominant emotions as well as a conversation guide
GET IN TOUCH
