Five threads to weaving a better customer service operation

In practise, however, many companies fall short of providing the quality of service that their customers demand. In today’s highly competitive world, where organisations have more direct contact than ever with their customers, this is clearly an issue that needs to be addressed. The challenge for companies is to establish a model that is both economically efficient and can help to drive customer satisfaction.

The contact centre is the primary mechanism for delivering customer service for many organisations. In general, customers understand the need for, and accept the use of contact centres as the first point of contact model. What they do not accept, though, is poor or inefficient service resulting from the use of contact centres. The consequences of customer dissatisfaction should not be underestimated. It used to be said that a satisfied customer would tell about ten people, whereas a dissatisfied one would inform 100 people. In the age of email and the Internet, however, bad news is likely to reach many more than 100 people. Just as we all now use the Internet to compare prices, so an increasing number of people also use it to gauge customer service as well.

In short, contact centres are in the front line of customer relationships and can influence the way in which the organisation is perceived by present and future customers – reinforcing or weakening brand values. This is why more and more companies are revisiting their contact centre operations in an attempt to enhance efficiencies and optimise customer retention and satisfaction.

Ultimately, a well organised customer service operation can have a positive impact on the bottom line. This article highlights five key areas on which organisations need to focus in order to enhance the delivery of customer service through their contact centre operations.

1. Ensuring the right balance between selling and service

When people get in touch with a contact centre they require some form of support or service. It may be a query, complaint, request for assistance or a sales enquiry. Supplying the required response should be the agent’s primary task.
In some case, though, the emphasis will be squarely on turning the contact into a sales opportunity for either cross-selling or up-selling. Unfortunately, this approach is often inappropriate: it is not what the caller wants or expects, and can alienate customers. It is far better to ensure that the customer is fully satisfied with the response to his or her enquiry and end the call. This leaves them happy and confident that the organisation and agent is focused on their needs and not on commercial objectives.

Whilst satisfied customers are a prime target for new sales opportunities, including cross-selling or up-selling, it is best to treat this as a separate exercise – perhaps the subject of a follow-up outbound call.

The point to emphasise is the need for a strong relationship between the sales and service sides of the organisation, something that will be picked up in more detail shortly.

2. Optimising use of interactive voice response (IVR) services

In today’s complex business environments, IVR is a fact of life. Ask most consumers what they think of them, though, and they may well launch into a tirade of how much they hate these impersonal automated services. Badly implemented IVR services can damage customer confidence, weaken reputations and frustrate customers. Yet the problem is not so much with the use of IVRs, but with the way they are used. Many people dislike them because they are not properly used. With a well thought-out and implemented system, consumers should hardly notice that they are using an IVR service.

In theory it should be easy: after all, we are all consumers and use other companies’ IVR services, so why are we not learning form others’ mistakes and applying the results to our own services? The secret is to ask the right questions – are the options clear and do they accurately reflect the reasons why people are calling in? It is critical to get this right and review it too often.

Most users are comfortable with a maximum of five menu choices. They should not be expected to follow through to more than two levels before they receive an answer or reach an agent. It is also essential to ensure that there is an easy way of shortcutting the recorded options and going directly to an agent.

Not all IVR services need human intervention. Where the customer interaction is straightforward and clear cut, people can save time with ‘self service’ transactional activities. This approach tends to works well where transactions can be carried out very quickly. Examples include: credit card validation, card and bank balance enquiries and in the public sector, confirming details on the electoral register.

Where human interaction is needed, the IVR system should be structured to ensure that customers are directed to the people best qualified to help them. All the information needed to deal with a customer’s issue should be at the finger tips of the agent when the call is made.

Whilst customers want to waste as little time as possible sorting out their problems, time is not necessarily the main consideration. Given the choice between a slightly lengthier call that produces a resolution and a shorter one that does not, the customers tend to prefer the former.

Resolution is the key, not only to driving customer satisfaction but also to lowering costs. First time resolution ensures a happy customer and also means that the issue does not need to be escalated further, which would incur further time and costs.

The temptation with IVR, as well as other aspects of customer service, is to place the emphasis on the technology involved rather than on its interaction with people. The key is to think of the human dimension and make the technology and processes operate in a people-friendly way.

3. Integrating all channels of communication

People do not compartmentalise the different forms of communication that they use – letters, phone calls, emails, SMS texts and web sites are all means to an end. Different people have their own preferences and many use more than one way of dealing with organisations. They expect these channels to be equally effective in securing a response.

Organisations often fail to integrate these channels, so when a customer says to an agent on the phone, “I wrote to you about this,” the agent is completely in the dark. Obviously, this is not at all satisfying for either party, and not the ideal way to start an interaction.
All communications’ channels must be integrated and agents need to have access to everything related to a specific customer’s enquiry and to be able to respond to it.

Hosted CRM is becoming increasingly important as a means of strengthening customer relationships. While voice communication remains a major part of customer interaction there is steady and noteworthy increase in the use of email and web self-service. Organisations must fully integrate their handling of these voice and non-voice vehicles, in this respect mirroring what customers do naturally.

Whilst it is perfectly legitimate to encourage the use of lower cost communication channels, it is essential that all of them work together seamlessly to the customer’s advantage.

4. Meaningful co-ordination between the sales, service and marketing functions

Integration does not just apply to channels of communication. It must apply as much, if not more, to the different customer-facing functions and departments within the company, including sales, marketing and customer service operations.

Too often there is inadequate co-operation between functions, leading to gaps in knowledge and poor service. One of the worst case scenarios here is where an organisation implements a strong marketing campaign (using advertising, promotions and offers), but the contact centre staff remain blissfully uninformed. Sales enquiries will then be channelled to agents who find themselves trying to respond to questions to which they have no answers. Customers will be similarly frustrated if, after being directed to a web address, they find that there is nothing there about the topic or that it is hidden somewhere on the site.

In essence, every channel of communication to which customers are directed should be primed and ready to respond professionally.

5. Appropriate use/realistic expectations of what cold outbound calling can deliver

Outbound calling plays an important role in customer service and building relationships, not to mention selling. Nevertheless, it is clear from American experience that outbound cold calling is declining. Many companies were finding it to be costly and not as effective as they expected. Misuse of outbound calls and ineffective call centres can do damage. Rather than saving money or generating revenue they can hurt reputations and undermine brand values.

Warm calling, by contrast, can be very productive. This involves building on existing customer relationships, following up on earlier enquiries or even complaints. Here lie the opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling.

Outbound calls are many people’s first exposure to offshore contact centres. Traditionally, there has been too much emphasis on the geographic location of these centres rather than their performance. Of course, they need to deliver and this requires excellent training and expert management to iron out any issues (overcoming the problem of foreign accents being an obvious example).

. . . In the final analysis

Delivering exceptional customer service can be a key differentiator for success in competitive markets. Contact centres may be here to stay, but there is no reason why they shouldn’t be customer-centric by design and efficient in operation. There is growing pool of experience pointing to achievements in customer service through the efficient use of contact centres (local and offshore), provided the resources and people are properly equipped and focused. For many organisations this can require a change of approach, the most essential being to see customer care as an asset of the organisation rather than merely as a cost to be managed.

Tim Manasseh
Vice President, Industry Solutions
Convergys