The preamble to the United States Constitution begins, ¡¥we, the people.¡¦ I feel strongly that we, the people, are what make the difference in life, both personally and professionally.

The interaction anyone has at any level with your employees, including you, gives a customer– whether current, potential, and internal or external–an opportunity to make a judgment about you, your company, and all companies like yours. I¡¦m not just talking about call centers here. All technical support or help desk personnel are included as well. As a matter of fact, anyone who is in the customer service business period.

With continued focus on customer satisfaction, customer retention, and lifetime value of the customer, it is no surprise that contact center operations continue to increase in importance as the primary hub of a customer¡¦s experience. For the customer, the person on the other end of the phone is the company. The contact center is still the most common way that customers get in touch with businesses. In fact, Gartner reports 92% of all contact is through the center. And it¡¦s been reported that 70% to 90% of what happens with customers is driven by human nature, having nothing to do with technology. State of the art technology is a necessity today, but it is meant to enable human endeavors, not to disable them.

I often talk about taking customer service and ¡¥kicking it up a notch.¡¦ In the food industry, the word ¡¥lagniappe¡¦ is often used. Its definition is ¡§a small present given to a customer with a purchase. For example, when you go to the bakery and buy a dozen donuts or bagels, you oftentimes get a ¡¥free¡¦ one or a baker¡¦s dozen. That¡¦s what customer service should be about–giving the customer more than they expected! Let¡¦s bring lagniappe into the contact center industry.

If we¡¦re going to speak about world class customer service, let¡¦s have a working definition it so we¡¦re all on the same page. Customer service is those activities provided by a company¡¦s employees that enhance the ability of a customer to realize the full potential value of a product or service before and after the sale is made, thereby leading to satisfaction and repurchase.

Let¡¦s look at the first W which is Why?

The state of customer service today is not good, be it over the phone or self service. Because 92% of people feel their call experience is important in shaping the image of a company, this reinforces the importance of centers in branding the image of their companies.

In a Mobius Management Systems Survey, here¡¦s what happened because of poor customer service:

60% cancelled accounts with banks

36% changed insurance providers

40% changed telephone companies

35% changed credit card providers

375 changed Internet service providers

Are you one of these statistics? I certainly am.

In a study done by Purdue University and BenchmarkPortal.com, in answer to (1) how did agents satisfy your needs and handle the call, and (2) based on any negative experience, would you stop using this company in the future? the findings reveal a strong correlation between the participant¡¦s age and the tendency to stop using the company after a bad experience.

What does this mean? Younger participants were less tolerant and more likely to move to the competition. People over 65 were found to be more demanding than those in middle age.

What can you do? Give younger callers a ¡¥wow¡¦ experience–maintain their loyalty. People over 36 probably have more of an ¡¥emotional bank account¡¦ with the company they are dealing with¡Vmaybe had some good experience and therefore are more willing to ¡¥forgive.¡¦

In a recent study (CRM Magazine/PeopleSoft Web Seminar on How Usability Helps to Drive a Profitable Contact Center), the number of applications required for agents to access customer inquiries were:

3.7% just 1

81.5% 2 ¡V 5

7.4% 5 ¡V 10

7.4% more than 10

As you can see, the majority of applications are 2 – 5. The goal, of course, is to link every point of contact to one central location for a customer-centric, synchronized approach satisfying customer experiences with every interactionwww.greatindustrialguide.com