As recently highlighted in Chanel 4’s Dispatches: Richard Wilson on Hold, if there’s one sure way to alienate your customers it’s by installing a fully automated telephone system where a person could clearly do a much better job. We’re not talking about “on hold messages” here but a system where you are actually expected to have achieved something by the end of the call without actually having spoken to a living breathing person.
Once hailed as the answer to spiralling contact centre costs, automated telephone systems are now widely blamed for a large proportion of revenue loss. So, if it’s the telephone you use to sell your product or service, make sure it’s manned by a real person – one who will answer your customers’ questions and not drive them to the brink of taking a hammer to the telephone handset. The backlash against automated phone systems has begun!
Arm your Customer Service Agents with all the goodies they need to do a great job
Whilst it true that you may occasionally receive a call from someone who‘s just phoned for a chat, on the whole your customers want their query answered quickly and accurately with the minimum amount of fuss and time spent on the phone.
In order to provide such a service, it is essential that customer service agents have better tools to do their jobs. Systems should put all the relevant information about a customer right in front of their eyes. Irrelevant and unnecessary information should be kept to a minimum to cut back on the amount of reading (and erring) involved, and all this information should be displayed in an intuitive, efficient and organised way for at- a-glance reference.
Check your priorities – your customers’ needs must come before your own
Companies are slowly learning that, while customers appreciate self-serve options that provide a genuine benefit to them (e.g. ATMs, on-line shopping, etc.), they’re not so impressed when a company is just trying to dump the work back on the customer (e.g. Self-serve checkouts). Mums with kids in tow for example, probably aren’t going to have their hands free to operate the self-service checkout whilst trying to restrain a couple of wilful toddlers… So why on earth would a large well known chemist (and notorious haunt of the busy mum) do away with the majority of their manned service tills in favour of the somewhat less dextrous self-service checkouts? Lunacy! Thankfully though, a number of large grocery store chains have seen the light and are in the process of removing their self-service checkouts.
Keeping mums happy isn’t the only very strong argument for doing away with self-serve checkouts though. In reality, how much money do they actually save the retailer? Surely the money saved needs to be weighed against the amount of shrinkage caused by certain celebrity chefs taking advantage of the lack of personnel by pinching “low value goods”. Ready Steady RUN Anthony Worrall-Thompson! In all seriousness though, it’s well documented that the very solution designed to save the retailer oodles in salaries is now costing them an arm and a leg in retail fraud and theft.
Quality control
This should arguably be at the top of this list- surely, the first defence against customers complaints is to minimise what they have to complain about in the first place i.e. make sure that the quality of your product or service meets (or preferably exceeds) the expectations of your customers.
Customer service training is back
More and more companies are re-investing in employee training when it comes to the treatment of their customers – mainly due to the fact that customer service has become the most utilised form of brand differentiation (see added value below). Expolink Europe Ltd, providers of contact centre services to over 130 household names, currently offers NVQ qualifications to its entire contact centre staff and David Crook, CEO believes it has “paid dividends in terms of client retention.”
Added Value
Marketing professionals have long advised clients to provide their customers with a “value added proposition”. It’s nothing new but in an environment where price no longer differentiates competitors (because everyone is charging the same minimum rate just to get a sale) it really is giving that little bit extra that gets you noticed.
So what is it? Well, in a marketing nutshell “added value” is simply something you can give to your customers that is of high value to them, but of low cost to you.
It can be as simple as offering advice on how to make the most of the product or service they have bought from you, complimentary accessories they cannot do without, or discounts for return custom or referral to another customer. It can even take the form of quality assurance or a guarantee.
The idea is that the customer perceives the increased worth of what you are offering them, in the guise of excellent customer service or quality of your product’s features, all of which goes towards gaining customer loyalty and repeated business. Of course this all depends greatly on undertaking relevant and effective marketing research to find out what your customers really want – which is a time consuming process, but the rewards could be well worth the effort.
