Mad Dash to Change in Unified Customer Service: Make It Work for You
Technology is enabling the evolution of what we view as customer service. Just a very few years ago having contact center agents sitting in multiple locations acting as a single unit was considered to be leading edge. Today, virtual contact centers are just good business practice associated with managing costs and driving efficiencies. The next stages in evolution will come much more rapidly. Consumer demands and expectations are driving the speed of change. As an example, 24x7 availability is an expectation. Recall the uproar when Twitter and Facebook went down due to a denial of service attack.
Users also have an expectation of being remembered and acknowledged for their previous business or customer service interactions. My husband was within seconds of moving all of our banking business because the teller told him he couldn't have the higher 6 month introductory rate on our deposits. The teller's initial response was that the rate was only for new accounts. If you knew my husband, you could imagine the ensuing conversation around valuing loyal customers. But, why shouldn't customers expect to be recognized and rewarded for being loyal and profitable? Needless to say, we were given the 6 month rate but only after a bank officer was engaged. Attention to customer sounds like common sense. However, how many companies actually do it? The implications to businesses are considerable. For example, to be aware of John Customer, the enterprise must be intelligent. It cannot rely on information solely at the fingertips of the contact center agent. And, more importantly, the enterprise has to empower its employees to act intelligently on behalf of the company. Hard coded scripts are insufficient to the challenge. It is a bit frightening to have to give up control in order to gain greater control.
The table below outlines a progression from left to right of the movement from contact centers focused on efficiently managing internal resources to the future state of companies responding in anticipation the needs of their customers. To move toward the right, one must give up control of something in order to gain control of a thing more valuable. For example, a competitive advantage contact center agent needs the authority to go "off script" in order to achieve the right outcome. Intelligent customer service assumes that the contact center supervisor must relinquish control in order to leverage company experts in order to better service customers. And so on...
In addition to outlining how customer service is evolving, the table also provides some examples by stage of anticipated business objectives and associated supporting applications. It should be noted that most companies do not fall neatly into a single category. Nor is there any value assessment of category (no good, better, best).
Type of customer service will drive the kinds of metrics needed to assess success or to identify areas of improvement. Who is measured? What is measured? What are the business goals? Measures of internal efficiency are most likely not sufficient to determine success in anticipating and satisfying customer needs. Number of calls handled may not be relevant to whether an "expert" is performing to expectations, but would be critical to determining how many contact center agents are needed to meet call volumes. Transparency of data across departments is required to provide a view into delivering against customer expectations. Access to data can be a significant challenge to many organizations. Or, too much data and no relevant information.
As companies make decisions on what type of customer service best aligns with their business objectives, opportunities are created (internally and through partner services) to create value through business, management and implementation consulting. Given the changes in the type of metrics needed to manage for success, someone has to step up to identifying the key objectives, find where the data resides and create information. Changes to organizational design may be required to adapt to the new way of doing business relative to customers. Cost-benefit analysis of customer service across departments within the enterprise challenge many existing tools and practices.
Opportunities abound for companies to enhance their focus on customer service. Advances in unified communications have taken much of the heavy lifting out of the equation with respect to bringing multiple constituencies together to act in concert - empowered with the tools and intelligence to provide superior customer service at levels not envisioned in the past. Opportunities exist for solution providers to expand the value of the services they offer to enterprises. For the most part, the technology exists today. What is required is a bit of creativity and a well thought out plan.