3 Strategies for Ensuring Advanced Customer Service
The adage about how much less it costs to keep the customer you have, instead of finding a new one, is even truer in a difficult economy. Indeed, if the cost ratio between acquiring new customers and retaining old ones was 10:1, today it's probably more like 100:1, given the relative scarcity of customers with available spend. Therefore, organizations want to do everything they can to retain their existing customers. And that raises an interesting question: Can the service department do more to help?
In today's "where's the value add?" era, many companies are asking: How can we move service beyond the obvious, and into more advanced areas of retention? And also, how can CRM help? Too many service interactions today are merely reactive. In fact, an overwhelming majority of customer engagements are inbound. Something doesn't work, and it needs to be fixed. Of course, you must satisfy customers by fixing the problems in a timely manner. Just don't expect to win any hearts and minds at the same time.
Advanced and proactive customer retention, however, adds some kind of value, oftentimes by asking: "What can we do to make your life better?" If you wait for your customers to come to you with a problem, however, you may be missing out on opportunity to improve customer service, increase efficiency and grow or maintain the business you have with that customer.
Here are three key strategies for developing a proactive service approach:
- Satisfaction
Adding a personal touch with a follow-up outbound communication to reassure a customer that you have done what they asked can go a long way in increasing customer satisfaction. For example, a bank that manages money for high net worth individuals can set up an e-mail to go out to its customer after a transaction has been completed, so it looks like it comes from the relationship manager. This outbound communication confirms that you have completed the customer's request in a timely fashion and adds a personal touch that will go a long way in maintaining customer satisfaction. - Efficiency
Many gains can be achieved by preventively solving a problem before it becomes a problem. For example, if a software company spots a problem, it can quickly notify all of its customers and proactively suggest a patch or other fix before customers begin realizing the problem on their own and suffering set-backs as a result. Another example of how proactive service can improve efficiency is in the case of a health insurer that has a service database showing all of the procedures a customer has undergone. To improve efficiency, the company's goal should be to process the claims for these procedures in as few calls or interactions as possible. If the company notices that a patient has a few outstanding claims and one has not been submitted, they can proactively approach the doctor or patient about gaps in what they expect to be filed. - Growth
Don't assume that just because you haven't heard from a particular customer in six months that you have a satisfied customer. For all you know, your customer may not even be using your product or service. Instead of waiting for them to come to you with a problem, you can approach the situation proactively, and potentially grow the business as a result. For example, say you're a company selling design software. A large automaker purchased 1,000 seats a year ago and you notice that only 20 seats are being used. You could proactively approach the company and offer to run a series of training sessions so that more employees will understand the capabilities and value of your software and begin using more of the seats. Or on the flipside, you might notice that 950 of the seats are being used. In this case, you could proactively offer the company a promotion to purchase more seats. In both cases, when it comes time to renew the contract, you will know that you have proactively tried to address the customer's potential issues or needs, and will no doubt have a better chance of growing the business you have.
These three strategies are fairly straightforward and may seem like common sense, but they can go a long way in helping a company's service department provide advanced service and get ahead of the curve in terms of customer retention.
Adam Honig is president and CEO of Innoveer Solutions, an award-winning CRM consulting firm with offices throughout the United States, Western Europe and in New Mumbai, India. For more information, contact Adam at ahonig@innoveer.com or (617) 225-7084or go to www.innoveer.com.
September 2, 1:00 Eastern: Leverage Back-office Expertise in Customer Service for Higher Customer Satisfaction and Lower Costs. Presented by SAP. This webcast will present a framework on how to increase the customer service efficiency by connecting back office experts into customer service. Hear a customer case to demonstrate how the back office integration can lead to: (1)Increased customer satisfaction, (2)Increased employee motivation both in contact center and in back office, and (3)Cost savings due to higher first call resolution and better resource utilization.
September 10, 1:00 Eastern: Best Practices for Determining Contact Reasons and Using Them to Improve Performance. Presented by Enkata. Learn how to navigate the landscape of existing methods companies are using to categorize customer contacts. Hear real-world best-practices for transforming accurate contact reasons to call reduction, improvement in employees' performance, and increased customer satisfaction.
September 15, 1:00 Eastern: The Business Value of Whole Call Recording. Presented by Avoke Caller Experience Analytics /BBN Technologies. It's no longer sufficient to focus exclusively on agent quality while ignoring voice brand experiences and voice contact costs. To maximize customer loyalty, leading edge companies are using whole call analytics to look at every voice experience holistically – including the experience prior to reaching an agent, the experience including all transfers and partners, and the experience of callers who self-serve. Learn how to optimize the entire voice contact process.
September 17, 1:00 Eastern: Contact Center Analytics - Business in Real Time. Presented by Altitude. To make an informed decision managers need relevant data that will allow them to understand the issue and make the most appropriate decisions. They need to adopt a more aggressive and proactive approach on how to explore the myriad of data available in the contact center. In this webcast you will learn to identify the most important contact center metrics.
September 22, 1:00 Eastern: Lasting Impressions: A Customer Feedback Case Study. Presented by Verint. Hear what happens when a provider of semi-custom printed materials implements customer feedback as part of a four-part workforce optimization strategy to find out what its customers really think about its services. The answers may surprise you! Learn how Cory Gallagher, director of Customer Service at "Midwest Call Center, a Navitor Company" and team drive business and workforce optimization results as they enhance customer service across the organization.
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