The Customer Service Revolution (Whitepaper) - DMG Consulting LLC

The Customer Service Revolution September 2015

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© DMG Consulting LLC

Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 The Problem ......................................................................................................... 1 The Disconnect Between Enterprises and their Customers .................................. 1 What Customers Want .......................................................................................... 5 Bottom Line ........................................................................................................... 6 About Intradiem..................................................................................................... 7 About DMG Consulting LLC.................................................................................. 7

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Introduction If you’re like most companies, you’ve been using the same contact center systems and applications for years. While this might be fine, the concern is that you’re also hanging onto obsolete best practices, which isn’t fine, as customer expectations have changed greatly during the past few years. Providing good service is no longer enough; today, most consumers and B2B partners want and expect the companies they do business with to provide outstanding service in all channels, regardless of their value to the company. Yet, as we all know, too many companies are not even coming close to meeting their customers’ expectations for merely adequate service. (While cable companies are often cited as extreme examples of bad service and what not to do to customers, poor service seems to be the norm for too many businesses. Most consumers perceive that contact centers are staffed with untrained and uncaring people.) The Problem Companies have spent the last 30-plus years creating policies and procedures that intentionally prioritize their corporate requirements and concerns. While companies claim to care about customers, their actions make it clear that their own needs come first. Baby Boomers and Generation X’ers haven’t been thrilled with the service they’ve received, but since it’s what they’ve become accustomed to, they tend to accept it. Millennials do not think this way – they do not tolerate ineffective and bad policies and practices, and are not shy about sharing their opinion with anyone who’ll listen. When Millennials are displeased, they go social to an audience of potentially hundreds or thousands of consumers. When negative reviews and posts go viral, they can adversely impact a company’s stock price and bottom line, in addition to their reputation. There is now a clear correlation between customer satisfaction and profitability, which is driving executives to make changes and investments in their service organizations. The Disconnect Between Enterprises and their Customers Figures 1 – 4 illustrate the disconnect between customers and enterprises by presenting examples of interactions that typically annoy customers. At the end of each section, DMG has shared broad guidelines for handing these types of issues in a manner that would satisfy the majority of customers. The unfortunate reality is that it’s not a question of whether these types of issues are happening at your company, but rather what you are going to do about it.

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Figure 1: Bad Company Policies What it Means to Customers What Agents are Trained to Do I don’t know what or who to Apologize for the confusion. believe. Who’s right, you or Go to the website to see what your website? it says. Reinforce the correct information with the customer. Why are you charging me a You are looking to nickel-and- Acknowledge the customer’s $35 late fee on a balance of dime me. Your processes concern. Review the account 47 cents? make no sense and you don’t and explain why the fee was care about your customers. charged. If applicable, based This is a silly and unfair on internal criteria, remove charge. the fee as a courtesy. Why are you offering me You don’t care about my Acknowledge the customer’s discounts now that I have business. I had to find frustration. Review the decided to cancel my account, someone else before you account to see if there are would do something, and other retention offers that instead of offering me the now it’s too late. you can make. discounts up front so I wouldn’t have decided to leave in the first place? What Customers Say What you’re telling me isn’t what your website says.

DMG’s Servicing Guidelines: Although each scenario is different, there are some common servicing threads throughout Figures 1 – 4. Every customer wants to be treated as if they are special, regardless of their value to an organization. They expect an organization to know who they are and to have a historical record of their interactions, regardless of the channel in which they interact. Customers do not want to be told what you cannot do for them; they want to know how you are going to fix problems. Bad and outdated procedures are a major problem for most companies. Agents are trained to adhere to company policies, and are marked down and penalized by quality assurance (QA) reviewers (or, their supervisor) if they do not follow the rules, even if those rules no longer make sense for customers or the organization. This creates a cycle of service failure in most organizations, as everyone knows that the approach is wrong, but agents feel powerless to do anything about it. An effective way to address these types of situations is to empower agents by allowing them to do what is right for customers, within preestablished guidelines. For instance, allow agents to remove fees up to a certain dollar amount, as long as the caller does not ask too frequently. When it comes to customer retention, the ideal situation is for all agents to be trained to do what it takes to convince high-value customers to stay with the organization. Agents should be aware of all opportunities and perks that can be offered in order to retain customers. However, in most companies, due to training and cost constraints, there is typically a group of customer retention specialists. In these -2-


contact centers, all agents should be rewarded for referring an at-risk customer to a retention specialist, and the specialists should be comped for retaining customers who then stay with the organization for a certain amount of time (to be determined by the company). It can be a major issue for a company if their website (or something communicated via social media) differs from what their agents are trained to say to customers. Once customers start to take note of this inconsistency and raise them during service interactions, agents should be trained to apologize and speak to a manager who can make a real-time decision in order to avoid PR firestorms and legal issues. Once the “emergency” is addressed, companies should have a process in place to correct either the website or the contact center policy. And if the issue was caused by a social media team that is separate from the contact center, this group should be retrained, as well. When a company causes confusion, the best practice is to do what is right for the customer. However, the exception to this guideline is when the price (or benefit) of doing what the customer wants is higher than the cost of saying no.

Figure 2: You Don’t Care About Your Customers What Customers Say I’m really unhappy with the answer you just gave me.

I told you to put me on your do-not-call-list.

The last person I spoke with said they would make a note on my account so I wouldn’t have a problem. Now you are telling me there is no note on the account? Ok, close my account.

