Simplify Operational Complexity: Improve Customer Satisfaction
1 Mar, 2009
By: Linda Driscoll-DobelAn exclusive interview with Bruce Dresser and Contact Professional Magazine.
Contact Professional (CP) recently interviewed Bruce Dresser, chief marketing officer for Echopass, a hosted contact center services provider. Dresser is responsible for all Echopass marketing activities, including corporate and product positioning, market strategy and tactical implementation. Previously, he was the founder and president of Tenth Dot Solutions Marketing Consulting.
CP: Echopass recently published a compelling report on strategies companies can utilize to simplify operational complexity while still improving customer satisfaction. Can you explain?
Bruce Dresser (BD): There’s no question that in today’s economy, companies are under more pressure than ever to ensure their customers remain satisfied — and customer service improvements hold the key for competitive differentiation and customer retention. We know from experience, success is dependant upon how accurately companies define and understand improvements to the customer experience.
CP: So it’s not just about improving the technology?
BD: We’ve found that most successful organizations make decisions based on a careful analysis of actual customer needs and desires versus being driven by technology. It’s important to deliver the right mix of multi-channel services to optimize and simplify customer contact interactions. Even those technologies that promise to simplify operations (such as self-service or chat) may not deliver that benefit if the customer doesn’t want to use it. In fact, it can backfire: by attempting to simplify operations based upon technology instead of customer need, the company has actually made operations more complex.
In virtually every vertical industry today, firms should be careful not to treat all customers alike. When it comes to determining which multi-media channels to offer, companies should evaluate that need by customer segment and learn what each distinct group needs and desires. An older segment of the population might prefer live agents to self-service or chat, while a twenty-something demographic could favor Internet, chat, or even text messaging. Determining the right mix of multi-media channels is key to reducing operational complexity and increasing customer satisfaction.
CP: How do companies weigh the relative value of customer requirements?
BD: Companies should evaluate the value of each option based on their understanding of customer segments. Obviously, the most desirable solution will be both easy to provide and have a high impact on the customer. We suggest they look at it as a grid, take each potential option, and place it in one of the following grid categories:
• Easy to provide with High Customer Impact
• Medium to provide with High Customer Impact
• Hard to provide with High Customer Impact
• Easy to provide but Low Customer Impact
• Medium to provide but Low Customer Impact
• Hard to provide but Low Customer Impact.
What’s the lowest hanging fruit? Easy to provide with High Customer Impact. The company is now ready to evaluate how to implement the highest-value items from its grid. Options for implementing technology include on-premise, outsourced and hosted; or some combination based on where the company stands with its current technology. This is key — there are multiple viable choices.
CP: With so many choices, how does a company determine the best approach?
BD: Implementing the most effective solutions that simplify operational complexity by delivering a quality multi-channel experience to customers may require new technologies. Are these changes going to be evolutionary or revolutionary? A company might take an evolutionary approach and add a hosted IVR to its premise-based call center, or outsource a pool of agents to serve seasonal upswings in call volumes. It could even choose to have an entire second site that is hosted as a way to grow its existing capacity-constrained, premise-based contact center.
The implementation choices are varied. To offer the best mix of multi-media options that balance customer needs with the company’s ability to meet those needs and to simplify the complexity of its operations, a company might consider several options. Eliminate what was previously assumed to be a good multi-media component because customers don’t like it. Create new multi-media components that previously seemed to make operations more complex, if a clearer understanding of customer needs has proven they are high value. If this simplifies processes for the customer, ultimately it will also simplify operations. The company could explore alternative delivery mechanisms to provide different multi-media or core call center technologies. The choice of implementing these solutions can be evolutionary, with the company merely adding components, or revolutionary, if it replaces an existing premise-based solution with hosted services.
