I just became a writer for, and they featured my article named above in, The National Networker at
http://thenationalnetworker.blogspot.com/2009/11/retention-factor-what-is-great-customer.html
Always welcome feedback, comments, etc.
Archive for December, 2009
The Retention Factor: What is Good Customer Service
Monday, December 21st, 2009The Process of Empowerment
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009From Wikipedia…The process which enables one to gain power, authority and influence over others, institutions or society. Empowerment is probably the totality of the following or similar capabilities:
- Having decision-making power of one’s own
- Having access to information and resources for taking proper decision
- Having a range of options from which you can make choices (not just yes/no, either/or.)
- Ability to exercise assertiveness in collective decision making
- Having positive thinking on the ability to make change
- Ability to learn skills for improving one’s personal or group power.
- Ability to change others’ perceptions by democratic means.
- Involving in the growth process and changes that is never ending and self-initiated
- Increasing one’s positive self-image and overcoming stigma
- Increasing one’s ability in discreet thinking to sort out right and wrong
In short, empowerment is the process that allows one to gain the knowledge, skill-sets and attitude needed to cope with the changing world and the circumstances in which one lives.
Empower your people such that they can take care of customers in one interaction or transaction. Why?
Empowerment:
- makes good business sense
- ups your efficiency level
- shortens your call time
- eliminates callbacks, and
- affords an opportunity to cross-sell, upsell or whatever is appropriate in your organization.
I’ve written about Zappos previously. They were recently on the front page of INC Magazine (May 2009), and their people have complete empowerment, with no restrictions, but rather, encouragement to take great care of customers, before, during and after the sale. And they do go above and beyond.
Don’t give lip service to this concept of empowerment. Make sure your feet follow your mouth!
What also impressed me is that Zappos does not track call times or require their people to read from scripts. “It’s all about P-E-C: Personal Emotional Connection with the customer…”
I couldn’t have said it better myself. As I’ve put forth many times…what separates you from your competition is not your product or service, but rather, your relationship with your customer.
FCR – Again Revisited
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Once again it is time to revisit FCR. There are quite a number of new studies and statistics, which I will cite below.
Enkata’s white paper (2009 www.enkata.com) reports that only 40% of centers are measuring FCR, SQM Group puts the percentage at 50% (SQM’s World Class Call Center Book excerpt, p. 1), and less than 20% are measuring FCR for all of their calls according to a study by ICMI (International Customer Management Institute).
It was further noted that 65% of all repeat calls are the result of agent errors. For instance, if an agent:
1) Doesn’t give a confident answer
2) Doesn’t set the proper expectations
3) Doesn’t follow through on a commitment
4) Simply gives the wrong answer
A typical customer will not call back. Not only does this keep costs high, but it decreases customer loyalty and increases turnover. In addition, SQM Group suggests there is a 20% point drop in customer satisfaction for each additional call required to resolve the customer call. (SQP Group, FCR 2008, p. 3) Additionally, customers who did not get their call resolved are 5 times more likely to defect than those who had their call resolved (p. 5).