The Gripevine
it’s amazing how much bolder people feel about complaining when they do it online. More and more people are using social media to shout out when they have customer service beef. The advent of social media has been likened to a tidal wave – and you can see why, it’s a force of nature and if you don’t master it, it has the potential to destroy you.
Australian clothing giant Gasp fell right off the crest when one of their sales people was quoted on Facebook and Twitter as saying “I knew you girls were a joke the minute you walked in” after bride-to-be Keira O’Neill declined to buy the (considerably more expensive) pink wedding dress the sales person “recommended” she buy. As if this tale weren’t damning enough, Gasp then proceeded to complete their social suicide mission by publicly defending their salesperson, saying he was “good at what he does… and doesn’t like his time being wasted”; you can imagine the ensuing social uproar.
As a result of stories like this, and the tools that people now have at their disposal to make a public complaint, we are starting to see a re-awakening of consumers. People are far less inclined to accept second best in the way they once were, taking direct, and sometimes devastating, action.
On the up side
It’s not all doom and gloom, owing to its power, there’s an awful lot social media can do for your business if you play it right. Companies that are prepared to put their customers first now have the opportunity to reap the rewards. So make sure your customers have plenty of good things to tweet about.
But even if you do get a bit of bad press… lap it up! It’s the way you deal with this (ideally well and publicly) that can completely turn around the public perception of your company.
Social media sites are also an infinite source of management information. Actively encourage your customers’ natural urge to vent their spleen and use it to make them feel listened to! Where practical, you could even make the suggested changes and advertise the fact that, thanks to Mrs Jones from Dorchester, everyone can now benefit from better customer service. Power to the people!
£2.1bn - Predicted tourist spend for London Olympics and Paralympics
What has 11m legs and a never ending list of demands? The expected daily visitors at this year’s London Olympics, of course!
Lloyds TSB estimate that the Olympic Games will generate £10bn in revenue for the British economy and visibility of our small island will skyrocket with an anticipated £4bn people watching the opening ceremony alone. The government hopes the Games will bolster the tourism and service industry, not only in terms of revenue but also in reputation, and seeks to galvanise business leaders and service industry workers into action and put paid to the perception that the British welcome is colder than its winters…
So, is the UK up to the challenge? The nation’s favourite blusterer, Mayor Boris Johnson, launched a Visitor Charter to encourage businesses to pledge fair pricing and practice during the Games, an enterprise that might induce the scoffing from some sceptics especially since, at time of writing, only 62 businesses, from Madame Tussauds to curry houses, have subscribed. Only a fool would expect to holiday in London at this time on a shoestring (even though a 2011 Mercer report ranked the capital as a mere 18th in its list of the world’s most expensive cities), but opportunistic greed is still evident in the findings from a report commissioned by Tessa Jowell, the Shadow Olympics Secretary, stating that hotel prices are anticipated to rise by an average of 315%. In addition, greedy landlords are routinely evicting tenants in order to gouge tourists to the tune of 15 times normal rental rates, with additional “penalty clauses” for extended stays.
Whether these bums on seats and heads on pillows belong to oligarchs or Joe Public, what can this barrage of visitors expect from the UK and its service provision? A survey by the People 1st Training Company found that 73% of business leaders have their doubts about the quality of UK customer service and only 14% think our approach to hospitality is a selling point. Grim assertions indeed especially as 86% of those interviewed admitted to making no business preparations for the Games yet a similar figure acknowledged the positive potential of doing so! (Do the maths…)
A Government Report revealed that the UK ranked sixth out of fifty countries in international tourist arrivals in 2009, ‘though one of the lowest scores in reasons for visitors to come to the UK was the anticipated welcome. With accessibility to global tourism sites such as Angkor Wat and Machu Picchu increasing, it’s time to up our game. If we are able to convince the world of the UK’s charms it can help us become a desirable location to tourists from growth markets such as China, Brazil, Russia and India. And let’s not forget the Cultural Olympiad featuring a plethora of post-modernistic entertainment from Damien Hirst to performances of 38 plays by Shakespeare. at the Globe from 38 different nations, in the same number of languages.
