One of the most fundamental values any organization can own is its brand. While some view a brand as the logo of a company, it is important to note that there is much more to take into consideration when we talk about building a brand. Branding is important for every type of company, including writing service companies.

While branding goes deeper than the logo for a company, the logo can be the trigger point for people to recall every bit of good or bad information they have gathered about a company over time. Branding is the term to describe the reputation of a company and everything, from an employee’s presentation, to the condition of the product or service, to the way they present their essay writing services, contributes to that reputation.

The relationship between customer experience and essay writing services

The idea of customer service is broad based and focused on the relationship between the employee and the customer. A writing service only focused on customer service is missing the opportunity to support and promote the brand of the organization. Company perspectives must evolve to incorporate the idea of the customer experience into the fabric of the culture of the company. Two key pieces of the customer experience are:

• The employee builds a relationship with a customer.
• How the employee helps a customer.

Customer perception

Customer perception drives the customer experience; while it may not be fair, perception is reality. Managing that perception is the responsibility of the front line and includes everything: location, employee presentation, phone skills, website functionality, email etiquette, and more.

What the customer sees is the reality. An example from a traditional work setting is when an employee goes to work wearing a dirty shirt untucked from his pants and a rip in his jeans. While he may be in line by wearing the company’s uniform, the message to the customer is that this person is slovenly and unkempt. The employee is a representative of the company and this reflects on the company values as a lack of attention to detail. An employee who doesn’t take pride in their personal appearance will struggle to connect and build a relationship with the customer. In addition, the employee damages the company brand.

The aforementioned comparison doesn’t exist for most writing services because customers don’t interact face-to-face with writers or customer support. With the boom of e-commerce, it is very probable that the client will never even see an employee in a traditional work setting and so how the customer is treated becomes the only opportunity to impress the customer. The perception of the employee once started with physical appearance, but more weight is given to how an employee engages with the customer.

For an essay writing service, the first impression is the website; the second impression is the online interaction with a customer representative. One reason you should only hire American writing services is because there is no language barrier. Most writing services outsource their customer support teams to Cyprus and other countries where English isn’t the primary language. Unlike other writing services, Ultius has a customer support office in the United States.

Whether the customer contacts a representative of the company via phone, email, online chat, or in person, the customer’s expectation is that the employee will be friendly, knowledgeable and effective at resolving the question or determining how best to help the customer. Each of these opportunities for interaction is explored in more detail to identify opportunities for improvement.

The customer experience over the phone

The phone experience is a great place to impress a customer. The ideal experience is for a customer to call and have a live person pick up after two to three rings. Many companies today utilize confusing phone trees or other automated services to save money on employee costs. While these systems probably do save money, the company loses the opportunity to engage the customer from the first ring. The Ultius support team is available 24/7 in our call center and our Client Success Specialists make sure to answer the phone in the first three rings.

A second customer frustration occurs when the employee speaks too fast or is unintelligible on the phone. Once past the initial greeting, the conversation moves to addressing the reason the customer called. In this phase, the employee must show that they are knowledgeable and personable while resolving the customer issue.

Another critical piece of the phone experience is for the employee who answers to speak clearly and with a friendly tone and build a relationship with the customer. Many times, a customer can tell if an employee is having a bad day just based on the tone of voice used on the phone. The worst thing a representative of an essay writing service can do is take out their frustrations on a customer reaching out with a problem. To avoid interactions with unhappy employees check Glassdoor reviews before you consider trying an online writing service.

Essay writing services should adopt a similar customer experience approach to Zappos. Personality plays a key role in how Zappos employees connect with their customers (Chafkin, 2009) on the phone. At Zappos, employees are hired based on their personality and ability to support the company value of PEC – Personal Emotional Connection (Chafkin, 2009). Each year, Zappos employees are required to write an essay on ‘How to Wow,’ which is included in an anthology of essays kept at Zappos HQ (Chafkin, 2009). This focus on the role the employees play in the customer experience via the phone has led Zappos to be one of the most successful online retailers.

The customer experience through written communication

Almost every company in existence today uses email and how an employee responds to a customer through email can support or hurt the customer’s relationship with the employee and company. Before you give a writing service your email, double check their security features because the impact of network security on essay writing services is astronomical. The 24/7 nature of email has led to expectations from the customer that an employee or company will be almost immediately responsive through email.

In addition to response times, customers judge the company based on the style of writing and errors in the writing. The customer also wants the answer to his or her inquiry responded to in a knowledgeable and helpful manner.

