FAQs on how to perform performance appraisal by e-commerce customer service

As we all know, e-commerce has reached a stage of fierce competition. During the communication process, most teams found that they ignored or were not valued in customer service. After talking to most e-commerce companies, I found a big problem: many big sellers have gradually attached importance to customer service. To what extent do they pay attention to? Treat them as a sales role. In addition to simply communicating with customers, there is also a part of the maintenance of sales and customer relationships, but many teams ignore this point. Nowadays, traffic is getting more and more expensive. Today I am honored to invite Mr. Zhou, NO.1 in the e-commerce industry to talk about topics about e-commerce management and customer service management.

Zhou Jun: Member of Laogao Crown Club, founder of MCGOR brand, Tmall Men's Package category TOP merchant, 3 years of experience in e-commerce training for traditional enterprises, and 7 years of practical experience in e-commerce retail.

Zhou Jun: Hello everyone, I am Zhou Jun, the founder of the Maizhe brand. Today I will focus on the successful experience of our Maizhe brand.

Zhou Jun: First of all, regarding this question, I would like to ask you: What position do you think customer service occupies in your team? Then you can develop a complete management system. I think the big problem now is that many e-commerce companies think that customer service is not important. The most important thing is naming or design, and then customer service; if you think so, it will be difficult for you to manage customer service very systematically. But our company has a concept, first in our company: product first, service second, operation third, service refers to customer service service to customers. Let me give you a good example, for example, a hot pot restaurant, everyone is familiar with it, right? Why is it awesome? This hot pot restaurant you need can give you any of your needs! Many people who have eaten think that the food may be the same, but their service makes you very satisfied with the food! In fact, we are the same. First of all, in our company, the customer service team is very important, including its income and the treatment they can give, and it will not make people feel that customer service is a less important role; we start with recruitment, including training, and finally to performance appraisal and rewards, they will receive better treatment. First of all, they will feel that they are important, so this is how our management philosophy begins.

Lao Gao: This is very well said, subverting many traditional ideas of e-commerce. Customer service is directly related to traffic conversion rate. In many cases, most e-commerce companies focus on traffic and even brush orders, but in the conversion process, customer service is not valued.

Zhou Jun: The overall traffic cost is very high now, which is obvious to all. Many people think that the conversion will be higher when swiping orders. However, if such high-cost traffic comes in and our customer service cannot capture the conversion, the more we spend on advertisements, the more waste we waste; if we catch the better on customer service, then I believe your conversion can be improved well. If your customer service cannot do it well, it will be difficult for you to make a hit product. If your customer service does a good job, making a hit product will be relatively easier! Therefore, when the conversion rate of our customer service is good, it can reach about 80%, and the difference is about 70%, so our conversion rate is relatively easy.

Lao Gao: This is the merchant with the highest conversion rate I have ever heard of. Some time ago, I was talking to a member of Jinguan Club. They were closer to this concept and they trained their customer service team to become sales customer service. At the beginning of last year, I saw a message that a certain brand went from simply evaluating the conversion rate of customer service to increasing KPI, which was the duration of customer service communication. He asked customer service to increase the stickiness of communication with customer service, including emotional communication and communication. I think this may be the future trend.

Zhou Jun: We have a data. The actual test is that when there are more questions and answers between customers and customer service, the higher its conversion rate! In fact, this principle is very simple, that is, the more customer service communicates with customers, the higher its conversion. So you can look at the data in your background. If your customer service has fewer Q&A and customers, I believe your conversion rate cannot be high. Because the customers don’t feel much care and service; if you serve well, there are more Q&A.

Lao Gao: I think future customer service should be more inclined to guide customer service, guiding customers’ needs for A to a shopping scenario, and naturally marketing B and C related marketing. So I think the concept of "sales customer service" is very well proposed.

Zhou Jun: There are two concepts in our company's customer service: one is sales-oriented customer service, of course this is related to my past sales experience; a customer service must learn to sell, which is a very important point. You must learn to recommend to customers. If you go back and look carefully at your customer service, you will find that most of the questions and answers are "Is it?" "Is there?" "When will the shipment be delivered?" Many questions are limited to this, and I think this cannot be called "customer service". In this way, the robot can answer these questions instead, so he (she) must be a sales-oriented customer service. We will find that two stores on the street next to each other, and may make the same products. One is crowded and the other is deserted. It may be because of their different services. Therefore, we must advocate sales-oriented customer service. Second, we are not yet mature, but we are operating now, called "passing-out style". What is "passing-out style"? It's all the problem, and it's best to end it when I come to me. If you don't want to transfer it to me, I will transfer it to him; after going around, I think the customer feels uncomfortable. It is best if a customer service can solve him, and the problem will end with me.

