Mony Modes, One Voice

A single customer contact center presents one company message across e-mail, Web chat and telephone calls

As catalogers move business online, they are noticing an increase in the number of incoming calls to the call center. Theoretically, the Internet is supposed to reduce the number of calls. But Web sites, especially commerce-enabled ones, are generating more contact for catalogers.

Many of the incoming calls are for customer service. The customer is on the site, they have loaded up their shopping cart, but they have a question about the color, the size, the quantity or they can’t figure out how to complete the transaction. Other times, customers call because they are still afraid to release credit card numbers over the Internet.

According to USA Today, 67 percent of customers abandon their online shopping carts and never make a purchase. That statistic, coupled with the growing acceptance of e-mail and Web-enabled contact and the decline in use of fax and white mail, make it even more important for catalogers to forge ahead on all forms of contact.

Catalogers are facing a host of challenges for handling inbound contact volume. Most problems center on responding to e-mail and fulfilling orders placed on the Web. The issues include implementing Internet access in the call center so CSRs are better informed about the commerce site and can answer questions more effectively, predicting call volume, scheduling CSRs and training.

According to Clif Critchlow, vice president of sales for call center agency Convergys Corp., the call center’s physical configuration affects these issues.

Many catalogers are struggling with how to arrange the call center in the electronic age. Should the e-mail and Web-enabled CSRs be located near the CSRs or in another section? Myriad theories abound, but most catalogers have found more benefits in creating a single contact center.

Creating a Customer Contact Center

When iGo.com, formerly 1-800-Batteries, decided to upgrade its call center to take inbound calls from the Web, its most important decision was the call center’s physical arrangement.

For many catalogers, the hardest decision is where to place Web-enabled services within the call center. For iGo, the first attempt was to create two teams: Net reps and a Call Center Team. According to Debbie Moberly, director of growth and development for iGo, the split provided fragmented customer service because different messages were used for each medium. Instead, the center has recently been consolidated into a single Customer Contact Center housing both the call center team and Net reps. Moberly says this arrangement works best.

Building a cohesive customer contact center was not an easy task. It involved integrating new software products, developing new customer service policies and cross-training all customer contact workers. But the result is better customer service, better coverage due to improvements in rep scheduling and a higher level of satisfaction among reps. This was achieved by changing the way inbound calls were handled in the contact center.

Handling Calls

Inbound calls are routed in the iGo call center based on the skills of the reps and the priority of 800-number queuing. This means reps with the best Web-related skills primarily handling Internet contact, such as e-mail, chat and Web-related calls. But they are also cross-trained to handle catalog-based inbound calls.

In particular, scripting has made a big impact in iGo’s ability to distribute the calls evenly. iGo recently transitioned from using separate scripts for handling calls and responding to e-mails. Uniform scripting allows customer contact reps to switch from Web to catalog calls without having to shift too many mental gears.

In that vein, scripting has improved the company’s message because the same policies, philosophies and voice comes through. No longer are customers hearing one thing from call handlers and reading other information from the Net reps.

“We have completed the transition to one set of scripts for both the Web and the call center,” says Moberly. “This allows the customer to experience a seamless interaction with iGo.”

In terms of scheduling, the ability to have reps handle both e-mail and phone at the same time generates many improvements. Overall, the wide array of the reps’ skills allows the call center manager to redirect call and Web-related contact volume as necessary.

Training for Service and Selling

All of the changes in the call center revolve around the training of the reps. Each is trained to handle sales and customer service calls for both the Web and the phone. The reps must show proficiency before being permitted to work in a new medium.

Moberly said the training is set up like a college curriculum. There are a prerequisite number of classes reps must attend before working in each medium. Once completed, the rep practices along side another rep, who has already passed training, until they demonstrate proficiency through written examinations and real-time observations.

The training is very intense, covering everything from customer service skills and selling techniques to intimate knowledge of products, services and company policies for handling customer service issues. Today, customer contact reps handle almost any caller’s or e-mailer’s question without delay, made possible by the seamless contact center.

“They are all one group and are very much empowered to make their own decisions. Once again, we want to create a very fluid experience for our customers so they become comfortable contacting us through any medium,” says Moberly.

But customer service is just one side of the equation—reps must also be able to sell. Through role playing, iGo provides its reps opportunity to get comfortable with the company’s sales process, which is consultative, says Moberly. So, reps cross-sell and upsell based on customer need. Unlike scripted selling, this requires reps to build a relationship with the customer. To this end, iGo uses role playing to work through solutions and to develop listening skills.

“Based upon our product mix and our desire to provide consultative selling solutions, I think that [selling] our products can be more difficult [than customer service],” says Moberly. “The reps have the basic skills when it comes to dealing with customers, they just need to refine them based upon the contact.”

New Technology

Software integration was pivotal to the success of iGo’s customer contact center. The company uses products to provide live chat and to manage e-mail.

iGo chose Facetime Communications as its live-chat software provider and Kana for its e-mail management. Facetime Communications’ product allows iGo to queue live-chat contacts and route them to the next available rep, just like a telephone system, says Moberly. It also utilizes “drag and drop” responses to FAQs (frequently asked questions), letting reps find the appropriate pre-scripted response to a question, and thus handle up to five live-chat sessions at once.

Kana’s e-mail management system scans e-mails and, based upon keywords, routes the e-mail to the group with the most appropriate skill set for response. Using automated technology, it can create a suggested response to FAQs.

“We couldn’t do what we are doing effectively, without this software,” says Moberly.