Strategies for Your Contact Center
Most catalogers engineer their call centers to maximize both the quality of customer service and the cost-efficiency of their operations. Quite a few also have learned how to better manage the increasing volume of customer questions that arrive via e-mail. And a growing number now are making good use of their Web sites as self-service resources for their customers. Unfortunately, many still treat the phone, e-mail and the Web as three separate communications channels.
Such a “stovepipe” approach to communications ultimately limits both the quality and efficiency of customer service — the very thing catalogers were trying to ensure in the first place.
That’s why forward-thinking merchants look at how they can better integrate their call centers, e-mail management and online self-service systems to create truly integrated customer contact centers.
By implementing the following integrated approach, you can resolve problems quickly, reduce costs and give customers consistent answers across all communications channels.
21st Century Channel-hoppers
Regardless of whether they buy a product online, by phone or in a store, today’s customers may use any channel to get post-sales service. He or she may ask a question via the phone one day, use e-mail the next and go to your Web site the following day. Moreover, customers may use different channels in the course of getting the same question or issue resolved.
For example, say a customer calls you with a question. Your call center operator is helpful and apparently resolves the issue. But the customer needs a minor detail clarified. Because it’s after hours or the customer doesn’t feel like spending time on hold, he or she sends you a quick e-mail.
This obviously can be a problem for any company that manages each channel separately. If your e-mail service processes aren’t well integrated with your call center, the person answering that e-mail won’t see what transpired on the earlier phone call. If the customer doesn’t make explicit reference to the call, your e-mail handler is likely to give an inadequate response. The response even may create additional confusion.
Another example: A customer already checked your Web site, and now is calling for clarification by phone. If your call center’s operators use reference materials that aren’t identical to your site content, the conversation could end with a very confused customer and/or an operator who now has to spend time checking the site and reporting the discrepancy to a manager.
These issues slow service, frustrate consumers and keep customers habituated to the phone, which, as you know, is the most expensive channel for you to maintain. The stovepipe therefore keeps the overall cost of quality customer service high.
Out of Many, One
The preceding examples illustrate two primary requirements of channel integration:
1. A common incident-management system. Such a solution logs all customer interactions into a common database, enabling customer service representatives (CSRs) to see a record of all previous phone and e-mail communications with each customer. Online queries also can be included in this database in the case of Web sites that use certain personalization and/or registration techniques. Companies that use online chat can incorporate these interactions into the database, too.
2. A common knowledge base. The answers that customers view on your Web site should be the same as those your CSRs use, and also should be used in e-mail replies. Obviously, CSRs will have some information you won’t want to expose on your Web site, but the subset of answers that customers view should be identical to any internal knowledge base. This ensures consistency across all channels and allows you to maintain and manage all your service-related information in a single repository.
In addition to their individual advantages, these two components also provide some interesting synergies. One of the most important is the way they enable you to build your knowledge base over time. Any time you encounter a question that isn’t already covered in your knowledge base, you quickly and easily can add a new corresponding answer. Customers can use the same knowledge base that your CSRs do as they respond to incoming phone calls, e-mails and online chat sessions.
Just as important, this cross-channel, content-building strategy ensures that your knowledge base is driven by actual issues about which customers inquire. By making your Web site such a powerful self-service resource, you reduce your phone call and e-mail volume. This allows you to serve more customers without increasing your customer service staff. You’ll also reduce telephone wait time (typically by 10 percent to 30 percent) and e-mail response times (typically by 50 percent to 70 percent).
You can train customers to use your Web site by having CSRs point out the fact that the answers they just got by phone or e-mail were readily available online. The most adept practitioners of channel integration do this by politely guiding the customer directly to the specific answer on their Web sites. This makes it clear to customers that in the future they don’t have to wait on hold or for an e-mail. Rather, they can go online 24 hours a day, seven days a week and find the answer.
Ultimately, catalogers that adopt a channel-integration strategy make a successful transition from separate call center, e-mail management and Web self-service operations to a highly efficient, all-channel contact center where the specific communications channel becomes irrelevant. As a result, customers get great service across all channels, and the operational efficiency of the organization is improved significantly.
Greg Gianforte is president of RightNow Technologies, a customer service and support solutions provider. He can be reached at (877) 363-5678 or greg@rightnow.com.
