Trust the Voice of the Customer to Build Lifelong Loyalty
1 Jul, 2008
By: Rudy VidalListening to the customer is the right thing to do. Taking it to the next level is somewhat more difficult. One reason for this is the majority of C-level management believes that acting on customer satisfaction issues is a short-term expense for a long-term, unquantifiable result. This spells bad ROI. As a result, little is done with the data.
Based on research conducted by BenchmarkPortal and Purdue University, 93 percent of companies collect data. Although many companies collect customer feedback, less than 67 percent actually use this data to make strategic changes to their businesses.
What are we Doing Wrong?
Most companies measure the quality of the interaction based on internal criteria, such as: Did the agent greet the customer appropriately? Did the agent ask all the right questions? Was the agent efficient? However, these questions do not take into account the experience of the customer. Most quality assurance departments in call centers do not determine the success or failure of a call based on the customer’s satisfaction level. That’s all that really counts.
A majority of call centers monitor five calls per month due to time and cost limitations. Statistically and operationally, five calls per month cannot show relevancy – nor should it be the right approach. The best approach to modify and improve agent performance is to have immediate feedback from customers. The agent remembers what happens and how the call felt, and because he/she remembers the call vividly, he or she makes the necessary mental adjustments and takes immediate advice from the customer and the supervisor.
Collecting customer data is always a good thing. However, the dangers lie in this process being a painful one for the customer. Today, technology helps us a great deal in this regard. E-mail allows customers to reply at their leisure, but that usually does not help the yield rate. Post-call surveys by phone are usually more effective, but only if you keep them short and respect customers’ time.
UCN’s hosted, customer satisfaction solution called Echo®, which stands for “Every Customer Has Opinions,” specializes in the process of serving the survey (without the agent’s knowledge) and analyzing the data to inform the agent of the customer feedback immediately. The “magic” happens when the agent hears the customer’s voice directly. Agents tend to listen more objectively to the customer’s feedback than feedback from a supervisor or quality assurance person.
How does Echo Work?
Echo engages the customer, and before the customer reaches an agent, asks if the customer would like to take a short survey when finished. About 35 percent opt to participate in the survey. At the end of the call, the Echo system calls the customer and delivers three to five questions and records the results. It also has the ability to record choice comments from the customer. When you indicate the customer’s satisfaction rating and the voice recording of the customer’s comments and a recording of the actual call occurs, that’s when it all comes together. The customer’s rating is then displayed for the agent and supervisors to see. The agent also sees the average rating of their peers—this creates a healthy incentive for the agents to keep up and do the best they can. For supervisors, they are able to discern the cause of a problem where the agent may not. Supervisors are very valuable in the process of coaching and overall improvement.
If you ask the right questions, the potential benefits can be quite meaningful. First, you can discern the reason for the call and work on reducing the initial customer concern or dissatisfaction that prompted the call. Second, we can find ways to improve the customer experience to ensure what we call “extreme customer satisfaction,” which is the ability to exceed the customer’s expectations through agent action or call center process. Extreme customer satisfaction creates loyalty and thereby revenue. A contact center does not have to be a cost center. Through extreme customer satisfaction, it can become a profit center!
Use Customer Feedback
Our message is simple: “Trust the voice of the customer.” The efforts to improve customer experience most often pay off in multiples, as long as exceeding their expectations is the goal. As it turns out, satisfying customers does not create loyalty so well; extreme customer satisfaction creates loyalty six times better. Give customers just a bit more than they expect and win their loyalty for life!
