Business Intelligence Lowdown

Maximize the Utility of your Contact Center

We tend to look at contact centres as simply service-oriented cost centres that deal with customers as economically as possible. These views are now changing. Contact centres can move from being sole service-providers to value-providers by capitalising on every contact made within the centre. The key focus areas having the most impact on bottom-line profits are maximising on customer contacts, and customer retention. For this, Customer Service Representatives (CSR’s) will have to learn the art of cross-selling. To be able to do this, they need to be aware of all the various products or services provided by the company. Remember that when customers are made to swing to-and-fro from one department to the next for information of different products, it becomes extremely frustrating for the customer. To avoid this, hold product briefing sessions at least once a week, maintaining that each CSR will be multi-skilled in order to serve as a one-stop point of contact for the client. Also, CSRs need to be able to close the sale. One way to improve sales closure is to improve their knowledge of competitor products. CRM today reports:

Sometimes all it takes to complete a sale is to compare your own products or services to that offered by your competitors. Most customers would appreciate your help in providing comparisons with competitive products – you’re doing their homework for them – provided the information given is 100% correct.

When You Want CSRs To Care About Customers

Smart companies know that people who care about who they are, what they do and what kind of contribution they are making; are the kind who deliver a quality level of service in an effortless manner, and require very little managing. However, such people form a very small percentage of employees. How can we increase the numbers of people who care? We can do this by creating an environment where people feel cared about, feel valued, and where their personal growth is encouraged and nourished. We tend to believe that we can deprive people of those basic human needs and then expect that they will care for customers. This is a flawed belief. For customers, all else being equal, they prefer to deal with someone they like and trust. They look for caring. Customers seek value, and there is a high emotional content to value. To give customers the experience of caring, create an environment where employees are treated well, and re-frame the notion of what it is that we are here to do. CRM Today reports:

Firstly, we define service as reactive, something that happens after something else goes wrong. There is a distinct possibility that there is a negative connection in the mind with the word service. And secondly, we don’t think of the delivery of that service as a career worth even mentioning to our kids. There is food for thought there.

The Two-Years-Later Scenario for CRM

Though CRM practitioners can build the Business Case behind a CRM implementation, they still often struggle for presenting a scenario for the future-state business vision. Helping the client and their customers truly picture in their mind the future-state CRM-enabled business is definitely a challenge. The creation of a detailed "Two-Years-in-the-Life" scenario can help the client to articulate that future themselves. The building of this scenario involves bringing together a small group of forward-thinking sales and/or service representatives from the current-state touchpoints, selecting a point of time in the future, and selecting a customer segment. Next, begin storyboarding on a whiteboard or with flipcharts. You can tell the story of multiple customer interactions, across either multiple touchpoints, or an agreed period of time. You can work through the two-year timeline discussing possible interactions or "acts" across a customer lifecycle. Develop a scenario for each customer segment. This approach provides a qualitative business case for CRM expenditures. Also, when you couple this approach with a quantitative business case, you generate a great cost justification. CRM Today reports:

Our experience shows us that, once the future-state customer experience has been articulated, executives will use it as a tool to champion the cause - at board meetings, shareholder meetings, and Marketing communications.

How Branding Works

Building a brand is a process that takes time. Research shows that objective product quality alone does not explain the reason for customers selecting or not selecting a product; other factors are involved. Though you can reduce the time it takes to establish a new brand, sustained repurchase, a sign of loyalty, is gained over time. When positioning a product, remember that a brand image resides not so much in the product itself, as in perceptions. Also remember that your branding efforts might actually destroy your product if you fail to live upto the promise. Brands convey an identity, a set of associations and an image that goes beyond functions or performance of the product. Most important, brands raise expectations - people perceive a reduced risk (in terms of quality variations) when opting for branded products or services. CRM Today reports:

(There is a lesson) In David Ogilvy's deathless phrase: 'The consumer is not a moron. She is your wife!' Over the years, she has been sufficiently educated to know that store brands or cash-and-carry sales are excellent value for money. The frills absent in the store brands are irrelevant to the use of the product, so that when push comes to shove, she can afford to do without them.

