Welcome ,

Driving Customer Loyalty through Improved Service Performance

Customer satisfaction and loyalty are two highly desirable results in a support environment. But which performance factors deliver both? Join us for an interactive Webinar to hear Dave Brown, president of Support Center University and author of Optimizing Support Center Staffing, explore the difference between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty and explain why both are critical for success.

Attend this interactive Webinar to learn:

  • Which industry best practice is a must-have for your performance program
  • How support performance translates into customer loyalty
  • Key tactics that will ensure both customer satisfaction and loyalty
  • And more...
     
    Register today!.




January 22, 2009

Top News & Stats

Featured Link

Inside the Industry

Required Reading

Our News

Contact Us
 
 


FRONTRANGE HEAT Achives PINKVERIFY Status
FrontRange Solutions, a developer of help desk and service management software for mid-sized and distributed enterprises, announced that its HEAT version 9.0 help desk solution has achieved PinkVERIFY status and is now compatible with Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) V3 through Pink Elephant's software certification program. As a result of the verification process, HEAT has been certified as compatible eight of the 14 processes outlined in ITIL V3, including Incident, Problem, Knowledge, Change, Service Asset & Configuration, Request Fulfillment, Event and Service Level Management.


Office Depot Renews Human Resources Contract with Convergys
Convergys Corporation, a provider of relationship management solutions, announced that Office Depot has renewed its contract for Convergys HR Solutions for another 12 months. Convergys will continue to provide HR benefits administration including COBRA, leave of absence, and annual enrollment services, for Office Depot, which has been a Convergys client since 2003. This is the eighth contract renewal in 12 months for Convergys' HR Solutions.


Study Finds Consumers Want Increased Automation in the Contact Center and have an Overwhelming Interest in Proactive Notifications
Nuance Communications, Inc. announced the findings of a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting. The study revealed that consumers rate automated telephone customer service higher than live agents for certain straightforward interactions. In five out of ten posed scenarios, consumers preferred automated telephone customer service systems over live agent interactions for tasks like prescription refills (66% rated automation highly, compared with 52% for live agent), checking the status of a flight from a cell phone (61% versus 49%), checking account balances (59% versus 36%), store information requests (55% versus 37%), and tracking shipments (53% versus 47%).

The survey also revealed that automated telephone systems are an expected and accepted customer service channel with 82% of US online adults having used an automated touchtone or speech recognition system to contact customer service in the past 12 months. That figure trails behind only live agent interactions, with which 93% of consumers have engaged.

In the survey, consumers provided their level of interest in a variety of specific proactive notification options within five different industries. The aggregated results of the industry-specific questions show that a strong majority of consumers are interested in at least one proactive notification alert via their choice of email, voice message, or text message. Consumers were most open to notifications related to the travel industry (93%), which include such things as flight status updates and confirmation of reservations for flights, hotels, and car rentals. Eighty-eight percent of consumers were interested in notification from a financial services institution, with strong interest in transaction confirmations. With regard to health care, consumers strongly favored appointment reminders — something that could be adopted in a variety of other industries as well, such as utilities or professional services.

Other key findings:

  • Consumers' satisfaction with customer service leaves a lot of room for improvement. Only 49% of U.S. online adults report being satisfied, very satisfied or extremely satisfied with companies' customer service in general.
  • Consumers who frequently contact customer service from a wireless phone are relatively more amenable to automated telephone customer service channels. About one-third (32%) of consumers regularly use a cell phone to contact customer service. The data indicates that in nearly all scenarios, mobile customer service users rate using automated telephone customer service systems higher than those consumers who do not regularly contact customer service using a cell phone. This is significant due to Forrester's expectation that the number of wireless-only households will continue to grow, reaching 19% of all U.S. households by 2013.
  • The 24-hour 7 days a week availability of automated telephone customer service is a key attribute in consumers' minds. Seventy-seven percent of consumers pointed to 24-hour, seven days a week availability as a reason they value automated telephone customer service systems. Another 40% valued that they didn't have to wait on hold for a live agent, while 31% cited the ability to obtain information quickly.
  • Consumers today are overwhelmingly interested in proactive customer notifications across a variety of industries. For each of the five industries included in the survey, consumer interest in receiving some form of proactive notification was very strong, ranging from 80% (for cable television operators and telephone companies) to 93% (for travel-related companies).
  • Opt-out, accurate software and logical call flows are essential components of a "great" automated speech-enabled customer interaction. Sixty-seven percent of consumers claimed that having the ability to speak to a live agent at any time is necessary in order to consider an automated speech-enabled customer service interaction a "great experience." Systems can be enhanced by improving the accuracy of the software and employing thorough and logical call flows.

According to Forrester's study, when it comes to evaluating a great experience with automated speech recognition customer service systems, two-thirds of consumers value having the ability to speak to a live agent at any time. Forty-two percent of consumers value the ability of the speech recognition system to understand them the first time a response is spoken, and 39% of consumers prefer not to have to repeat themselves. Similarly, when asked to identify what would improve speech recognition customer service experiences, the top choice (75%) of consumers was to offer the option of speaking with a live agent throughout the interaction. Being understood the first time (63%) and improving menus to direct callers to the appropriate destination (45%) round out the top three answer choices.
More...


U.S. Job Satisfaction at Lowest Level in Two Decades
Americans of all ages and income brackets continue to grow increasingly unhappy at work-a long-term trend that should be a red flag to employers, according to a report released today by The Conference Board.

