If you have a leaky faucet, you have to identify the underlying issue in order to fix it. Sure, you can catch the drips in a bucket temporarily, but that doesn’t solve the problem.
The same is true for customer service. A bucket for the leaks (customer complaints) is not enough. You have to uncover the root causes. It’s critical to address problems before your leaks become an uncontrollable gush of water.
Not sure how to get started? We’ll cover some techniques to identify customer service problems and their causes. We also have some suggestions for fixing some common causes of customer service problems.
What is considered a customer service problem?
A customer service problem is an issue with the quality or effectiveness of your customer service. It’s different from other customer service issues within your business (like a billing question or a product malfunction).
No customer service team is perfect. There will always be one-off complaints from customers, even when a team provides great customer service. However, you need to address the issue when customer complaints are frequent or serious.
Common customer service problems include:
- Long wait times or delayed responses
- Inconsistent information from the customer service team
- Unresolved issues
- Being transferred multiple times
- Lack of follow-up
Any of these issues impact the quality of service you provide. And since 59% of customers will walk away after several bad experiences — even if they’d previously been loyal customers — customer service problems can be costly and lead to churn if they’re not addressed.
4 effective techniques to identify customer service problems
Not all customers will take the time to formally complain. The number of complaints you receive is likely a small fraction of the overall number of dissatisfied customers. That’s what makes identifying customer service problems so important, but it also may require a little digging.
1. Gather customer feedback
If you provide a survey, customers might fill it out — especially if they believe that filling out the survey could lead to change. (But if you send out multiple surveys and customer service problems aren’t addressed, you’ll quickly lose trust.) While survey response rates can be low, they can help you collect customer data in a standardized format.
You can also look at reviews and social media comments to see what customers are saying. This type of feedback gives you an idea of customers’ expectations and overall perception of your company. Of course, you’ll need to organize and categorize the data so you can act on it.
Sentiment analysis tools help you keep tabs on customer complaints. These tools automatically look for words or phrases customers use in phone calls and emails. For example, if a customer says to a rep, “You have to transfer me again?” a sentiment analysis tool will pick up that a customer is frustrated. With these tools, you can track customer complaints and pain points on autopilot.
2. Review past conversations
If you review interactions between your customers and service reps, you can identify potential customer service quality assurance issues. You might notice that reps aren’t following compliance guidelines or are providing inaccurate responses. You might even find that reps are responding with an off-brand tone.
Collecting information from various communication channels might sound time-consuming, but it doesn’t have to be. Instead of listening to live calls between your reps and customers, you can use call recording AI tools to capture calls automatically. These tools can also create transcripts and summaries that are faster to review.
You can also use call tags to automatically capture customer sentiment (such as feelings of frustration or anger). In OpenPhone, call tags are applied based on the sentiment or topics you want to track. That way, you can review tagged calls rather than sifting through all calls to find customer service problems.
As you review calls, you can use our customer service quality assurance checklist to keep track of issues you uncover.
3. Ask employees to share insights
Support reps are your direct link to your customers. Whether a customer expresses frustration outright in a call or email — or the employee senses it through the customer’s tone — they can tell you what types of issues are causing problems.
Encourage your frontline staff who respond to help desk tickets, emails, or texts to report recurring customer frustrations. This could be as simple as setting up a Slack channel or shared Google doc where employees can share common customer complaints.
You might also set up weekly meetings with the customer service team to discuss any frustrations that come up repeatedly. You’ll also want a 1:1 option if employees aren’t comfortable sharing issues within a large group.
4. Centralize common problems in a database
As you start reviewing customer service problems, it might be hard to tell which are recurring patterns versus one-off issues.
For this reason, you should create a system to log complaints — it can be as simple as a Google sheet with different categories. As the volume of customer interactions grows, you’ll want to use a cloud CRM or customer ticketing system.
Using call views in OpenPhone, you can get a list of all calls with complaint tags. OpenPhone also has native integrations with Salesforce and HubSpot, so you can log call data automatically. If you use a different CRM, you can rely on Zapier to send data from OpenPhone to your tool of choice. This will help you spot patterns over time.
💡 Learn more about using AI in customer communication to streamline customer service.
How to find the root cause of customer service issues
Identifying recurring customer service issues is the first step. Next, you have to figure out why they’re happening so you can address the root cause.
Ask questions with the “5 Whys” technique
Back in the 1930s, Toyota founder Sakichi Toyoda came up with a simple, effective way to do root cause analysis (RCA). This technique came to be known as the “5 Whys” — and Toyota still uses it today.