Relationship Marketing

Companies, such as banks, have progressed from treating retail customers identically to implementing the 80/20 principle - realizing that 20% of the customers generate 80% of the profit; and strategizing accordingly. Relationship marketing is grounded in the idea of establishing a learning relationship with customers. Building a relationship can create cross-selling opportunities. When deciding which customers are worth the cost of long-term relationships, assess their lifetime value. Look at their current profitability computed at the customer level, the tendency of those customers to stay loyal, and expected revenues and costs of servicing such customers over the lifetime of the relationship. Relationships that make the most sense for the company are those whose lifetime value to the company is the highest. That is why, when building relationships, you should focus on customers who are currently the most profitable, likely to be the most profitable in the future, or likely to remain with the company for the foreseeable future and have acceptable levels of profitability. CRM Today reports:

Discovering preferences transparently means that the marketer learns the customers' needs without actually involving them. For example, the Ritz Carlton hotel makes a point of observing the choices that guests make and recording them. If a guest requests extra pillows, then extra pillows will be provided every time that person visits. At upmarket retailers, personal shoppers will record customers' preferences in sizes, styles, brands, colors, and price ranges and notify them when new merchandise appears or help them choose accessories.

Advantages of Outsourcing Call Center Services

Outsourcing call centre services is a tempting option for many companies; and it looks like this trend will continue. There are many advantages of outsourcing call center services:

• Companies don't have to bother with the expense and hassle associated with setting up their own call centres
• Companies can do away with the learning curve of establishing their own call centers
• Companies need not build, integrate, install and maintain systems, or seek planning permission
• Companies need not recruit and train staff and bother with the high turnover
• Outsourcing reduces capital outlay
• Outsourcing also removes the upfront costs associated with providing a service in-house
• Outsourced specialists can afford to invest in the latest call centre technology, such as web-enabling and predictive dialling
• Ousourced specialists have the know-how for getting the best out of technology to produce a first class service
• Ousourced specialists have the experience and expertise needed to run a call centre; also in terms of "people" management techniques
• Ousourced specialists have all round knowledge and a profound understanding of telephony, including networks, automatic call distribution (ACD) and computer telephony integration (CTI)
• Ousourced specialists will be able to offer comprehensive advice, anticipating issues and identifying the most effective solutions

CRM Today reports:

For example, Kingston incontact's Call Centre Hotel offers companies a fully serviced high quality resource for short to medium term call centre facilities. Offering flexible contract lengths, the Call Centre Hotel provides a variety of options, ranging from the call centre equivalent of bed and breakfast to full board.

Tools for Moving Your Customer Care Team Towards Excellence

We all expect front line customer service executives to treat customers well. We get upset if they are unhelpful or disrespectful. As managers who can influence their behavior, we first need to put ourselves in their shoes and understand issues that make them behave the way they do. Observing excellent customer care executives shows that these people know that they are valued by their company. The manager makes it a point to let them know how important they are to the company’s success. Their managers also continually reinforce that message, by recognising what the executive does well.

To convert our mediocre customer service representatives into excellent executives, we must first change our attitudes that assign them a second-class status. This change can be initiated by you - the manager - who can give people the respect, dignity and value they truly deserve. You can make a significant difference to how your staff performs, in a number of ways. Show the representatives that they matter. Recognize and appreciate when they are 'doing it right'. When they seem to be running low on fuel, give them time to regain a good state - ensure that they get a chance to recover themselves. You can convince your management to resource enough customer carers to be able to give people people regular breaks.

Another important aspect is the environment. Be sure that the environment is pleasant. The 'physical' environment issues include natural light, fresh air, color of walls, ergonomic furniture, comfortable seating arrangement, pleasant plants and pictures, individual and personalized work-spaces, opportunities and spaces for interpersonal interaction. easy access to drinks and snacks, and a pleasant cafeteria. It is important to note that in spite of the physical environment meeting all these requirements, it is still possible that the ‘feel’ of the place is oppressive, affecting work quality. You can influence the ‘feel’ by being with the staff, and by encouraging people to have fun. Also, it is vital that you give them permission to be human. CRM Today reports:

Sometimes they will make mistakes. How we deal with these mistakes can either reduce or enhance the likelihood of it happening again. It happens: the useful question is not, ‘Why did you do that?’ but, ‘What can we do to have a more useful result next time.’

