Empowering the Modern CSR
8 Apr, 2009
By: David HolmesA Critical Business Connection
As customer service and retention rise to the top of companies’ priority lists in a down economy, the demands on today’s customer service representatives (CSRs) are perhaps greater than ever. Combine this with the trend of increasingly complex calls coming into the call center and pressures for agents to move beyond basic issue resolution to create sales opportunities, and the need for empowering CSRs becomes increasingly apparent. Unfortunately, there are still many hurdles companies must overcome to truly prepare their CSRs to succeed in today’s business landscape. The good news is that companies can move past these hurdles to improve CSR satisfaction and ultimately customer satisfaction. The process starts with understanding the challenges that today’s CSRs face - challenges that are growing more complex by the year.
It’s a Hard Job, After All
CSR jobs are not the same as they were even just a few years ago. The rise in Web self-service, which is intended to make it easier and more convenient for customers to interact with companies, has had an unintended consequence for many CSRs: it has made their jobs more difficult. Since customers can now resolve simple issues on their own online, the types of issues coming into the contact center are now much more complex. CSRs must therefore be more knowledgeable than before and have better access to more information in order to handle customer requests and resolve issues. While CSRs have always had to deal with difficult customer issues, this used to represent a significantly smaller portion of their job than it does today.
Another factor adding to the complexity of the modern day CSR’s job is a shift in company expectations related to the role of contact centers. More companies are looking to their contact centers to provide more value-added functions, such as cross-selling and up-selling, yet despite these new expectations, CSRs are still under pressure to reduce costs, maintain call handle times and provide good customer service. In order for CSRs to have time to make a sale, they must handle the original customer request faster so that they can move on to the selling process and still complete the call within expected timeframes. Adding to the challenge, most CSRs were hired to service – not to sell - and many are not comfortable with that role.
Despite the increased demands placed on CSRs, most are not receiving the training they need to meet new job challenges. This leads to poor customer service, CSR job dissatisfaction and a high turnover rate for the contact center – not to mention lost revenue and sales opportunities for the company.
The Information Maze
Another major challenge facing CSRs and thus contact centers is the information gap. As any CSR knows, having easy access to information is essential to providing even the most basic customer service. To provide good customer service, which is vital in these times, CSRs must have access to the right information on the right customer at the right time. This is more challenging than many companies realize. The reason can be summed up in just three words: the CSR desktop.
Few executives or managers who work outside the contact center can appreciate the unique challenges of navigating the CSR desktop – and the impact this has on their productivity, ability to provide good customer service and overall job satisfaction. The desktop is the CSR’s main business resource and their only link to customer information. Unfortunately, the links often fail to provide any insight into customers, their history and their needs. This is because most companies have a large matrix of applications, view screens and data silos on their desktop, which they have to navigate anew each time a customer calls. Since the applications are typically not integrated, CSRs often have to re-key entries or make internal transfers to other employees or locations to obtain the information they need. All of this is done while the customer is left waiting on hold.
Once CSRs locate the information they need from various applications – companies in several industries can have up to 20 different applications on their desktops – they are then on their own to piece together the information on customers. By the time they have the information they need, it’s likely that the customer and CSR alike are frustrated – not a good sign for future customer and employee retention.
The impacts of not having the right information to address customer issues are obvious and widespread. The good news is that contact centers can close the information gap – all it takes is knowing where to look.
The Rise of the Unified Desktop
Many have turned to ”traditional” CRM applications in an attempt to solve the disconnects in the contact center. CRM applications have promised to deliver a “single view” of the customer by merging all the required data and tasks into a new application. The problem with most CRM solutions is that they take much time and investment to implement – and the results haven’t paid off as expected. Typically, the new CRM application becomes just another application in the CSR desktop, failing to replace any of the other, required line-of-business applications. This is where the unified desktop comes in.