Lao Gao: It seems that a customer service is sitting rashly in front of the computer, just like the customer service guide in our physical store. That has a long guiding nature. The concept mentioned by Mr. Zhou just now is: it is a question-and-answer comparison. I think this is also a very good point of view. A customer service should be able to have deeper emotional communication with customers.

Zhou Jun: Of course there is another problem here. The reason why many e-commerce conversions are not good at present: their customer service receives a daily group order, hundreds or even thousands. If your customer service receives a daily number of orders and the Q&A rate is high, it is impossible to do it! I don’t even have time to reply to you, so what service are you talking about? So there is a data in our company that the daily order volume of a customer service is below 60, which means that he is relatively idle; 60-80 is more normal; 80-100, it is a little full, but I think it can also provide good service; the daily order volume is around 100-120, which is a bit difficult, and we must add people if we exceed 120. Because the customer service must have enough time, he will have more time to serve in Q&A. If a customer service in an enterprise receives about 1,000 customers a day, it is already great to answer such a simple question as "whether" for customers, what service should we talk about? It's simply impossible!

Zhou Jun: A company's daily customer service group orders are relatively idle if it is below 80, and 80-120 is more reasonable. We refer to the 8-hour working system. If you exceed it, you can change it appropriately. This quantity can provide better service to customers, eliminating the rest time. If the daily order volume exceeds 120, you have to wait. Our response time is basically controlled at around 20 seconds, because we found that the conversion rate plummeted once it exceeds 30 seconds. Our conversion time is controlled at around 20-25 seconds, and sometimes it will be faster. If your conversion rate cannot be controlled and the response time is long, it means that your customer service is too busy to receive too much. When you are too busy, customers have to wait. Everyone knows that people who do e-commerce now may be more impetuous, and buyers are the same. If you can't wait, the conversion rate will drop.

Zhou Jun: I think verbal persuasion is not easy, so I can only use data to convince. For example, it is recommended that the boss ask a small number of people to do this first. If the boss sees the effect, he will definitely agree. What is the hardest thing to change? It is a change in concept.

Zhou Jun: First of all, you will think of solutions when you have a concept. First of all, you think customer service management is not indifferent, it is very important. We should first train, and there is a complete set of systems in the training: a very complete system. For example, in our customer service management, each customer service should know what I can do, what I can’t do, what I have a standard to do, what I have a standard to do, what is the scale range? We all have a very detailed system. In addition to the system, we also have a very important and complete assessment system: performance assessment. We have a slogan: Any requirement without performance appraisal is nonsense! When you have these performances, everything the customer service does has a lot to do with its most direct income, so the boss must have this idea in order to instill it into the heart of the customer service. Many merchants only use sales commissions without performance appraisal. These systems must be improved; the rules must be well established and performance appraisal must be carried out. I once talked about how to conduct performance appraisal in Laogao Crown Club.

Zhou Jun: First of all, our company does not take up the job after 2-3 days of customer service training, and I don’t understand why we can take up the job in such a short time. We need to train at least half a month in our company. We will set what to do in the first three days and what to do in the next three days. In terms of customer service, we emphasize four elements: one is professionalism, two is confidence, three is enthusiasm, and the last is to dare to ask for it. When we come in, we cultivate the professionalism of customer service and have a very good understanding of the products - we must stay in our warehouse for a week and be familiar with our products. Let’s learn about Taobao’s system later, and then understand the company’s customer service system after getting it done, including what you can say, what you can’t say, and what you use to type fonts? What to use for color? What to use for font size? Including how long can you answer the phone? How long does it take to leave the position? Including if there is something to leave, how to hand over? We have a form and a charter in this series, and the customer service must be very clear. Then we have a complete Q&A system. Customer service must understand and answer all these Q&A questions so that I can get you to the computer; because it is very important for us to come here. Finally, let’s understand our assessment system. Our assessment system has a lot of content: conversion rate, response time, average customer price, and customer evaluation. After understanding these things, we will do this.

Lao Gao: Let me summarize it, it is standardization and processization.

Zhou Jun: We are standardized in the process, but our communication with customers is not standardized. Why? Because I think every customer comes here differently. What kind of people do our customer service meet and what they say the most. Our customer service doesn't care what we should reply; many large companies have such a misunderstanding: they edit the customer service into many quick replies, and you will reply to whatever questions the customer service asks. I think this is not particularly beneficial to a medium-sized seller and it feels inhumane.