When Customers Return Goods - An Opportunity

Can companies benefit from returns, complaints, and unhappy customers? Christmas brings with not only hectic shoppers who make many purchases, it also brings a lot of store returns. And THIS is something that online as well as physical stores are not prepared for. They have buffer staff ready weeks before christmas to cope with the added volumes of shoppers, but post-new year, they can lose business as many call centers and stores remain understaffed in these weeks. If companies can look at these customers who come in for returns with a different view (as an opportunity to get the customers coming back for more business), it can benefit the company. Customer service representatives at the frontline should be able to record, as well as handle customer inquiries as they arise. Irrespective of whether their location - a branch location, or the call center; having accurate information in terms of background will ensure that issues are dealt with immediately and major problems do not go unnoticed or stay hidden from senior management and key decision makers. To be at this level of efficiency, all channels of communication need to be integrated, whether they are letters, faxes, or phone calls. All communication channels should be combined into one centralized system so that you can optimize customer relations and staff efficiency. CRM Today reports:

Comprehensive databases that store and log every contact, regardless of the communication channel, need to be accessible by every customer-facing agent who may take a call or inquiry. If customers are already dissatisfied, for whatever reason, and then have to go through a long process of identifying themselves (what they bought, when, where, and how much), they will not look any more favorably on the company in question.

Required Changes for Broadband Service Providers

For the broadband service industry, customer service and support will play a vital role in the growth of residential broadband service. If the service providers do not go in for scalable, flexible service and support, they will find it difficult to meet their revenue goals. To ensure continued added-value for end-users, service providers need not resort to a long deployment cycle that won't produce immediate cost reductions or revenue increases. Instead, they need to focus on their current most vital problem first. The strategy is to first solve the most urgent problem first, demonstrate the value, and go then on to the next problem. Formulate a plan that will deliver new benefits continually. The sequence could possibly be - automated installation; basic support content; alerts; assisted service; self-service; and integration with CRM, network management tools, and provisioning tools. The final step is to extend support to non-technical problems. CRM Today reports:

Customer dissatisfaction typically begins with provisioning and continues from there. In fact, some analysts estimate that about half of the customers are dissatisfied with their installation experience. The customer tends to find the ensuing service and support frustrating, because most providers currently rely on the classic Helpdesk model with telephone, email or, sometimes, chat. These methods absolutely cannot keep up with the industry's growth. On the telephone, hold time can exceed one hour. Passing callers to and from ISP to DLEC to ILEC exacerbates frustration and 'customer churn' rates are 15 per cent and climbing.

The Future of CRM in the Marine Industry

Today, customers expect to be able to get in touch the seller when they want, where they want, and how they want. And this expectation is spreading to industries that traditionally did not fucus on such CRM initiatives - the marine industry, for instance. The challenge for consultants is to make industry leaders understand the power of proactively recognizing customer needs. They also need to understand the importance of having the ability to build on an existing customer relationship with effective CRM capabilities. Customers want different employees working for the service provider to be able to recognize, or get alerted to opportunities in which the customer is interested (e.g. a children's sailing program, for a customer who has little children). Customers are looking for a compelling customer experience where they get the opportunity to choose from several touchpoints and channels when dealing with the company, and in researching their options. Consultants need to be able to make marinos see that the customer experience needs to be so good that in spite of having options of several competing providers for the services he needs, the customer will remain loyal to the company in question because he recognizes that the relationship is founded on a keen understanding of his service and channel needs. And then, the customer's relationship with the marine company will grow in strength, just as it evolves in breadth. CRM Today reports:

Customers will greatly appreciate knowing what it will be like to do business with the company in the future. In fact, customers who are on the verge of defecting to a competitor who offers the latest whizbang touchpoint technology may decide to change their mind if they see that their existing service provider is, in fact, planning to deliver the same technology eventually.