Building your brand around better service. How to make changes that will transform customer experience.

Transcription

1 Building your brand around better service How to make changes that will transform customer experience.

2 The customer s service experience is key to brand building The customer service center has seen more change in the last five years than it has in the last 35 years combined. Thanks to higher customer expectations, multiple points of engagement, and the growth of social media, the customer service landscape is now more complex than ever. And the customer s service experience remains central to their perception of the brand. For that reason, it is your most valued staff customer service representatives that answer the calls that come in every day. These are the people you can trust to talk directly with customers, because they have the skills to influence how your customers perceive your brand. In this document, Plantronics explores the ways customer service centers can make small, incremental changes to deliver the service quality that customers now demand. Looking to the long-term, we examine how customer service centers that shift to a customer-centric model can maintain these gains, and help build the brand in the face of growing customer power, expectations, and scrutiny.

3 Is anyone listening to the people that matter? Today, customers only really reach out to the customer service center when they want to discuss a complex query or make a complaint. In most other cases, they prefer self-service or social media; research shows that 40% of people are more comfortable engaging online than in person. 1 Faced with complex call avoidance schemes such as convoluted interactive voice responses (IVRs), hiding phone numbers, or charging premium rates it is easy to see why customers do not always want to make a call. When it comes to the people who actually have to speak with customers on a daily basis, there is little joy in the job. Everything is scripted and there is little freedom to choose the direction of the conversation, let alone freedom to move around and stretch their legs. Management, however, is often unaware of these issues. It appears businesses are simply not listening to the people that matter the most their customers and customer service representatives (CSRs). of employers believe that their company is a great place to work Just 46% 31% of employees agree. 2

4 Making the change Customer service centers play a vital role in building brands and growing revenues. Years of Forrester data show how improving customer experience scores from below to above average affects loyalty, which in turn affects revenue in three categories. 1 REPURCHASE: Incremental purchases from existing customers in the same year. 2 SWITCHING: Revenue saved by lower churn. 3 RECOMMENDATION: New sales driven by word of mouth. 3 With CSRs typically interacting with customers across six different channels simultaneously Facebook, Twitter, chat, , text messaging and voice voice remains the most important channel. CSRs still spend an average of 35.8 minutes per hour talking with customers on the phone, which suggests customer service centers may be here to stay. But only if customers and CSRs start to see some changes. Where to start? In many cases it can come down to something known as the theory of marginal gains minutes CSRs still spend an average of 35.8 minutes per hour talking with customers on the phone. THE THEORY OF MARGINAL GAINS: A LESSON FROM THE WORLD OF CYCLING. There are parallels with the world of cycling that help illustrate the way the marginal gains theory can be put into practice. In the early 2000s, British cycling faced a major challenge. It was achieving limited success and experiencing lower performance despite its potential. The approach that the sport s governing body implemented took them from underachievers to world champions, Olympic champions, and Tour de France winners, in a relatively short space of time. Simply by looking at all aspects of what they did (training, facilities, even what people were eating), making minor improvements at every level, and then putting it all together under a cohesive strategy, led to a significant performance gain. Customer service centers can achieve similar success and quick improvements in service quality, by following similar principles of the marginal gains theory.

5 Starting out small The following are a few examples of how to begin. PEOPLE/SPACES/TECHNOLOGY Give your people a proper job title. If your CSRs feel proud about their role, they will be better brand advocates, and this will come across in their interaction with customers. The word agent has connotations of mundane repetition. So, why not demonstrate the value in their jobs and use customer service representative instead? Stop measuring Average Handle Time (AHT). Your customers want the phone answered quickly, and their issue resolved on the first call. But measure your people on their effectiveness at dealing with the often complex issue, not the duration of the call.

6 PEOPLE/SPACES/TECHNOLOGY Get rid of the wall of shame. More often than not, these just highlight how everyone is missing targets that are not even relevant to customers on the other end of the line see the previous point about AHT. Replace them with a wall of fame that shows compliments on the quality of your service from customers, and gives CSRs something to aspire to. Improve your acoustics. Implementing this across the board can be a big change. However, there are small-scale alterations that can be made to improve the working environment for your team. Changing ceiling tiles to absorb sound, adding soft coverings to walls, and using lower barriers between people, are all quick and cost-effective measures.

7 PEOPLE/SPACES/TECHNOLOGY Deploy wireless headsets. More and more of your customer queries require expertise beyond the CSRs skillset. This calls for more collaboration with experts to achieve First Call Response (FCR). Wireless headsets can be quickly and easily installed, helping teams keep in touch with each other and with back office experts, while maintaining direct contact with the customer. Give every associate two monitors. Customer service center staff often use between 12 and 15 different software packages, so much of their time is spent moving between frames to find what they need. Using two monitors speeds up access to information, cutting call times, and avoiding customer frustration.

8 Talking big Marginal gains will quickly give you an improvement in service quality. And with input from your staff, you can continue to make incremental improvements for many months, and even years. However, there comes a point when you need to make a fundamental change across your entire business to achieve the next level of performance. It goes back to the issue of management recognizing the value of customers and CSRs. The customer service center sector is undergoing an identity crisis. Are they call centers, contact centers, or are they now customer service departments? And what about that team over there on the computers? They do social media, but are they part of marketing, or some other form of customer service? What they are called might not seem like it matters, especially when there are other pressing issues to resolve. But by agreeing on the term used to describe what they do, the structure, approach, mind-set, and culture of the organization can be changed. If there is a customer service department, then those people in it are responsible for serving the customer. Furthermore, companies need a new customer-centric structure. Why? Because customers cross many channels when they interact. Research by potential customers can begin online before moving to a retail store, then onto the phone. Complaints can move from a third party internet forum to social media, and then on to a web chat or review site. It doesn t really matter which channel the customer uses, their experience should be consistent. Each channel should provide the same experience, the same priorities, and the same information.

9 Service experience is the brand experience In today s multi- or omni-channel world, the term call center has become too narrow to define the holistic approach required by organizations when dealing with customers. The outcome of all these customer interactions is the customer experience, and it is this experience that the customer associates with your brand. The biggest change any company can make is in its attitude. Not of CSRs to customers, but of management to customer experience. Executives can take the lead by giving customer service the attention it deserves. Customer experience is vital to the health of the brand. Organizations need to be rebuilt around it, and ensure every department understands its role in delivering the best possible service. To find out more about the marginal gains approach to improving service quality, and moving to a customercentric company, connect with Plantronics at: plantronics.com This might not be easy (or quick, or even cheap). But those companies that have changed their attitude to service understand just how essential it is, and continue to outperform their competitors and stock market indexes comfortableengaging-with-people-online-than-in-person/ _deliver_more_than_1_billion_in_rev 2015 Plantronics, Inc. Plantronics is a trademark of Plantronics, Inc. registered in the US and other countries