CP Wire

Today’s best-in-class contact centers have a secret – they are implementing the following trends for greater efficiency, effectiveness and ultimately operational excellence. Based on research of contact center executives, vendors and thought leaders, best-in-class contact centers either already have or will be adopting the following 10 trends in the near future.

1. Segment Callers by Economic Impact – In today’s environment, you cannot meet the demand of every customer making contact. As meeting that demand will get worse in the future, you have to know who your best customers are, be able to recognize them when they call and deliver superior service that fences them off from the competition.

2. Process Simplification: Make it Easy – Every customer contact system must have a process that minimizes what the customer needs to do (they don’t have to give their authentication information twice) and what the CSR needs to do (prior contact information is available). Process simplification is the goal.

3. Provide Opportunities for Customer Collaboration – Let customers tell you what they need by providing multichannel access and support. If you want customers to move to the Web, find out exactly what they need to try it and like it. Also, make each call an opportunity to collect valuable, relevant customer information.

4. Align Customer Touch Points – Customer contact channels must be “one.” Information on the Web must be the same as the store, the catalog, the salesperson and the phone. When touch points are aligned, the company presents a single image to the customer.

5. Make First Call Resolution a Priority – First call resolution is the key to caller satisfaction. Getting the technology, process, policy and information for first call resolution will become the prime directive for contact centers. Therefore, you have to understand if the problem prompting the call is being solved, how the problem is being solved or what you need to do to solve the problem.

6. Utilize Real-Time Information Management – Translating the information in the contact center into actionable information is crucial. Any technology that allows a closer look at what the consumer thinks, feels and wants is good technology and has a payoff. Make certain that whatever it is you collect that someone is using it. Collect reports and find out who is using what for what. Get rid of the things that are not being used.

7. Customer Experience: Pleasantries Pay – It is more than answering the call and solving the problem. Customers pay for a pleasant experience and the cost of providing that is nothing more than employing CSRs who understand customers and will deliver a pleasant experience.

8. Self-Service: More than an FAQ – As you cannot build out contact centers fast enough to keep up with demand, the solution is to keep customer satisfaction high by allowing customers to solve their problems in a self-service channel. Not all customers want this, but enough callers will to allow you to pay attention to more in-depth issues. However, self-service takes more than a Web site FAQ. One of the more successful applications to be adopted is natural speech recognition. We estimate that 35-75 percent of all telephone contact can be successfully handled by these systems. As these systems are now affordable and there are vendors with complete implementation experience, this technology will be adopted by all major contact centers in the next 10 years.

9. Adopt Technology that Delivers – You must stay on top of new technology and have a team that assesses its potential benefit. Language translation, speech analytics and natural speech recognition systems are having a big impact.

10. CSR Selection and Continuing Training – A poor CSR loses customers, so hiring individuals who can quickly learn and adapt and providing ongoing training is essential to a successful contact center. Contact centers that invest in training programs to ensure CSRs have the tools and knowledge to best deal with your customers will succeed.

By Barton Goldenberg (bgoldenberg@ismguide.com), president and founder of ISM Inc., a CRM, contact center and digital client consulting firm in Bethesda, MD and Richard Feinberg, Ph.D. (xdj1@purdue.edu) a consumer psychologist, a professor in the Purdue University Department of Consumer Sciences and Retailing and the director of the Center for Customer-Driven Quality at Purdue University, which conducted the research for this article.


Issue 145: June 25, 2008
This Issue Sponsored by Salesforce.com		Read the online edition of the latest issue.


Ten Trends in Contact Centers
Today’s best-in-class contact centers have a secret – they are implementing the following trends for greater efficiency, effectiveness and ultimately operational excellence. Based on research of contact center executives, vendors and thought leaders, best-in-class contact centers either already have or will be adopting the following 10 trends in the near future. 1. Segment Callers by Economic Impact – In today’s environment, you cannot meet the demand of every customer making contact. As meeting that demand will get worse in the future, you have to know who your best customers are, be able to recognize them when they call and deliver superior service that fences them off from the competition. 2. Process Simplification: Make it Easy – Every customer contact system must have a process that minimizes what the customer needs to do (they don’t have to give their authentication information twice) and what the CSR needs to do (prior contact information is available). Process simplification is the goal. 3. Provide Opportunities for Customer Collaboration – Let customers tell you what they need by providing multichannel access and support. If you want customers to move to the Web, find out exactly what they need to try it and like it. Also, make each call an opportunity to collect valuable, relevant customer information. 4. Align Customer Touch Points – Customer contact channels must be “one.” Information on the Web must be the same as the store, the catalog, the salesperson and the phone. When touch points are aligned, the company presents a single image to the customer. 5. Make First Call Resolution a Priority – First call resolution is the key to caller satisfaction. Getting the technology, process, policy and information for first call resolution will become the prime directive for contact centers. Therefore, you have to understand if the problem prompting the call is being solved, how the problem is being solved or what you need to do to solve the problem. 6. Utilize Real-Time Information Management – Translating the information in the contact center into actionable information is crucial. Any technology that allows a closer look at what the consumer thinks, feels and wants is good technology and has a payoff. Make certain that whatever it is you collect that someone is using it. Collect reports and find out who is using what for what. Get rid of the things that are not being used. 7. Customer Experience: Pleasantries Pay – It is more than answering the call and solving the problem. Customers pay for a pleasant experience and the cost of providing that is nothing more than employing CSRs who understand customers and will deliver a pleasant experience. 8. Self-Service: More than an FAQ – As you cannot build out contact centers fast enough to keep up with demand, the solution is to keep customer satisfaction high by allowing customers to solve their problems in a self-service channel. Not all customers want this, but enough callers will to allow you to pay attention to more in-depth issues. However, self-service takes more than a Web site FAQ. One of the more successful applications to be adopted is natural speech recognition. We estimate that 35-75 percent of all telephone contact can be successfully handled by these systems. As these systems are now affordable and there are vendors with complete implementation experience, this technology will be adopted by all major contact centers in the next 10 years. 9. Adopt Technology that Delivers – You must stay on top of new technology and have a team that assesses its potential benefit. Language translation, speech analytics and natural speech recognition systems are having a big impact. 10. CSR Selection and Continuing Training – A poor CSR loses customers, so hiring individuals who can quickly learn and adapt and providing ongoing training is essential to a successful contact center. Contact centers that invest in training programs to ensure CSRs have the tools and knowledge to best deal with your customers will succeed. By Barton Goldenberg (bgoldenberg@ismguide.com), president and founder of ISM Inc., a CRM, contact center and digital client consulting firm in Bethesda, MD and Richard Feinberg, Ph.D. (xdj1@purdue.edu) a consumer psychologist, a professor in the Purdue University Department of Consumer Sciences and Retailing and the director of the Center for Customer-Driven Quality at Purdue University, which conducted the research for this article.

