Your interactions with customers define their perception of your product’s quality. The best designers in the world cannot overpower a jerk salesman or inept tech support worker. People will become confused, and things will break – they will call. Having a knowledgeable, empowered person to take their calls is what turns an ordinary product into an extraordinary experience.

Linksys is amazing at this. Networking is tricky – standards change, passwords get forgotten, and devices interfere. No problem, every time we call, someone (yes, in India) picks up and walks us through to a solution. Taking a customer from raging to raving in 5 minutes seconds – can your call center do that?

Here are some suggestions:

1. Build a vast, easy to navigate knowledgebase. Enable customers to use and update this database, at least by interacting, asking questions, and rating answers.
2. Train your employees to use the knowledgebase as humans, a point of reference – not a script!
3. Empower your employees: Let them take a customer’s number so they can call back if needed, let them investigate the issues and ask questions of the user (Linksys reps make us follow steps we take for granted – they are always right).
4. Go beyond – solve problems caused by systems other than your own. If the client thinks it’s related to your problem, then in their mind, you’re the problem. Fix that. Companies that help their clients, get helped in return.