
Following up on my article on team efficiencies, I’ve written a new Pulse article for Yes And Improv about using improvisation to improve customer service. Here’s a snippet:
Do your customer service staff mostly read from a script when helping your customers, or are they allowed to go a bit free form in their responses? Do they feel prepared to handle the unexpected? Here’s a quick experiment to try: give your customer service team a call pretending to be a customer, and ask them something completely off-the-wall that they wouldn’t expect or are specifically trained to handle.
For instance, if you’re in the software business, rather than looking for help with a faulty installation, say that your lawn mower won’t start anymore. What kind of response do you get in return? Does the person on the other end of the phone have a spiteful tone towards you? Do you trip up their scripted response? Or do they chuckle while politely mentioning that you almost undoubtedly have the wrong number, perhaps half-jokingly suggesting how your organization’s actual product might be of use to you in the future?
Check out the rest of the article here!