Lao Gao: It is to standardize some bottom-line problems, and customer service deals with some flexible things. We must learn the awareness of sales and even the "wolf nature" of sales.

Zhou Jun: The most important thing about us is the conversion rate, which accounts for 50% of our assessment. Then we will evaluate the response time. If we are too busy to get busy, it will not be called service, so we care very much about the response time. Then we have another customer review, how does the customer evaluate our customer service. For example, when we call "10086", his customer service will speak to us very gently. Even if you scold a few words, he will definitely not respond. Why didn't he dare to respond? Because once you give him an unsatisfactory evaluation when you hang up the phone, his salary this month will have a great impact, so we care very much about the evaluations made by customers on our customer service. Another very important point is that our customer service needs to learn to sell; we cannot say what the customer wants and what we give you. We need to ask the customer service to recommend products to customers, new products or matching products, and customer service must have this skill. We have a task assessment every month: how much this product must be promoted, which is also a very important aspect. But we do not evaluate the sales of these things, because the average customer price is multiplied by the conversion rate, which is sales.

Zhou Jun: We think this is unfair to customer service. Let me give you a very simple example. For example, we are both customer service. We both sell men's bags. The lowest price of our company is only 59 yuan per small bag. You have a maximum price of 399 yuan. At this time, a customer came over and asked me to buy a 59 yuan bag, but the customer was very picky and troublesome. I used a lot of sales skills and the power of the gigantic people and finally got it done. At this time, a customer also came over and asked you about the 399 bag and asked you "whether or not", and you said there was, then you took a photo. At this time, you earned 399 yuan, and I only had 59 yuan. So your sales are higher than mine, but I demonstrate higher levels than you; is this an unfairness? Especially during the big promotion period, when "Double 11" and "Juhuasuan", the role of customer service is weak, and no one has time to place an order. At this time, due to luck or time, some customer service sales are much higher than others... I think this is an unfair manifestation. Our company's performance must provide customers with the ability, high transformation, good execution and sales ability to make their performance available and get the best income.

Zhou Jun: If you have fewer orders, the consultation volume will not be large. At this time, you should make the customer service professional and humanized, especially humanized, and how to talk about customers to the hearts. Your product may not have any advantages, but how he calls "rice" "gold", I think this is crucial. The less orders, the higher the requirements for customer service.

Zhou Jun: We have a complete set of KPI assessments. Our company has a very fair point: we know the salary of the customer service, and it is not the final decision. I think you have performed well this month, and I will give you a little more. Where can I make me feel comfortable, I will give you a little higher. We are not like this, we are the same to everyone. How much salary the customer service gets this month is achieved by myself, not by me. We have an assessment in it, with a bonus base of 100 points and above 90 points; a bonus base of 3,000 yuan for more than 90 points; a bonus base of 80-90 points is 2,000 yuan; a KPI assessment with less than 80 points, and a bonus base of only 1,000 yuan. For example, if the 90 points is 3,000 yuan, 3,000×0.9=2,700 yuan bonus; if the customer service reaches 89 points, it will be the 2,000 yuan bonus. At this time, he will work very hard because one point difference will have a big gap, so we will not evaluate sales.

Zhou Jun: 20 points. Different companies will have different ratios. Some products with very different customer orders may vary greatly, including those with a few dollars to several thousand dollars. I suggest evaluating the number of customer items. This is actually the same concept. Either the average customer price or the number of customer items is evaluated.

Zhou Jun: Our company has more than 40 people in total, and our customer service number is 11.

Zhou Jun: I have seen a customer service that has visited more than a dozen stores. I don’t understand how it was made. I think I definitely can’t do it. Our company has a regulation that under normal circumstances, one customer service can access up to two stores at most. In special circumstances, up to three, absolutely no more than three. And they all have primary and secondary aspects, one large and the other small are matched, because after all, people's energy is limited.

Zhou Jun: If your conversion rate is very high, his salary may be very different; then customer service will always pay attention to his conversion rate.

Lao Gao: Any company will be determined based on its own situation. For example, at this stage, which indicators are what you need most, then put this indicator into the KPI.

Zhou Jun: So we will adjust according to the actual situation. For example, when the conversion rate is very high, the average customer price will be a little higher.

Lao Gao: Different months and different seasons may be adjusted.

Zhou Jun: Depending on what your actual company lacks, any requirement without KPI assessment is nonsense.

Lao Gao: This is the guidance of human nature. If you are the most inaccurate, you will make up for whatever you lack.