Sue Gill, head of skills and training at Tourism South East, told Personnel Today that all staff working in the service industry need to be coached in cultural diversity and preferably in an additional language, and employers should encourage staff to enrol in customer service courses and take part in best practice forums. A European Commission survey in 2001 found 65.9% of UK respondents only spoke their native tongue – by far the highest proportion among the EU countries polled. And though English is known as a second language by one third of the EU population, this does not take into account visitors from outside the EU, of which there will be many in 2012. In our global community, negotiating cultural boundaries and obstacles in a sensitive manner is of upmost importance – particularly when protecting brands and ensuring great customer experience. Linguistically we might not be chasing the tails of pentaglot Nick Clegg (look it up..) but we have some advantage due to the sheer number and variety of regional accents we are used to deciphering. Putting guidelines in place such as identifying colleagues with language skills, training staff on basic phrases such as “please hold/wait for a moment while I…etc” in a few of the most widely spoken languages and ultimately encouraging staff to exercise patience and courtesy can help dissipate cultural or language barriers considerably. Why not make use of some of the many online translation tools available, or consider offering chat, email or other print-based customer support alternatives.
The UK’s cultural diversity is one of the Government’s key selling points for optimising the economic benefits from the Games. In order to achieve this, improve global perceptions of the UK, and for visitors to be engaged and gain an appreciation of UK culture, those providing services must be culturally aware and able to meet the disparate needs of their clientele. Why not initiate a two-way cultural awareness education program across the industry enabling all parties involved to enjoy and benefit from the 2010 experience? Exhibiting empathy, suspending judgment and learning as much as possible about the cultural norms and values helps avoid misunderstandings and creates a fluid customer service transaction. But this should not be at the expense of exhibiting our own cultural identity. Surely the whole purpose of overseas travel is to see and experience different ways of life, so it is vital to strike the right balance between local and global culture. And as with many such vexations customer research and ethnographic insight strategies could be the answer.
There has been much discussion about the physical legacy of the Games; what will happen to all those arenas, O2 can’t take them ALL over, surely!? But this is a great opportunity for our businesses and services to truly shine and to improve the perception of London, and the UK, as a tourist destination. The UK can’t rely on its traditional draws of heritage and culture to sustain tourism and must look to up its game in the areas that lack in quality such as welcome and value for money. Tourism chiefs are hoping for an extra four million visitors to the UK in the next four years as a result of the Games, so our re-energised welcome needs to be sustained and integrated.
Visitors to the Games are hoping for a holistically seamless and satisfying experience, from transportation to accommodation, gastronomic to aesthetic. In Sydney, urban legend goes that premier John Howard sought to arrange the city’s traffic lights to go green as the 2000 Olympic Committee traversed the city. The veracity of this is, of course, doubtful and the possibility of such tactics working in our choked, miasmic capital, non-existent. But it is entirely within the realm of possibility for the UK to prove the naysayers wrong and show that the UK’s customer service is second to none and our welcome is warm and inviting – even if the weather is not.
Expolink Europe is delighted to announce the appointment of Carol Workman as our new Contact Centre Manager
A Contact Centre Manager with over 20 years’ experience, Carol has a proven record of success in building, managing and delivering outstanding call centre services.
Carol originally worked as a Scientific Officer in South Wales before commencing her contact centre career with a direct insurance company in Bristol. From there she moved to a life insurance company to set up the outbound function, gaining a certificate in financial planning along the way. Carol has spent the last 11 years as Contact Centre Manager for a leading Bristol-based outsource company, growing the call centre from ten to 100 seats and expanding her experience working within highly regulated industries such as financial, government and utilities.
Carol brings to Expolink Europe a wealth of knowledge of managing a range of inbound, outbound and back office functions. Along with a an interest in how technology can aid and enhance the customer offering, she is passionate about developing the call centre team and strives to achieve and maintain a learning and empowering work place.