Complimentary Webcasts You Won't Want to Miss
July 9, 1:00 Eastern: Scheduling Trends in Today's Call Center Balancing Job Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction. CRMxchange Roundtable: Moderated By: Vicki Herrell, SWPP. Participating companies include Aspect Software, IEX, InVision, OnviSource, Pipkins, and Verint® Witness Actionable Solutions™ - During this roundtable we will discuss the many scheduling trends in today's call center, including performance-based scheduling, schedule bids, part-time schedules, weekend and holiday scheduling, and the schedule assignment process. July 10, 1:00 Eastern: Best Practices for Achieving Call Center Workforce Optimization. Presented by VPI and DMG Consulting. Ready to start implementing proven technologies and processes that will rapidly improve the effectiveness of your call center operations and front line employees? Learn to achieve your goals by effectively leveraging the latest powerful workforce optimization solutions. July 15, 1:00 Eastern: How to Use Real Time Customer Feedback to Enhance and Retain Your Customers. Presented by Mindshare. During this session we review strategies for: -- Using customer feedback to increase customer retention -- Best ways for capturing & integrating feedback across all enterprise touch points -- Learn how to empower front line managers with real-time intelligence You will learn to deploy a single solution that will consolidate feedback across the enterprise.

News and Commentary
Suddenlink Plans New $3.5M Call Center in W.Va. Suddenlink Communications says a new $3.5 million call center it plans for Wood County will be completed by October, adding to the company's area work force. Chain Stores Ignore Online Retailing at their Own Peril Among Top 500 retailers, that segment of the market grew by only 18%, compared with 30% for catalog/call centers, 22% for Web-only merchants and 22% for consumer brand manufacturers. CRM and Loyalty Strategies in Travel Be it faster page download times, travel deals in real-time or offering content in a personalized manner, travel portals have to minutely examine all such areas as there is a threat of losing out on a demanding customer in a matter of few seconds. United Way Call Center Extends a Lifeline to Iowans in 24 Counties Usually used for health and human services calls, the call center has been transformed into a disaster response hot line for 24 counties. Those Creeping Unified Communications "Right now all the vendors are kind of making the marketplace a bit muddy as they define UC differently, which is adding to the confusion." Employers Look at Cutting Down on Workers' Commutes Some employers are reconsidering the traditional five-days-in-the-office pattern as the national average price for a gallon of gas hovers around $4. The idea is to whittle down commuting costs for workers by allowing them to work from home or switch to four days of 10 hours each. Retail 101: Juggling POS with Mobility, Call Centers, BI and Security Read about the security, business intelligence, mobility and call center challenges organizations in the retail industry face. Learn how to confront these challenges in order to achieve business intelligence on sales cycle and business growth. Benefits Administration Challenges during M&A Events Benefits administration challenges are ever-present from the beginning to the end of an M&A transaction. Learn what steps your organization should take to ensure a smooth M&A transaction including: Preparing HR data for integration/exchange. Embracing strategies for minimal business disruption. Creating collaborative partnerships with HR service vendors. And much more!

Smart Quote
"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will." -- Jason Kidd, upon his drafting to the Dallas Mavericks pro basketball team

About Contact Professional and CP Wire
	Contact Professional magazine provides useful management tools and resources to the contact center professional. Written for executives, managers and directors of contact centers, the editorial focuses on real world solutions to issues faced on a daily basis. From hiring and training to technology implementation, each article emphasizes ROI and increased efficiency within the contact center. CP Wire, the electronic counterpart to Contact Professional, is delivered biweekly and focuses on daily obstacles facing the contact center professional, offering firsthand opinion and expertise in a brief, entertaining format along with the latest news affecting contact centers around the world. Some links in CP Wire are time-sensitive. These links may move or expire as the news changes throughout the day. Sponsorships or product announcements appearing in CP Wire are paid advertisements and do not reflect actual CP Wire or Contact Professional endorsements. The news and advice reported in CP Wire or Contact Professional magazine does not necessarily reflect the official position of CP Wire or Contact Professional magazine. The information contained herein has been obtained from services believed to be reliable.
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