Operation Case | 25 perfect details, Apple after-sales service teaches us how to operate

We often come across many excellent operation cases in our daily life. By analyzing and reviewing the operation skills used in these projects and the operation thinking behind them, we can improve our own operation capabilities more efficiently. Every time you review, you are one step closer to excellent operations.

background

Recently, I placed an order for an MBP from Apple's official website. After getting used to the next-day delivery rhythm of domestic e-commerce , I became impatient with the official website's delay in arranging shipment, so I consulted customer service online to understand the situation. Although the problem was not solved in the end. But the good communication experience still surprised me. There are too many key points worth learning. Hence this case.

Most of the chat records are screenshoted as follows. I have marked the points that I think are worth learning and provided corresponding explanations. In total, there are as many as 25 locations.

1. Provide real-life photos of good-looking people, one male and one female. It can make users feel like they are having a conversation with the software and put themselves into the scene, which will instantly make them feel much calmer overall. Many large domestic websites and small but beautiful products have also used this technique.

2. Communicate with Lei immediately, same as above. The dividing line, name, and “communication” further create a scenario for users to communicate peacefully. Think about how frustrating it is when you want to make a complaint or seek help during daily shopping and see a robot customer service answering your question.

3. The handling of details on "Tuesday" once again makes people feel comfortable. To a large extent, it is because there is no harm without comparison, and the contrast with domestic Internet peers makes these details more likely to touch users. A good or bad experience for a user is the accumulation of many detailed factors in the experience.

4. "I am Liao Lei" and "I am customer service No. 08" and "Dear, I am Xiaomei" on Taobao . Let’s compare them. The user's psychological experience and the polish of the brand texture are shaped by these details. Both alienation and frivolity are counterproductive.

5. “Okay, okay” communication experience when chatting with friends;

6. "Product delivery" emphasizes problem location, giving users a sense of security and efficiency. These details may not necessarily help in actually solving user problems. But it will definitely greatly enhance the communication experience.

7. "Do not disconnect or leave this chat window." I believe this is a problem that many users often encounter when consulting. They do other things while waiting for customer service to reply. This will lead to the interruption of the problem-solving process. Although most of them are user-related operational problems, it will only further deteriorate the user experience overall. Proactively reminding users not to disconnect or leave can further solve such problems. Some Internet products and many Taobao stores have already used this technique.

8. "We" strengthens the sense of belonging and further creates a communication scenario when friends chat.

9. The need to provide information; every unnecessary step that users have to take will worsen the experience, so you need to use the power of copywriting to avoid this problem, and even turn it into a point that users can identify with.

10. "Carefully packaged"; processing of details of words. For the same thing, how to package it requires us to polish every word and sentence. Some merchants on Taobao also use this technique.

11. "The latest arrival time is September 15th" to accurately solve users' problems. "呢" is once again an interjection, further creating the scene.

12. Regarding the shipping issue that I am concerned about, they once again added their own solution. And be specific in the reminder details, and at the same time make it clear whether the user's email address is incorrect, and let the user know clearly which email address to check. In actual scenarios, many users will have multiple mailboxes at the same time, which is easy to confuse. Here is a clever way to solve this problem.

13. Proactively mention invoice matters to users. Many users must have come to consult their customer service specifically about invoice issues.

14. Proactively mentioning invoice issues can make users aware of relevant issues before problems occur. Avoid unnecessary doubts for users later, such as not seeing an invoice when receiving a courier.

15. The “typing” interaction form is very comfortable. Many domestic customer service software also have response prompts, but most of them are rather stiff and not obvious enough.

16. Then, after proactively mentioning the invoice issue, he began to systematically explain other related matters. This is another way of handling it that surprised me. The prompts are also handled very well.

(From here on, I happened to be busy with other things. The following is a one-sided conversation with Apple customer service.)

17. Reminder method for separate shipment of two products in the same order.

18. Then explain that users can easily check logistics information after receiving the email.

19. The form of sending electronic receipts and how to handle the warranty certificate issue that many users are concerned about.

20. "The format is PDF. If it is garbled, you need to download a PDF reader" is a highlight. This is also what makes it different from domestic Internet companies, including the already extreme Taobao stores. PDF problems must be problems that many users have reported. In the minds of most of us, PDF problems are problems that users need to solve themselves and have nothing to do with us. But Apple very cleverly put this problem into this link to solve it.