Outside of work Carol’s has recently completed a round-the-world trip, taking in USA and Australia before returning via Hong Kong. She has also grown to like a range of sports including cricket, succumbing to the consensus of a very male household! To relax she likes nothing better than settling down with a good chick lit novel.
Email: carol.workman@expolink.co.uk
LinkedIn: Carol’s Profile
A quick brain teaser for you on this late Summer morning; Aside from their initials, what do Cheryl Cole and Contact Centres have in common? They have both returned to the UK after failing to make it overseas. But all joking aside, the latter and somewhat less entertaining acronym has made the headlines recently, for after an era of overseas outsourcing it seems a trend is emerging towards brands bringing their contact centres back to the UK.
During this economic ‘winter of discontent’, opting for a domestic contact centre is becoming a way of aligning your brand and business with local values and, as our ever changing world spins dizzyingly on its axis and global economies morph in its wake, it appears that such hitherto money-spinning relocations could become a thing of the past.
This year Santander is moving operations back to the UK after receiving a high level of complaints, 165,000 in the latter half of 2010 alone. A spokesperson from the company stated that dealing with an off-shore contact centre caused “frustration that can lead to dissatisfaction”. The financial giant bolstered the news of its relocation with a branding overhaul and a new strapline, “driven to do better”, denoting its commitment to a better class of customer service. Societies are well accustomed to a global business environment, but it seems that consumers hesitate to embrace the notion of having their financial, sartorial or other needs dealt with by a call handler who could be many thousands of miles away, in a different time zone and who may well be fresh from a daily briefing about the goings on in Albert Square.
Rather than language issues or grievances over accents, a lack of cultural affinity is thought to be a key factor in the failure of some overseas contact centres to engage and satisfy customers. If a customer has a complex or contentious issue, any obstacle to empathy or understanding between the call handler and caller can escalate rapidly to a point where both brand and solution are irreparably marred. Having a conversation with an individual who relates and empathises with your issue and can analyse the problem within a shared cultural context is crucial to a satisfying and progressive business relationship.
Telecoms provider, New Call Telecom also recently returned to the UK after discovering the disparities in call efficiency between the UK and their outsourced offices in India. Speaking to the Economic Times CEO Nigel Eastwood asserted; “The average (call) handling time in the UK is three minutes. But if you go out to India you add another minute, unless it is a very efficient operation… we can actually reduce the head count with the saving”
During the earlier stages of relocations to India, low property and salary rates warranted the move, but in recent times inflation and prices have increased; Indian wages are expected to rise 13% over the next year. In short, what was working economically for businesses is no longer working for them or their customers. At New Call’s new offices in Burnley, Lancashire the rental cost in pounds per square foot is similar to that in major Indian cities and the area has good scope for an economicaly viable workforce. In addition, there are no extra costs for transporting managers or other staff to review progress on site and manage any issues.
As economic pressures mount throughout the world notions of patriotism come to the fore and businesses that show themselves to be supporting local economies and communities receive praise in the media and from politicians. Brands will undoubtedly be using Santander et al as litmus tests for their own future strategies. Astute brands know that failing to listen to the needs of their customers is integral to on-going success. It could be that consumer’s disaffection continues to pull the tide that will cause the sea change.
At the beginning of July this year Expolink took on a loyalty campaign for The Daily Mail. The paper was launching a promotional campaign across its weekend editions to encourage sales and long-term customer loyalty. It needed a contact centre to complement its online presence and anticipated that 4% of contacting customers wouldn’t have access to the internet or would need support filling out the web form.
More than anticipated, out of 30368 calls in July, 13.9% were responding for those very reasons. 65% of those callers were making contact to ask for advice or support relating to the promotion. These figures show unequivocally that there is still a very real and enduring need for human contact options.
Readers were encouraged to collect tokens from The Daily Mail which would allow them to accumulate discount rewards from major retailers.
The results reflect the fact that a considerable chunk of the paper’s market base, while still active consumers, still required support with the promotion. Imagine if the lines had not been in place and a potentially loyal customer of the paper had been unsure of the functionality or benefits of the scheme and had fallen at the first hurdle? That’s a considerable impact, not only on the paper, but on the paper’s retail partners, who we can be sure have their own loyalty strategy to fulfil.