The report, based on a survey of 5,000 U.S. households conducted for The Conference Board by TNS, finds only 45 percent of those surveyed say they are satisfied with their jobs, down from 61.1 percent in 1987, the first year in which the survey was conducted.

"While one in 10 Americans is now unemployed, their working compatriots of all ages and incomes continue to grow increasingly unhappy," says Lynn Franco, director of the Consumer Research Center of The Conference Board. "Through both economic boom and bust during the past two decades, our job satisfaction numbers have shown a consistent downward trend."

Fewer Americans are satisfied with all aspects of their employment, and no age or income group is immune. In fact, the youngest cohort of employees (those currently under age 25) expresses the highest level of dissatisfaction ever recorded by the survey for that age group.

The drop in job satisfaction between 1987 and 2009 covers all categories in the survey, from interest in work (down 18.9 percentage points) to job security (down 17.5 percentage points) and crosses all four of the key drivers of employee engagement: job design, organizational health, managerial quality, and extrinsic rewards.
More...

 

 


Focus on the Customer -- Exclusive Event Series

Every customer dreams of problem-free technology, uninterrupted service and productivity unburdened by repetitive issues! When issues do arise, it's the customer support centers opportunity to make the best out of a bad situation.

In this economy, customer service can be a key differentiator in whether a company survives or thrives by satisfying, retaining and profiting from loyal customers. Today's support organizations must design their support strategy with the customer top-of-mind.

Please join FrontRange Solutions  at one of the following complimentary events to learn how you can successfully implement a customer focused strategy.

1/20 - Atlanta, GA
1/26 - Irvine, CA
2/24 - Virtual Event

For more information or to register...




Six steps for managing 'difficult' employees
Working alongside difficult people can be hard enough. But managing someone with whom you have a personality clash can cause major tension. That's why, when confronted with employees who don't do what's asked, it's best to devise a strategy for making the best of a potentially explosive situation. Although it may be hard to transform a difficult employee into a warm, friendly ally, you can take the steps in this article to make it easier for the employee to comply.
Full Article...


The End of Frontline Agent Training As We Know It
Those who think that traditional classroom training is the be-all and end-all in call centers have a lot to learn. So do agents. That's precisely why so many centers have embraced new training tools and approaches aimed at increasing learning efficiency and effectiveness -- and, ultimately -- both employee and customer loyalty. Indeed, classroom training in the call center is not dead, but new training approaches and tools are helping rewrite the basics of agent development.
Full Article...


Four Ways to Motivate, Inspire and Engage Agents
Now is the time for all good managers to come to the aid of their agents. It's time to motivate, inspire and offer suggestions of confidence and sincere good ideas. There is that famous but stale old saying, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." This does not work anymore. When the going gets tough, the best managers inspire instead of pressurize. There are four types of people sitting at their desks. They are waiting for the phone to ring or dialing for dollars. Take some tips from a Behavioral Analyst and inspire this way.
Full Article...


Make Good Customer Experiences Easy
Upgrading to a new model of any kind of product can be an exciting customer experience ... but not if you as a supplier don't set it up for success. All too often, upgrades cause too many surprises, wasted time and money, and frustration. It just doesn't make any sense to spoil what could be a perfect opportunity to strengthen your fan base into brand evangelists. After all, buying an upgrade means customers are giving you a new revenue stream and market share. Show your appreciation for that with these keys to making it easy for the customer to have a great experience: anticipation, policies, and communication.
Full Article...


6 Personal Branding Mistakes That Can Threaten Your Job Search
In their haste to differentiate themselves during the worst job market in decades, job seekers are making personal branding mistakes that can undermine their job search efforts. Here are six things that you should never do.
Full Article...





bookDrive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
by Daniel H. Pink

Forget everything you thought you knew about how to motivate people--at work, at school, at home. It's wrong. As Daniel H. Pink explains in his new and paradigm-shattering book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, the secret to high performance and satisfaction in today's world is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.

Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does--and how that affects every aspect of our lives. He demonstrates that while the old-fashioned carrot-and-stick approach worked successfully in the 20th century, it's precisely the wrong way to motivate people for today's challenges.

For more information, or to order your copy...

More books can be found in the RecognizeServiceExcellence.com Required Reading section: http://www.recognizeserviceexcellence.com




White Paper: Best Practices for Coaching Your Support Team to Handle Anything

This white paper provides a step-by-step game plan for solving your support agents' worst nightmares, based on the author's experience in successfully "turning around" support performance, as well as current research in the psychology of how we communicate with people. In the process, you will learn how specific, procedural skills -- both for how your agents respond to customers, and how you coach your team -- can change everything about how your interact with customers, in a way that will impact both your support metrics and your bottom line.

Get the full white paper here!




Manage Your e.Newsletter Subscription
Log-on to the member's only page and you can to change newsletter formats, remove yourself from the list, or update your member profile.

Editorial suggestions, feedback & comments:
Carolyn Healey, Editor - chealey@recognizeserviceexcellence.com

Advertising Information:
adinfo@recognizeserviceexcellence.com

Thank you for reading RecognizeServiceExcellence.com's weekly newsletter!

Copyright © 2008, RecognizeServiceExcellence.com




RecognizeServiceExcellence.com
3056 Calle Rosales
Santa Barbara, CA 93105
ph. 805.569.5761

e-mail us