21. “Whether the product is activated or not, you can enjoy 14 days of unconditional return and exchange, which is also a small benefit.” What I want to explain is that with the support of the company's service policy, we can better inform users in this way.

22. "Important matters" and "Are you clear?" are still details.

23. Please pay attention to the way Apple customer service handled my situation after a long period of no interaction. Compared with the blunt inquiries and direct rejections of most domestic companies, there is also a lot to learn here.

24. "You must be very busy now", "Warm reminder to take care of yourself", "Can you still receive the messages sent to you?" You can feel it for yourself. No need for me to say more.

25. Please feel the words "I'm really sorry", "The weather is getting colder", "Take care of yourself", "Don't catch a cold" etc. again.

The above is an analysis and brief description of the key points of the overall service process. I believe that everyone can basically perceive which aspects can bring us improvement.

During this experience, some students may not agree with the handling of many details. However, I believe that the overall user experience must be far better than that of most domestic Internet companies.

We often say that only by exceeding users' expectations can we induce spontaneous dissemination among users. But in reality, how many people actually put it into practice? Through the analysis of the above Apple customer service cases, we can at least summarize the following basic methodologies for us to follow.

Operational skills level:

1. Use real-person avatars and real-person names to directly chat with friends;
2. When communicating, use more words like we, you, reduplicated words, and modal particles to create a chat scene with friends;
3. Combining it with specific current scenarios, such as Happy Tuesday, the weather is getting cooler, take care of your health and other user concerns, can easily touch users.

When we are pondering over words, a more efficient way is to get rid of the limitations of rhetoric and first think about what kind of communication experience we should give to users. Then, based on the corresponding scenario, you can output the complete speech in a natural and smooth process.

Operational thinking level:

• First, from a macro perspective, sort out all user feedback channels and common user issues;
• Secondly, these common user problems are qualitatively classified according to the chronological order of occurrence and the logic of the preceding triggering events.
• Then, according to the principle of solving the next problem for users, reorganize the common questions and the corresponding basic answers and the parts that exceed expectations.
• Finally, use technical means to strive for product-based solutions to efficiency issues and avoid incurring too much labor costs for customer service in order to handle these details.

Cognitive ability level

In terms of company operations, revenue efficiency and cost are two points that the boss always pays attention to. Whether it is to increase sales or reduce costs, it is necessary to pursue scale, and the most critical point in scale is standardization. Only standards can be copied.

Apple's service skills can be organized into basic service standards to achieve global service quality assurance from the two perspectives of productization and training.

So what thoughts can productization bring us? Is there a corresponding gadget to automatically create answers, and customer service staff only need to copy and paste, or can Apple technology achieve this? The person who answered my question above is actually a robot.

With product awareness, what we can do for users is not just to solve problems related to our products. Many scene-related issues, such as PDF format, can also be handled cleverly. It is precisely these extra steps that will become the point that can truly snatch users when the main functional points between you and your competitors are the same.

Doing more in every interaction with a user may seem like more work, but it will increase costs. On the contrary, there are three advantages:

1. Taking one more step can improve the user's current communication experience, which is what is emphasized above;

2. Most of the work we do is based on actual user feedback. In other words, even if these questions are not answered this time, users will still come to the official website for consultation when certain specific conditions occur in the future, such as not seeing the invoice when receiving the express delivery, two products in the same order are shipped separately, or the electronic receipt cannot be opened. And most of the time it comes with emotions. Although many of these problems, such as PDF format issues, have nothing to do with the company's products. However, users' qualitative misjudgment has cast doubts on the company's services and brand. These damages are ignored by most companies.

3. Take one more step. From the perspective of the entire user cycle, the comprehensive service cost must be the lowest. Because when many problems occur, they cannot be solved with just one or two sentences. When the problem has not occurred, a proper reminder can solve it.

From a user's perspective, whether it's the immersion in the scene like chatting with friends, the concern for physical health, or the advance reminders of subsequent important matters, I feel that the communication experience is simply perfect. This is an excellent case study in terms of operations.

What is hidden behind this may be a unified control solution for service standards, high-dimensional processing to improve customer solution efficiency, and reduction of comprehensive service costs for users throughout the entire service cycle.

What most people lack is the ability to see the user service experience from a higher dimension.