Here’s how it works.
1. Identify the problems or complaints using one of the techniques we covered in the last section. (Example: Multiple call transfers lead to dissatisfied customers.)
2. Ask “Why did this occur?” (Example: the first rep didn’t have the right information.)
3. Ask “Why did this occur?” again. (Example: the internal knowledge base doesn’t cover the answer to that customer’s problem, so the rep had to transfer the call to someone more experienced.)
4. Keep asking, “Why did this occur?” until you get to the root cause. (Example: no one has ownership of updating the knowledge base, so it becomes outdated.)
5. Create and implement solutions to fix the root cause. (Example: the customer support manager will update the knowledge base to make troubleshooting common issues easier.)
You should apply the “5 Whys” across all phases of the customer journey and cover all touchpoints.
Determine common root causes of customer service issues (and how to fix them)
Many customer service issues are common among support teams, and it won’t require a lot of digging to understand the root cause. You might notice a pattern among customer complaints and immediately know what’s causing the problem.
Staffing shortages
If you don’t have enough employees to cover the volume of customer inquiries, your customers will experience long wait times and/or delayed responses.
One solution is to hire more employees, but that might not be the best option for a small business. You can also use analytics to track your busiest times. You could add a part-time employee or use a third-party service for call overflow during those busy times rather than add a full-time employee.
Call routing can also help you streamline calls. With call routing, you can direct calls to a part-time employee or third party only when calls are unanswered by your primary support team. You can also use call routing to direct calls to different departments using a phone menu, so your support team isn’t spending time answering calls only to direct them elsewhere.
Reps lacking context
If reps don’t have the right context, they may rely on transferring calls or won’t offer customers the best solution. For example, if a customer calls to ask about a discount they were offered but the service rep doesn’t have access to previous discussions, the customer may have to repeat themselves, be put on hold, and/or be transferred.
With a shared inbox in OpenPhone, everyone on the team has access to all prior calls and texts with a customer. Customer service reps can also use internal threads to tag each other and quickly get up to speed or leave added details in custom contact notes.
Insufficient training
When customer service reps don’t have good training, they’ll provide inaccurate or incomplete answers. This leads to poor customer service and decreased first call resolution.
You can use call shadowing in your training program. With call shadowing, newer reps learn from reps with great customer service skills. They listen in on live calls that more experienced reps have with customers. Experienced reps can demonstrate active listening skills and how to ask open-ended questions so customers feel heard.
If call shadowing isn’t an option (because reps work different shifts, for example), you can use role-playing for common customer service questions and see how newer customer reps respond.
Your knowledge base and internal documentation should reinforce best practices and answers to common questions. Make sure your reps can easily find the resources they need, such as a guide that’s frequently emailed to customers or a repair technician’s schedule.
Lack of self-service options
While adding more staff is one way to address customer support volume, you can sometimes solve the problem by adding self-service options. If your customers have to lean on your support team for everything (like scheduling appointments or answering simple questions), you’re taking on unnecessary support requests.
Self-service options might include a Help center, FAQ page, self-scheduling and rescheduling appointments, or an AI-powered assistant to handle common issues. Aside from alleviating the burden on your customer service team, some customers may prefer self-service options. They can get the information they need without spending time on a phone call or email exchange.
Inefficient internal processes
Sometimes, your tools or processes bog down your customer service team. Poorly integrated systems might force your team to enter or look up information in multiple places, leading to slower response times. You may also have a lot of manual data entry or overly complex escalation policies that make it hard for reps to respond quickly while still complying with your internal processes.
As much as you can, automate repetitive tasks and workflows. You might also provide templates so your customer service representatives can reply more quickly. Audit your internal escalation process and make sure issues are only escalated when they’re outside the rep’s expertise (to avoid unnecessary transfers).
If you empower your reps to make decisions independently, you’ll provide faster resolution for your customers and a more streamlined process for your reps.
Resolve customer service issues with OpenPhone
The more efficient your customer service processes, the less likely you’ll run into customer service problems.
If you’re still in the process of identifying customer service problems and causes, OpenPhone can help boost customer satisfaction and improve the customer experience.
Call tags and call views let you quickly identify which interactions contain customer service problems. You can review the interactions with AI-powered transcripts and call summaries, which will help you determine the root cause. And OpenPhone’s shared inboxes and contact notes will give your team members the context they need to solve customer issues more effectively.
Get started with a free seven-day trial of OpenPhone to see if we’re a good fit for your team.
