Esteban Kolsky

Social for Customer Service: it’s About the Customers

by Esteban Kolsky, on May 1, 2012, in Guest Blogs and Thought Leadership, about , , , , .

How can organization embrace social channels and technologies to improve customer service?

I must’ve heard this question every day in the past 6-9 months.

The intent was not how to do twitter, how to leverage Facebook, or should we use Klout scores for customer service – it was very specifically about how customer service departments can embrace it.  It was getting so ridiculous that together with my friends at Ciboodle we conducted a research report to answer those questions. We got nearly 400 responses (some of them very interesting) and you can get the report here if you want to read it.

I am not going to give you a full summary here, we do have a great executive summary if you are not interested in reading the data or the whole report, but I wanted to cover two issues that came out of this study:

  • How today’s processes are faring in an increasingly social world
  • What is the value to the organization of embracing social channels and tools

We asked the question of how processes used to support social channels compared to those processes used to support traditional channels.  Overall, the answer was (almost) as expected: 2/3 of organizations have not created processes yet as part of their social adoption, they are more or less living day-by-day and trying to figure out how it will play out in the long run.  At this early stage of the social journey that is not very surprising.  We then cross-tabulated those answers against the length of time they had been supporting social channels – and this is where we got some interesting data.

The table below shows the results of that cross-tabulation.  (note: we did not have sufficiently large numbers to make the conclusions final but it does indicate where the mindshare of the market is in relation to this question):

Equally defined Less defined More defined
0-6 months ago 11 12% 32 15% 3 20%
6-12 months ago 21 23% 50 23% 1 7%
1-2 years ago 27 29% 53 25% 3 20%
2 years ago+ 21 23% 18 8% 4 27%
not there yet 12 13% 61 29% 4 27%
n = 92 214 15

When using social channels, processes are less defined – almost by a ratio of 2:1.  Among those that claimed their processes were less defined, the majority were those that had been doing Social for between six and twenty-four months.  The ones that would be a more logical choice (those just starting out, below six months of experience) to have less defined processes are not – showing how newcomers to this set of channels and tools understand how it is no different than any other channel implemented before: it has to have a strategy, integrate well into existing processes, and don’t change the way experiences occur – rather augment them via a new set of channels.  Clearly delivering similar experiences via new channels is in the mind of those that are just starting as well as those that have been doing it for a while.

The second issue we spotted was the value to the organization of embracing social channels.  We asked respondents to identify what were the benefits they were seeking from embracing social.  We asked them about the two most often cited reasons to adopt any channel: to meet customers’ expectations or to save money.  The difference between these two reasons is a slant towards a customer-centric, efficiency view of the world (saving money) versus a customer-centric, effective view of the world.  The table below shows the results:

Primary Benefit Secondary Benefit
Deflected phone calls 13 3% Deflected phone calls 27 7%
Increased customer satisfaction 95 24% Increased customer satisfaction 55 14%
Increased loyalty 31 8% Increased loyalty 45 11%
Increased revenue 6 2% Increased revenue 17 4%
Intangible benefit 35 9% Intangible benefit 39 10%
Met customer expectations 55 14% Met customer expectations 37 9%
Not using social channels just yet 71 18% Not using social channels just yet 67 17%
Reduced cost of customer support 20 5% Reduced cost of customer support 22 6%
No Answer 74 19% No Answer 91 23%

It is very clear from these results that focusing on meeting customer expectations, and exceeding them, is the main driver for social channel adoption having been quoted not just as the top reason overall, but also as s secondary reason for organizations to adopt social.  The reason organizations deploy these channels is not driven by outbound company-centric needs but to give customers what they want, need, and ask.

The rest of the report is actually even more interesting and proved many other things – but to know what, you will need to download it and read it.

And give us your comments.

Many thanks – Esteban Kolsky, thinkJar

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guest-cca

The Connected Customer

by guest-cca, on November 4, 2011, in Guest Blogs and Thought Leadership, about

This is our theme for CCA Convention 2011 but what does it actually mean? One of the biggest changes for organisations to deal with is the reality that relationships are becoming less one-to-one and more one-to-many. For some new organisations built on a blend of social & traditional channels, this may not be such a big challenge. However, for those organisations who have large traditional channel infrastructures in place, providing great service to the connected customer, is more difficult.