Zhou Jun: It is formulated based on your own company. The daily inquiry order quantity I just mentioned, you can control the number of people based on your daily inquiry order quantity. The best ratio of inquiry is between 80-120, and the customer service has enough time to chat with customers. Of course, there are different differences depending on different products; if the daily inquiry volume exceeds 120, people must be added. If the number is less than 80, you can consider eliminating people at the end.

Zhou Jun: Different stores must have different indicators. We use the store as the assessment form. This store has several customer service participation, one important and the other, and some customer service needs to participate in two stores at the same time. An important store score of 100 points may be 80 points. We account for 60% of this store, and 80 points are multiplied by 0.6. The other stores may be all small stores, which may be only 40%. Maybe he also made an 80 point, 80 times 0.4, and the sum will be calculated as the average score. Different stores and different rights are also different.

Zhou Jun: There is one thing in our KPI assessment. When the exchange is over, we will ask customer service to actively send customers something that requires customer evaluation. No matter what the situation is, customers will give our customer service a good or bad review. After using this, I found that the overall service attitude of customer service will be much better! Our customer service guidelines are that there must be no head-on conflicts with customers under any circumstances! No matter whether the customer scolds you or insults you today, you cannot refute it. As long as there is any quarrel, you will be fired immediately once you find it.

Zhou Jun: Our company has more incentives and focuses on cultural aspects. Our customer service is not just ordinary customer service, but has different levels: divided into ordinary customer service, advanced customer service, elite customer service, expert customer service, and gold medal customer service. What kind of data and requirements he meets and slowly upgrades it is also an incentive method. If you reach a certain level and enter a circle, there are many benefits. Good customer service has more job opportunities. Of course, there is also salary, which is the most direct and indispensable part.

Zhou Jun: We mainly focus on Tmall, and we also have JD.com. First of all, there must be something wrong with your product or service; how to solve the problem if there is a bad review? We have very gentle customer service and contact customers by phone.

Zhou Jun: There will also be customers who deliberately make things difficult, but not many; our customer service has enough time to chat with him. The premise is that you cannot have conflicts with your customers, you must learn to practice Tai Chi slowly with them.

Zhou Jun: This phenomenon cannot be eliminated. There is a comment that goes into a reply. Find a way to reply to all the reviews on the page of the negative reviews. What kind of effect can this achieve? It means that customers don’t want to read the negative reviews when buying things.

Zhou Jun: You can’t even contact the phone, so you can only solve the problem through normal channels. We will find ways to leave messages and leave messages as much as possible; we have sent holiday greetings to customers for 20 consecutive days.

Zhou Jun: Any performance evaluation must be quantifiable, for example, the conversion rate is quantifiable, the average customer price, number of customers, response time, customer satisfaction, and the evaluation rate sent to customers can also be quantifiable. How many numbers have our products been pushed can also be quantified. We will evaluate these quantifiable things. Develop different tables according to the different weights of each item.

Zhou Jun: This is also a relatively general issue. From a data perspective, those with high assessment and high conversion are a good customer service. From another perspective, he is a "sales-oriented" customer service. If he can turn the service into his heart, that is a good customer service.

Zhou Jun: I have heard of exaggerated many large enterprises working for 10-12 hours! I think it's incredible! We need to be more humane from the perspective of customer service. We are divided into two shifts, the day shift is 8:30-5:30; the evening shift is 5:30 to 12:30, and we work a total of 7 hours. Evening shifts can be hard, half a month’s day shift, half a month’s evening shifts, and it’s the same for everyone, fair.

Zhou Jun: The key points of after-sales training, first: to satisfy customers, he can accept it; second: we can not make money, even if we lose less, as long as we can serve customers well; this is our bottom line.

Zhou Jun: This will test the level of customer service. How can customer service turn bargaining with customers into value? "Talking about interest" is a very important point for sales-oriented customer service. The customer will talk to you about the price and the value you talk to the customer. Be sure to guide customers, not be guided by them. Because what customers want is not cheap, but the feeling of being cheap. We will make our customers feel that they have made a profit by "cheap"!

Zhou Jun: Supervisors are very important. First of all, after the overall performance mechanism is evaluated, supervisors must also be included in this mechanism. The performance of the customer service supervisor and the performance of the customer service are jointly and severally responsible, and are combined. The average KPI and average salary of the customer service account for 60% of the customer service supervisor. If this customer service is good, all customer service is good; if all customer service is poor, then the customer service supervisor is also bad. Our team’s customer service supervisor has certain requirements. He has to check at least 50 chat records every day, and to conduct training on order loss meetings and training on excellent cases every week; including training on the latest skills and rules.