Devoted to the call center industry, the agents on the phones, and their managers

Roger at Modern Magellan drew my attention to Becky Carroll's interview with Diane Berenbaum, author of How to Talk to Customers.

What Diane wants is MAGIC - Make A Great Impression on the Customer. Some of her observations:

"I don’t think [customer] satisfaction is quite enough."

"It’s the first people that treat them well that they tend to stick with."

And when asked what makes a good customer service rep:

"To really stand out and make a difference, they need to focus on relationship skills like listening. That is not just listening to hear the first thing the customer says, it is really listening to understand what the customer wants, what their issues are, and why it is significant to them... To really listen at that kind of level, you give customers security and confidence, and that will be memorable."

It doesn't encourage good listening when agents are graded solely on the length of their calls and the number of calls taken per hour, and that's why Berenbaum encourages other metrics.

How much MAGIC do you see at call centers?