The Office of National Statistics estimates that internet usage almost doubled in the UK between 2006 and 2010, a perhaps unsurprising figure given the proliferation and popularity of internet shopping and social media. However, on closer analysis, socio-demographic factors come into play. 60% of those aged over 65 had never accessed the internet compared with just 1% of those aged between 16 and 24. A cursory scout around one of The Big Four or any shopping centre will tell you that it is not just this latter age group that should be a target for consumer loyalty.
Turning to regional demographics, while 83% of folks in the capital are estimated to have their own internet connection, just 59% in the North East say the same. Perhaps most enlightening of all is the reasons households give for not having their own web connection; 39% said they just did not need it and 21% said they did not have the skills. These are two facts that businesses cannot ignore when reviewing their strategy for a campaign. Making your communications as inclusive, user-friendly and coherent as possible is fundamental in achieving profit, loyalty and optimum customer care. Our campaign continues to enjoy success for our client due to the commitment we have to our client’s customers. The response has also proved a vital exercise in customer awareness and will help the paper continue to achieve loyalty successes within their market base, in what are very uncertain times for our national press.
The influential American philosopher Elbert Hubbert once asserted, “one machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.” In an age of virtual assistants and automated medical advice lines this is a philosophy us humans should perhaps cherish. Customer feedback solutions specialists, ServiceTick, concur with Hubbert. A survey conducted by the company pits contact centres against web-based customer management and finds the latter is still lacking. Their 150,000-strong survey discovered that customer satisfaction scores and NPS (Net Promoter Score) were consistently higher at the end of a personal conversation with an agent than with web-based scores. The difference was clear – customer satisfaction scores were 22 points higher and NPS 69% higher.
Thinking laterally, this is hardly surprising. After all, having someone listen to your query or problem and actively strive for a solution or enhance your experience with their product or service, is most consumers idea of excellent customer service. Choice, convenience, service standards and provision must be key when deciding on the communication channels your company offers. The customer service strategy you employ is dependent on the type of campaign you are running. Simple services with little need for interaction or risk of procedural error could be suited to web-based applications, but if the campaign is more information-driven or if there is more risk for the customer to become confused by a difficult process or service, a contact centre environment might be more appropriate. Expertly managed online systems are well demonstrated by Facebook and Google who, when not fighting over world domination, have constructed comprehensive troubleshooting systems that negate, though not replace, the need for “contact” customer service. Their businesses are such that the majority of the problems their users encounter can be solved through the kind of procedural IT troubleshooting that many of us are familiar with from work. We can see that in some contexts this approach is well suited, but if you are hoping to reap the rewards of upselling, cross-selling or simply injecting your brand with a bit of personality, contact centre services can’t be beaten.
Modern consumers create complex personas through their product choices and the way they select, negotiate, manage and communicate these choices. We allow ourselves to be constantly contactable, both by our peers and marketers alike, and expect the same availability from our service providers. Smart businesses understand that, in order to promote customer acquisition and retention, a more holistic approach to customer service is needed. While web-based processes are sometimes quicker or more convenient to access, the frustration that can develop from not being able to locate your answer within a FAQ matrix can be a far less preferable process to speaking to a responsive and laterally-minded person, interested in retaining your custom. Should a customer be thinking of shopping around for a different supplier, a chat with an advisor gives the opportunity to win the customer back over. Social media and forums mean that people are going to be talking about your products and services; good and bad. Both the bane and beauty of social media is that it is so hard to control and moderate, in fact nigh on impossible. By ensuring the quality standards of your service or product at source, you can be assured that you are doing all you can to prevent negative publicity as well as ensuring that you have a strategy in place if online chat turns negative.
Being able to fully integrate your contact centre and online systems should be the ultimate aim when optimising your customer service provision. It is not a contest between one or the other and, as with many of the facets of business, as long as you are considering the needs of your customer, every step of the way, you can’t go far wrong.