On the other hand, improving FCR can
1) Reduce overall customer calls
2) Decrease rework
3) Improve service
4) Enhance customer satisfaction
5) Up-sell and cross-sell opportunities
6) High value customer interactions
7) Take customers from satisfied to loyal
Six Common techniques for measuring FCR according to Service Agility (ContactCenterPipeline.com, March, 2009, p. 17)
|
Methods |
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
|
1. Agent self-reporting |
Ease of implementation |
Agent bias |
|
|
Minimal investment required |
No way to correlate to customer callback on the same issue |
|
2. Ask caller at end of call
3. Quality Monitoring System
4. Post-call surveys (IVR)
5. Post-call surveys (follow up call)
6. FCR-tracking technology |
Based on customer’s perspective Minimal investment required
Utilizes existing formalized quality program QA team can validate all agent activity, including communication to customer and accuracy of documentation and follow up Ability to analyze results by call type and identify process improvement and call center training opportunities Ability to provide FCR-focused feedback and coaching to the call-handling agent
Provides immediate feedback from the customer’s perspective Moderate investment required No bias if customer opts for survey Ability to provide FCR-focused feedback and coaching to the call-handling agent
Provides immediate feedback from the customer’s perspective Moderate cost to support Ability to provide FCR-focused feedback and coaching to the call-handling agent
Measures performance by call type Identification of process improvement opportunities Ability to track FCR by call type |
Customer may not know if the issue has been resolved until later No way to correlate to a customer callback on the same issue
Can be costly to get significant sample size Based on subjectivity of QA team
Customer may not know if the issue has been resolved until later Agent bias if it’s their option to offer the survey
Customer may not know if the issue has been resolved until later Difficult to reach customers
Major investment required If customer calls back from work, cell phone or other phone number data may not be captured |
Research by TARP Worldwide found that agent self reporting typically results in 20% higher FCR than customer reported methods–reinforcing the importance of using several measuring techniques, like those suggested above, and then correlating the results, identifying the gaps, and initiating adjustments as needed. By evaluating the types of calls that are not resolved on first contact, you can determine common causes and revamp training, workflow, and coaching accordingly.
In order to truly calculate FCR, you need to know 3 things:
1) If it was the same caller
2) If it was for the same reason
3) If it occurred within a present callback time window
Top organizations recognize that agents are the true customer contact experts in the center. Therefore, encourage your agents to make suggestions, as well as offer feedback in support of FCR success.
We believe the best practice for measuring FCR is:
1) Ask the customer – ultimately they are the determining factor
2) If the customer completes a survey, there should be questions that ask, “Was your call resolved?” and “How many calls did you made to resolve your call?”
3) If the customer said the call was resolved in one call, then that customer experienced FCR
4) If the call is transferred and the next person resolves the issue–without the customer having to call back–it is still FCR. The customer only made the one call.
FCR is still the #1 driver of customer satisfaction. Don’t be one of the 50% or 60% of organizations not measuring FCR. Remember what gets measured gets managed, and what get managed gets better.
ROSANNE D’AUSILIO, Ph.D., an industrial psychologist, consultant, master trainer, best selling author, executive coach, customer service expert, and President of Human Technologies Global, Inc., specializes in human performance management. Over the last 25 years, she has provided needs analyses, instructional design, and customized, live customer service skills trainings as well as executive/leadership coaching. Also offered is agent and facilitator university certification through Purdue University’s Center for Customer Driven Quality.
Known as ‘the practical champion of the human,’ she authors best sellers “Wake Up Your Call Center: Humanize Your Interaction Hub,” 4th ed, “Customer Service and the Human Experience,” “Lay Your Cards on the Table: 52 Ways to Stack Your Personal Deck (includes a 32-card deck of cards)—motivational and inspirational readings, How to Kick Your Customer Service Up A Notch: 101 Insider Tips , How to Kick Your Customer Service Up A Notch: ANOTHER 101 Insider Tips (http://www.customer-service-expert.com), and The Expert’s Guide to Customer Service (http://www.customer-service-expert.com/report.htm) as well as her popular complimentary ‘tips’ newsletter on How To Kick Your Customer Service Up A Notch! at http://www.HumanTechTips.com
Rosanne is also a Certified Call Center Benchmarking Auditor through Purdue University’s Center for Customer Driven Quality. This certification training focuses on the access and use of key performance data to help better understand benchmarking results so as to advise on practical solutions for improvement.
For 10 years prior to starting her own organization, Rosanne had responsibility for marketing, budgeting, promoting and ultimately producing domestic and international computerized trade shows in the US, London, Belgium, and Frankfurt. She inaugurated, created, trained and directed a telemarketing on-site staff and was one of the first 150 people to attain CMP (Certified Meeting Professional) certification.
She is a columnist for TMCnet.com and Ask the Expert at supportindustry.com. She represents the human element on the Advisory Board of an Italian software company, authors numerous articles for industry newsletters, and is a much sought after dynamic, vibrant, internationally prominent keynote speaker.
