Customer Service Etiquette V1.2

Overview 

Customer Service Etiquette is how you interact with customers with their contact to the business via call.

General Principles 

1. POPI Customer Verification 

• When inbound contact is made by a customer agents must ensure they follow the POPI Security Questions.
• All security vetting questions related to inbound and outbound customer contacts can be found in the POPI FOOD CS SOP
• Steps to be followed before assisting any customers with regards to their order queries.

2. Tips when interacting with Customers 

• Be consistent 
• Speak in a calm tone 
• Be audible 
• Never interrupt 
• Actively listen to the customer 
• Remember that you are the professional and you have the answers, do not doubt your training.

3. Time Management 

• Generally a call with a customer should take 5 minutes depending on the severity of the situation. 
• Once you are finished on the line with the customer make sure you pause on One Agent with the reason code being either ‘After Call Handling Time’ or ‘Escalation’. 
• After Call Handling Time = This reason code is for you to classify your phone call ticket accordingly, adding the necessary notes on Mr D Food Admin and/or creating a ticket for the customer to respond with images if necessary. Max time allowed for this reason code is 2 minutes. 
• Escalation = This reason code is for you to escalate a particular matter to the relevant department if needed. Max time allowed for this reason code is 5 minutes.

1. Call Flow Guidelines 

1.1	Greeting: Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening  You are speaking to [ Your name ] from Mr D Food, how may I be of assistance? *Refer to POPI if the customer queries something in relation to an account.
1.2	Listening: Actively listen to the customer query and start assessing ways in which you are able to resolve the customer.  Do not interrupt the customer when they are speaking, wait until there is a pause in the conversation in order for you to speak.  Make sure the ‘dead air’ is managed effectively when speaking to the customer - a good way to do this is to ask questions regarding the query to get an even better idea of how you are able to resolve the customer.
1.3	Dead Air: Dead air is described as the period where there are no words spoken between you and the customer either because you are searching for their profile on admin or you are busy investigating their order. Dead air needs to be managed in order for you to create a pleasant experience for the customer and to build a relationship between the brand ( i.e Mr D Food) and the customer.  When you experience dead air on the call keep the customer speaking to you by asking them questions surrounding their order i.e “ I see you ordered from McDonalds, is this your favorite restaurant” think of ways to keep the customer talking as this creates a better customer experience.
1.4	Action: Take ownership of the customers' query and resolve their query to the best of your ability.  Apologize to the customer if they have had a bad experience with Mr D Food.  Reassure the customer that you will be resolving the matter and create a tone of urgency so the customer feels confident in your ability. If images are required, advise the customer that you will send them an email and they need to respond to that email with the required images and resolve the customer.
1.5	Closing: Once you have resolved the caller’s query or completed what was required of you to progress the customer’s query  it is important to summarize the call. As an example “you’ve called in to query the item that you did not receive from the restaurant and based on this information we have since provided you with a coupon to the value of Rxx.xx. This coupon can be used as a credit on your next order with us. We will also be notifying the restaurant of this mistake to avoid similar events in future  When wrapping up the call, always ask “is there anything else I can assist you with?”. This allows the customer to ask any questions that he/she might have missed  If you receive confirmation that there are no further queries, always close the call by using a branded closing statement “Thank you for calling Mr D Food”
1.6	Managing rude customers: Customer using abusive language. The Agent needs to: Say the following script “ [insert caller name], I’m on your side and am sure I’ll be able to solve your problem. Could you refrain from using abusive language?” Should the customer continue “[insert caller name], I’m sorry we’re not able to continue with this phone call in a professional manner. I will be disconnecting the call and referring this interaction to my superior/manager for further resolution”  Agent disconnects the call and escalates to MOD. The Customer is abusive and irrational. “ I’m sorry you feel this way  [insert caller name]. Please allow me to refer this conversation to my superior/manager for further resolution. Agent puts caller on hold and escalates to MOD for a quick discussion and ultimately a warm transfer to MOD’s phone. The  Customer is racist (in general). The Agent needs to:  Say the following script “[insert caller name], I don’t agree with your earlier comment and would need to report this to my superior. If you’d like to continue with this call kindly refrain from using racist remarks” or Racist attack on agent: “I’m sorry [insert callers name] I can’t allow this conversation to continue. I will be disconnecting the call and refer this interaction to my superior/manager for further resolution” The agent is to  disconnect the call and escalate to MOD.

2. Call Avoidance 

2.1	What is Call Avoidance?  Contact Avoidance refers to any deliberate method of avoiding contact, i.e. an email or telephone call from a customer. This also refers to an agent neglecting to report any technical default on their telephones or computers which may have resulted in the “dropping” of calls or not being able to respond to a query. When there is no customer on the other side of the telephone. The Agent needs to: read Dead air script: “Hello, if you can hear me I need to disconnect this call as I’m not able to hear you”   call the telephone number (if available) and try to re-establish contact with the customer.  It is important that the agent completes business outcomes or the applicable Zendesk Forms.
2.2	How it is dealt with  Should an employee drop, or terminate a call, fail to report a call that was dropped or avoid taking incoming calls or emails, this may constitute negligence and/or deliberate failure or refusal to perform your function and will be subject to disciplinary action.
2.3	Examples of Call Avoidance (Relevant to CS/RS/OS)  This includes but is not limited to the following actions:     Using the “Party” Line. Example receiving a phone call and activating a conference line, only to leave the customer on an abandoned line     Manipulating the system so that the agent goes to the back of the queue.  Example: toggling between various work states to force the agent to the back of the queue     Use of “Hold” to get the client to drop the call     Any manipulation of work state with the aim to avoid receiving phone calls.     Failure to report “missed calls” immediately after they occur, Gchat with MOD is sufficient     Disconnecting calls on customers     Avoiding, or failing to make call backs to customers     Remaining silent when answering a call in an attempt to allow the client to believe there is a technical fault     Transferring client back into queue without authorization     Transferring cases into unapproved queues     Ticket bouncing between agents. For example, transferring a ticket from one agent to another without valid reason and in so doing avoiding the contact. Tickets may only be reassigned to another agent by the appointed Manager on Duty.     Transferring a ticket to another department or person, without responding to the customer first, also known as “cold transferring” of phone calls.     Solving tickets, without any response to customers.      Placing a Ticket on the “Pending” status with no customer action resulting in the ticket auto solving.

3.1 Email Etiquette ( RS ) 

3.1.1	Check Spelling  Before sending an email/responding to the store, ensure that you have done a spelling check - Google Grammarly
3.1.2	Acknowledge the Stores requests  Ensure that you respond to all the Stores questions in sufficient detail and as an added measure of certainty read the email you intend to send aloud for confidence that this certainly does!
3.1.3	Individualize  Always have a Customer Centric approach in your responses to the Store i.e "I have included your Account Manager who is fully versed to assist you with regards to your Analytics Dashboard."