What it Means to Customers What Agents are Trained to Do I asked for help and you Apologize; explain the provided obstacles, not reasons and offer alternatives answers, information or (if any). If requested, escalate options. the call. I didn’t want you to call me, Apologize for the and told you so. You don’t inconvenience. Process the listen to your customers and do-not-call (DNC) request, are breaking the law. and advise the customer of the time frame for it to become effective. I can’t trust what I am told by Acknowledge the customer’s people in your organization. concern. Ask the customer to They don’t stand behind their review the situation with you, word or do what they said and tell them that you will they would. properly document the account. I seriously don’t need to put Tell the customer that you’re up with your awful service. sorry to see them go. Ask if There are plenty of other there is anything that would companies that want my make them reconsider. If not, business. process the request.

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DMG’s Servicing Guidelines: When customers think an agent and an organization do not care about them, it’s highly problematic, and there are no easy fixes. Although agents are trained to apologize, that is often not what the customer wants, particularly when an agent is not sincere (which the customer can hear). The best practices to address these situations vary by issue, but here are some general guidelines that may help. Agents come across as uncaring when their hands are tied by bad policies and procedures, and they are neither engaged nor empowered. Therefore, the best practice is to hire qualified employees, train them, empower them and reward them for keeping customers highly satisfied. Companies should review their training, QA and reward and recognition programs on an ongoing basis to ensure they are aligned with market standards. In addition, companies should put in place a formal process for reviewing outdated policies and procedures so that agents feel empowered to fix the things that need to be changed.

Figure 3:Call Escalations What it Means to Customers What Agents are Trained to Do I don’t have confidence in Reinforce that you are your ability to understand my following policy/procedure/ issue, appreciate why it’s protocol and are doing the important to me, or do best you can for the something to fix it. customer. Since you can’t do anything I asked for help, and you Acknowledge the customer’s about my issue, let me speak provided obstacles, not frustration, and escalate the with someone who can get it options. You are not call (if you can find an available supervisor). done. I’m not hanging up until empowered to help me, so I you fix my problem. want to talk to someone who will resolve my issue. What Customers Say I want to speak to your supervisor.

DMG’s Servicing Guidelines: In many companies, agents are trained to handle calls, and are either encouraged or penalized for transferring customers to supervisors. In other organizations, there are so few supervisors or managers available that agents have learned not to transfer callers, as they will be on hold for an extended period of time, which will just exacerbate an already bad situation. These are practices that companies should avoid. Agents should be taught to do what is right for each customer who requests to speak to a supervisor, which means that agents have to be trained and empowered to take appropriate actions in different cases. If a caller demands a supervisor before the agent has had a chance to help, the agent should politely ask if they can have an opportunity to be of assistance. However, if the caller still demands a supervisor, the best practice is to transfer them. And if an agent has tried but cannot satisfy a caller, they should immediately transfer the call to a more senior person. This also means that organizations need to have an adequate number of supervisors

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available to handle escalated calls, as making customers wait more than 2 minutes makes these situations worse.

Figure 4: Technology Issues What Customers Say Why do I have to repeat my account number? I just put it into your interactive voice response system (IVR).

What it Means to Customers You’re wasting my time and don’t care about my effort.

What Agents are Trained to Do Apologize and tell the customer that you need the account number or another piece of information to access their personal data. (Sometimes agents explain that they are asking customers to repeat the information for security reasons.)

DMG’s Servicing Guidelines: Technology should be used, where appropriate to reduce customer effort throughout their journey. Asking a customer to repeat their account number after they already entered it into an IVR is one of the top complaints about customer service organizations. The best practice is to make technology investments so that customers who have entered their account number into an IVR or voice prompter do not need to repeat it to an agent. However, in this scenario a customer might have to answer additional security questions once they reach an agent. Agents should be trained to politely and calmly reassure customers that the extra security questions are for the caller’s benefit, and allow them to provide the necessary assistance. What Customers Want Customers want to be treated with respect. They want companies to be there for them 24x7 and to make it easy to conduct business. Customers expect an organization to know who they are, the value of their relationship, and everything about their prior interactions with the company, regardless of the channel. It’s really simple: customers want companies to see things through their eyes and to put their needs first, instead of being forced to do business according to the company’s priorities. Figure 5 displays a list of what customers expect when they call a contact center.

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Figure 5: Top Contact Center Servicing Practices

Bottom Line It’s time for your contact center to become more customer-centric, and to create a more frictionless experience throughout the entire customer journey. The challenge is that the servicing practices that worked in the past are unlikely to satisfy your customers now and in the future. If your company wants to be recognized for delivering excellent service, you need to change many of the fundamental assumptions of your service organization. This includes but is not limited to the channels you support, how you measure service excellence, the types of people employed in your service and sales organizations, how employees are trained, engaged, managed and rewarded, your ability to empower your customer-facing staff, and the systems used to enable and support them. It’s equally important to set up a process that captures and evaluates the customer experience and journey from their perspective, as this is the only way for your organization to see the service process through customers’ eyes, and proactively address opportunities and issues before they become major challenges.

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About Intradiem Intradiem is the only complete Intraday Automation solution provider for frontline workforces including Contact Center, Back Office and Retail. The SaaS-based solution automates intraday management and real-time processes and turns frontline workforces into real-time workforces that can adapt and respond to changing conditions and events throughout the day. The result is a more agile frontline workforce that can adjust in real-time to deliver a dramatically better and more consistent customer experience at reduced cost.

About DMG Consulting LLC DMG Consulting LLC is a leading independent research, advisory and consulting firm specializing in contact centers, back-office and real-time analytics. DMG provides insight and strategic guidance and tactical advice to end users, vendors and the financial community. Each year, DMG devotes more than 10,000 hours to producing primary research on IT sectors, including workforce optimization (quality management/liability recording), speech analytics, workforce management, performance management, desktop analytics, surveying/voice of the customer, text analytics, cloud-based contact center infrastructure, dialing, interactive voice response systems and proactive customer care. Our actionable solutions are proven to deliver a lasting competitive advantage, and often pay for themselves in as little as three months. Learn more at www.dmgconsult.com.

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