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November 22, 2010
June 29, 2010
Incorporating Behavioral Science into the Contact Center Experience
Thought this was a pretty interesting piece. In a recent post in McKinsey Quarterly entitled, Using behavioral science to improve the customer experience , John DeVine and Keith Gilson discuss the concept of utilizing key principles of behavioral science into the contact center experience. Through the application of tried-and-true observed patterns of human behavior and what people tend to remember most from interations, contact centers can maximize the customer experience through the understanding and incorporation of some very simple concepts. Below is an excerpt:
Likewise, for every restaurant that surrounds a bill’s arrival with a succession of complementary desserts—thereby capitalizing on the customer’s preference for service encounters that end positively—there are a lot of call centers that ignore the importance of a strong finish. Indeed, many companies actively work against one by placing so much emphasis on average handling times that they inadvertently encourage agents to end a call once its main business is complete, leaving customers with memories of brusque treatment.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Academics such as Professor Richard Chase at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business have used research on how people form opinions about their experiences to design actual services. In a 2001 Harvard Business Review article,1 Chase and his team even laid out principles for managers to consider when designing any customer interaction. Get bad experiences over early, so that customers focus on the more positive subsequent elements of the interaction. Break up pleasure but combine pain for your customers, so that the pleasant parts of the interaction form a stronger part of their recollections. Finish strong, as the final elements of the interaction will stick in the customers’ memory. Give them choice, so they feel more in control of the interaction. And let them stick to their habits rather than force them to endure the discomfort and disorientation of unexpected change.
Here we review the experience of an insurance company that used those principles to improve its customers’ satisfaction significantly, with no incremental costs or fundamental changes in people or infrastructure. A systematic approach like this one is needed to counteract the natural tendency of service operations to focus on the needs of IT systems and work flows, not to mention the preferences of employees, managers, and service providers, largely ignoring the way customers perceive their service interactions. If companies in a broad range of service industries—including banking, telecommunications, and retailing—applied a rigorous approach, they would reap significant economic benefits, ranging from reduced churn to greater cross-selling to additional customer referrals.
January 20, 2009
Direct Marketing: Alive and Well in the Hispanic Market
The Direct Marketing Association just released its latest report,
Hispanic Direct Marketing: Techniques and Best Practices. The study provides the most current benchmarking practices for direct marketing methods with expert analysis and in-depth topic including segmentation, channel use, and Spanish-language promotions. I would recommend it to anyone looking to really penetrate the Hispanic market.
If you don’t want to spend the $240 for nonmembers or the $135 for members, Direct of the Chief Marketer network has a great article summarizing some of the more interesting finds.
One of the major keys to cracking the Hispanic market is to segment data based on the number of generations that have lived in the United States to increase the response rate. Ninety-two percent of marketers use non-catalog direct mail. Specifically, 77% of companies tailor non-catalog direct mail messages while almost half use both Spanish and English promotions. Also, 52% of companies use telemarketing services to reach their Hispanic markets.
- Beatriz Alemar
January 19, 2009
Call Centers Coming Back to the US
The well known battle between domestic and offshore call centers rages on as more companies have started focusing on customer satisfaction instead of just reducing costs. Are they finally starting to “get it?”
While companies can save 50 to 75 percent a year using offshore outsourcing providers, many don’t realize the potential risk to customer satisfaction and to their bottom line. A bad customer service experience may decrease repurchase rates and brand loyalty and dilute the company image leading to missed revenue. Everyone knows it costs less to retain customers than it is to attract new ones. Therefore, companies can’t afford to drop the ball on customer service especially during a recession.
Although research shows that call center location does not impact pre-encounter expectations for reputable firms, overall customer satisfaction scores for offshore call centers remain steadily lower than their domestic counterparts due to the real or perceived cultural differences between the representative and the caller. For the most part, customers are already upset when they call support hotlines. The last thing they want to do is struggle to understand the agent speaking to them. They want comfort and assurance not the unknown or further stress.
Companies are starting to “get it.” Major companies like Dell and Jitterbug are bringing call centers back to the United States. But at what cost?
Dell is charging its own customers for the guarantee that the representative they speak to will be American. At $12.95/month or $99/year with the purchase of a new computer, their pricing structure is not cheap especially in the middle of a recession. While I understand they are trying to recoup their costs, I really don’t think charging the customer for better service is the right way to increase customer satisfaction rankings. Most customers right now are looking for just the essentials; they don’t want to pay more for something that should be included from the start. When did “good” customer service become a premium?
Should companies charge their end customers for domestic call center services? Will Dell’s strategy increase customer satisfaction rankings?
Beatriz Alemar
beatriz.alemar@inktel.com
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