Mary Portas and Michel Roux Jnr. have recently graced our screens extolling the virtues of good customer service and aiming to put paid to the perception that British customer service has more in common with the fictional antics of Basil Fawlty than the Maitre’d of Claridges. In a market saturated by consumer choice, building and maintaining a good customer service culture in your business is more important than ever. With the advent of social media and the fact that consumers now have an enormous, open forum to discuss your services it is vital that you not only offer an exceptional product but that your customers have an all-round positive experience when dealing with your company. The convenience enjoyed from shopping online adds further challenges to purely customer-facing organisations. At Expolink we believe that despite the advantages that e-commerce offers you cannot underestimate the power and value of a face-to-face conversation. Having someone actively listen and proactively meet your service requirements creates loyalty, builds brand profile and gives you a competitive edge in an increasingly over saturated market.
We live in a culture where, traditionally, the customer is always right. While this does not necessarily sit well with a profitable business strategy, there are many ways to positively manage your customer relationships without giving away your valuable profits or upsetting the apple cart. Being put unnecessarily on hold, false promises, lack of compensation, not meeting SLA’s, not recognising errors and apologising for them are all grievance trends noted in 2010 by thisismoney.co.uk. But what can be done about it?
Good customer service is achieved by choosing and nurturing a team of long-term staff who are knowledgeable, empathetic, proactive and enthusiastic about promoting your services. Management should empower their employees, building on their strengths and encouraging them to take pride in their work and the company they represent. If contentious issues arise, staff must be patient, reasonable and eager to resolve the customer’s problem. Each customer should be treated as a new opportunity to build the business whether their call is of a positive or negative nature.
At Expolink we are confident about the great service we offer our clients – acting as a seamless extension of their business, we bring expertise to every call we take and strive never to lose a customer. We coach and appraise our staff, allow them to think on their feet, use their initiative and listen closely to callers’ needs. Staff are trained for specific campaigns and allocated to particular skill groups to ensure that they have the greatest possible understanding of your business. Performance management and quality targets ensure that our colleagues have a genuine knowledge of your call handling needs. We never lose sight of the fact that your success is our success. Find out more about Expolink’s contact centre services.
Bucolic snow-covered vistas and home video footage of people skiing to the corner shops are welcome light relief at the end of news bulletins; but there is a far weightier concern for businesses across the country. The last two winters brought wide-spread and, in some areas, devastating snow storms to rural and urban communities. Snow has already been reported in as disparate locations as Gatwick and the Grampians in the earliest and farthest reaching coverage in 17 years. The Met Office’s 30-day forecast predicts snow and low temperatures right up to Christmas Eve. It is vital that companies assess their business continuity plan now to ensure that disruption to customers, suppliers and key stakeholders is kept to the absolute minimum.
In 2009 The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) estimated that 20% of the UK’s working population, or 6.4 million people, did not make it to work due to adverse weather conditions. Journeys that normally take minutes to travel stretched into hours and employers were obliged to let staff go home early or arrive late; if they made it in at all. Considering that the average commute of UK workers is 8.6 miles, the effect and potential for disruption is huge. Productivity and turnover is significantly hampered and many businesses are forced to close for the day due to the lack of trade and staff.
In January this year insurer RSA predicted that a day of severe snow could cost the UK economy as much as £690million. The Centre for Economics and Business Research estimated the daily loss would be £900m, using a calculation of UK GDP per day of about £4.5bn.
By taking action now you won’t have to find out what snow and adverse weather could cost your business.
Expolink’s many clients know that the on-going telephone and email support it provides is highly flexible and tailored towards individual businesses’ campaigns. If your staff are unable to get to work, and when all your competitors are only offering answer phone messages, your calls will be answered by a warm friendly operator ready to answer questions and take orders. In January this year, while all the aforementioned workers were stuck at home, internet, mail order and phone sales shopping saw a boost of 14.6%. These aren’t sales that your competitors alone should avail of!
Click on the link to find out how Expolink’s contact centre services can help you and your business.
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