Companies can address building relationships through phone and email by investing more in the training of the employee. Bruce Temkin (2006), author of the book The Six Laws of Customer Experience, also encourages the investment of employee training. Temkin explains that the employees are the front line and an investment in the employees will pay off with high standards of customer service (Temkin, 2006, p. 6). Training is a critical piece of the employee’s role in the customer experience and can help eliminate issues in the employee’s response to the customer and provide the knowledge needed.

Working with difficult problems

Another measurement of the quality of the customer experience is how an employee works with a frustrated customer with a difficult problem. It is much easier to fail when handling dispute resolution than it is to get it right! Employees can fail in many ways.

First, the employee will fail if they don’t listen to the customer or interrupt as the customer is explaining the situation. The employee may not like the tone the customer is using or may feel attacked and try to interrupt and stop the flow of communication. This is very frustrating for the customer because the customer will feel like the employee doesn’t care about the situation.

The solution is for the employee to recognize that customers usually don’t call for support to attack representatives of a company. Difficult problems from frustrated customers should be viewed as opportunities for customer support to shine if they can resolve the issue to the customer’s satisfaction. To do this, the employee should listen to the customer’s situation in entirety and ask questions that help uncover all sides to the story.

The next challenge after listening to the customer is accepting responsibility for the experience the customer is going through. A poorly trained employee may become defensive and refuse to accept responsibility. A defensive employee will place the blame anywhere but back on themselves and the company. This is not productive because again, the customer’s perception is reality. It is not possible for an employee to ‘win’ an argument with a customer even if the employee is technically right because the customer’s perception will always be the customer’s truth.

The solution for the employee is to realize that the customer is providing valuable feedback and that they have an opportunity to fix the situation. Once the employee understands the customer’s situation, it is time to apologize. Many employees will balk at this step because the employee feels like they are telling the world it is their fault. The truth is that it does not matter who is at fault, and the employee can still apologize for what the customer is experiencing without assigning blame for the problem. The apology will help establish an empathetic connection between the employee and the customer and pave the way for resolving the situation.

The third step in working with a frustrated customer after listening and apologizing is to ask, “how can I help?” This question effectively empowers the customer and gives the customer control of the conversation and the situation. In addition, the customer’s solution may be very different, and possibly less expensive, than what the employee may have given as a standard response.

For example, imagine you buy an essay sample from a writing service company and the essay sample you receive isn’t the quality you expected. Usually, the writing service refund policy would be to have unlimited revisions until you are satisfied . In this case, you should call the company’s support staff and plead your case. You should be asked, “how can I help you” by the employee and you should suggest a 25% discount on a future order. This solution helps both the customer, and the writing company, because you get a discount and the company becomes aware of a writer underperforming.

Communication about the customer experience

The final step in working with a difficult problem is to share the experience with others in the organization. After all, communication is key which mean communication not just with customers but with the whole team. In an essay writing service company, the team may include writers, customer support, IT, marketing, and management. If a company does not learn from past mistakes, it is impossible to keep them from occurring again.

Many companies use internal sources like a company newsletter or reward employees who display initiative and outstanding customer service skills. A manager may use a meeting to publicly recognize the employee and share the story with other members of the team. Regardless of how the information is shared, an essay writing service focused on providing an amazing customer experience must learn from service issues to create solutions.

A writing service company’s brand is the most valuable asset the company owns. Providing an outstanding customer experience requires training employees to effectively communicate with the customer and building relationships. In addition, how an employee resolves a customer’s issue impacts the customer’s perception of the employee and company. A company that can successfully train both of these skills will ensure a successful customer experience.

Choose a writing service with a great customer experience

When customers buy essay samples from Ultius, it’s a simple and enjoyable customer experience thanks to our caring team and technological advancements. Remember, Ultius is on your SIDE because our core values are simplicity, innovation, discipline, and empowerment.

Our writers are all American graduates from American universities ready to help you succeed. Our Writer Success department is directly responsible for helping all of our writers succeed in regard to Ultius policies and best practices. We want our customers to have the best experience from the moment they place an order to the moment they receive it. For example, when you buy a research paper, you’re encouraged to provide feedback on the quality of your order and communication with your writer.

If you ever need help before or after you place an order, our friendly Client Success Specialists are available 24/7 via phone call, text message, Facebook Messenger, or live chat. Our lines of communication are always open to help you.

If you’re looking for the best customer experience, use our essay writing service to place an order, today!

References

Chafkin, M. (2009). The Zappos way of managing. Inc. Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090501/the-zappos-way-of-managing.html#/magazine/20090501/the-zappos-way-of-managing.html/4

Temkin, B. (2006). The six laws of customer experience: The fundamental truths that define how organizations treat customers. Waban, MA. Temkin Group.