A casual glance through some websites about call centres will very quickly lead you to endless views about how things should be improved. One of the biggest gripes is the feeling expressed by some customers, that the organisation is trying to process them quickly rather than solve their problem. When you consider average handling time (AHT) is still used as a measure of performance, then we can understand why this problem arises.

The rise of social and the ability for customers to talk to one another has the potential to be one of the biggest catalysts of change in the way organisations’ structure contact with customers. A difficult issue for many Boards to deal with is that rather than choosing to adopt a strategy of launching social, it is happening all around them. CCA research shows that few organisations have a fully formed strategy to manage and benefit from this new way of communicating. This is in stark contrast to everyday Board decisions where actions & timescales are at their discretion. Of course, Boards can make the decision to capitalise on the opportunity that socials offers them and for many it will be a steep but rewarding journey. Whether they decide to use social to get an inexpensive and instant customer feedback mechanism or more formally, as another sales channel, a strategy for action is critical.

The whole issue of listening to customer feedback is magnified by the advent of new channels and customers talking to each other. Winning organisations will be those who are quick to seize on the opportunities of listening across all of their channels in a consistent fashion and translating the data into useful insights to drive the business forward. There are some great, new technologies in this space and our hope for the future should be that we develop better ways of really listening to customers in order that they feel their contact with us matters and that they trust us with their problems.

CCA Convention is 8-9th November in Glasgow and over those 2 days, 1,000 delegates will take part in the future’s debate, Civic Reception, main Convention and CCA Gala Dinner & Excellence Awards Ceremony. Our venues are prestigious locations around Glasgow, including City Chambers, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and Glasgow Hilton Hotel. Proceedings are being chaired by Nicky Campbell from Radio 5 Live and the Awards Ceremony presented by well-known comedian & actor, Hugh Dennis. CCA Convention prides itself on leading the debate of the future of customer contact and this year’s event is critical to the success of our industry during the most difficult of economic climates.

Anne Marie Forsyth
Chief Executive
CCA – the leading independent authority on contact centre strategies & operations

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Mike Havard

Make multi-channel multi-choice

by Mike Havard, on October 10, 2011, in Guest Blogs and Thought Leadership, about , , , .

There are a lot of ways to communicate with customers that are cheaper than the phone.  But forcing people to use them could cost you more than you think. 

We’ve been taking a long hard look at companies’ multi-channel offerings, and some of our findings might surprise you.  Companies that try to restrict access to the phone and force people to use lower cost channels rarely achieve the cost savings they were aiming for.  And they frequently manage to alienate customers in the attempt!

The message is clear.  If you don’t want to experience damaged revenues and customer back lash, you need to offer channel choice.  Not impose it.

Our research show that customers want to use new channels, but they expect you to provide those as well as (not instead of) more established ones.  They’ll choose how they want to you interact with you, thank you very much.  And they won’t take kindly to being dictated to.

How they choose to contact you will depend on the nature of their enquiry, where they are (home, work or on the move), and the time of day.  They’ll often use several channels to complete a single ‘transaction’, researching a new product online, purchasing it in store, then using forums to discover new features. Oh, and, if there’s a problem, they may just want to phone you.  Fail to provide even one of these touch points and you’re likely to frustrate the customer and lose this sale, the next one and the next!

 Let’s be realistic.  Its unlikely that any organisation has managed, or will manage in the near future, to absolutely predict and influence every customer interaction in every customer journey for every customer or prospect.  As the economist John Kay states, most are “hardly capable of asking the right questions, let alone predicting the right answers.”

So, your best way forward is to provide a range of channel options, signpost them clearly and let the customer decide.  Encourage them to use lower cost options by making them effective, efficient and visible – but don’t force it.  Stay flexible and agile when it comes to channel management and use the power of information and data to predict customer behaviour as best you can – knowing you won’t always get it right.  Life, and customers, are far too complex for that.

And, one more tip… Take the time to analyse how, when and why your customers get in touch.  You’ll likely find that you’re able to predict the causes of costly calls to the contact centre and then pre-empt them with proactive outbound contact – either by SMS or email, for example.  That won’t just cut your costs – it’ll boost your reputation for proactive customer service, too.   I think that’s what we call a ‘win-win’.

Our research has prompted some interesting discussions with large organisations, not least at roundtable meetings hosted by the report’s sponsor, Sword Ciboodle.  We’re interested in finding out more about how companies are using multiple channels and whether their investments are paying dividends.  Tell about your experiences.

And, if you’d like to read our complete research findings, just click here to download them.

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