Unified desktop solutions are ideal for call centers because they live “on top” of existing systems rather than having their own version of customer data and business logic. They use data and logic from existing systems, drawing all relevant information from different areas of the business, such as logistics, finance, sales and marketing. Good unified desktop solutions will then represent that data into a contextual view for the CSR, providing only the data and flow needed to complete a certain call type. This is what’s known as an “intelligent view” of customer data – and this is what gives CSRs the right information on the right customers at the right time.
A recent Datamonitor report explained that, “Across industries, there have been a rising number of mergers and acquisitions which has resulted in difficulties with integrating legacy systems and applications. This has led to the delivery of inconsistent customer service and in doing so has become a major pain point for many organizations. Unified solutions create a better user interface, while providing the right information to agents so they are able to upsell and cross-sell products more effectively.”
At the end of the day, unified desktop solutions let CSRs spend less time focusing on their desktop and more time focusing on the customer.
The Unified Desktop in Action
The benefits of a unified desktop solution for companies can be grouped into two primary categories: customer retention and employee retention. On the customer retention side, companies gain reduced average call handle times and improved issue resolution rates from having fast access to the right information in order to address customer needs. This translates into improved customer experiences, which as industry research has shown, over time translates into improved customer retention.
Also critical in a down economy is retention of good employees. Unified desktop solutions improve CSRs’ morale by making their jobs easier and empowering them to handle customer interactions faster and with more confidence. Call centers can also significantly reduce CSR training times with a unified desktop since it is easier to navigate and more intuitive than traditional call center technology solutions. This benefits both the CSR and the company, which can realize cost savings from reduced training investments.
The best way to see how unified desktop solutions benefit companies and their CSRs is to look at real examples of companies that have implemented them. A large insurance company recently decided to change the way it interacted with its customers through the call center with the ultimate goal of improving customer service and satisfaction. The company saw an opportunity to differentiate itself in the crowded insurance marketplace by improving its overall customer experience. To do this, the insurance company realized it would need to equip its CSRs to move beyond answering basic questions to develop deeper relationships with its customers. After implementing a unified desktop solution, which the vendor deployed in just six months, the company has experienced a 20 percent reduction in average handle times, with CSRs taking approximately 10 more calls per day, resulting in improved customer experiences. The company has also reduced CSR training time by two weeks and expects a full return on investment from the solution in less than 12 months.
In the telecom industry, UK-based mobile phone and broadband services giant Telefonica O2 needed a way to improve efficiencies and customer service through its contact center, which was facing several challenges. After experiencing exponential business growth, O2 had hired thousands of customer service advisors to support its growing customer base. In addition to having a large influx of new CSRs to train, O2 had a multitude of information systems that had been built or purchased and deployed in the company’s call centers – resulting in a complicated assortment of screens, systems and tools on the advisors’ computer desktops. Certain call types, such as Data Settings (correcting issues with data services on the customer’s mobile device) had become so complex that specialization was required, and only 100 advisors were trained to handle these call types. This caused many customer calls to be transferred and resulted in cumbersome call routing. Since implementing a leading unified desktop solution, which was deployed in four months, the company has reduced average handle times by 12 percent and reduced call-backs by 30 percent. As for the Data Settings, those now happen in real-time. O2 also reports improved CSR morale and customer experiences.
Answering the CSR Call for Help
These companies are certainly not alone in their quest to improve customer experiences. Companies across numerous industries can benefit from focusing on changing customer interactions in the contact center The key is that time is of the essence for addressing contact center issues. It’s critical that companies take action now to equip their CSRs to succeed in the new customer service environment – before they start losing more customers, and for that matter, more CSRs.
Any company that doesn’t see the value in empowering CSRs should consider the following: CSRs are more than problem solvers – they are the face of a company’s business. They are the people who have perhaps the most interaction with customers and they are the ones on whom companies rely to improve customer retention. Investing in solutions that make CSRs’ jobs easier and more productive will pay off for companies. In fact, empowered CSRs can become a true competitive advantage for companies who get it – or should we say IT – right.
