This article outlines how you can apply self service to reduce contact handling staff costs by up to 50 per cent
Before we discuss self-service, we would like to list the key points to be addressed to deliver customer service excellence and reduce costs. This is based on six years of our experience.
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Communicate: The board needs to clearly define how the company is going to offer customer service excellence and how this should be implemented in detail by all staff
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Measure: Define, implement and review measures monthly across all channels; ensure five contact handling targets per person monthly: e.g. maximum ring time: 20 seconds
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Segment types of contact: For instance, if an emergency services organisation or a utility company handles emergency and non emergency calls, prioiritise the emergency calls so 100 per cent of them get answered in one ring
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Technology: When a call or email is received, automatically route it to the next available agent in any of your sites worldwide, for more details please click here
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Training: Train staff in the different products and services you offer, so they can handle different types of queries
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Agent productivity: When an inbound call is received from someone who has contacted your organisation previously, your agents PC should display the customers details and a complete history of all their interactions. This would reduce the time needed on the call
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Reduce Costs: Improve the operational efficiency of your telecom services by carrying out a telecoms audit, a monthly review of your telecom bills and check that you are being charged the correct tariff rates. For more details please click here
Self service
Self-service is where no agent is involved in the customer contact.
Types of self-service include:
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Interactive web site
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Recorded messages
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Telephone automated payments
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Pro-active automatic alerts by email/SMS
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PC terminals and in-house telephones in your reception for customer access
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Direct debit
Self service can be applied to simple issues across all contact channels (phone, correspondence and face to face) at all times or if you prefer, only out of hours.
To reduce simple enquiries we can:
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Automate - A housing association could register a social housing applicant for automated updates on the progress of an application by email or SMS, so he would not need to contact them again
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Eliminate - This applies to situations where customers need to make regular payments e.g. council tax. Instead of paying over the counter we could encourage them to pay by Direct Debit
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Simplify - Organisations could state simple information like opening hours as a recorded message on their phone system and on their web site
Benefits of engaging self-service
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Fewer front line staff is needed, these extra resources can be redeployed in other parts of organisation or to handle more complex queries
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One contact only: e.g. after Amazon receives an order, they automatically send out regular alerts by email to confirm the order, give a delivery forecast and then an actual delivery date. They constantly monitor why customers contact them after an order is placed and apply self service to reduce contact levels. Amazons contact levels have dropped over 30 per cent as a result
Self-service challenges
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Sponsor - For a self service initiative to be successful, it is vital that an organisation has a sponsor with a senior authority
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Top 30 Simple Frequently Asked Questions - Record and evaluate monthly the top 30 simple FAQs across all channels to ensure self-service channels are providing relevant information
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Feedback - Receive monthly feedback from customers and contact handling staff.
Ensure that improvements based on that feedback are implemented
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Monitor Self Service Statistics - Monitor self service statistics monthly to identify which are the most popular and unpopular channels used; Based on this feedback, the self service channels can be modified/improved, appropriately
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Channel conflict - Outsourcers charge up to £1/ per min for each inbound call, so they are not incentivised to promote self service. Ensure that your outsourcers measures include promoting the self-service options
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Marketing self service - Newly implemented self-service options need to be pro-actively marketed across all channels. Customers need to be encouraged to use them on a regular basis. They need to be implemented properly and made easy to use, otherwise the uptake will be very slow
The cost of customer contact
A recent public sector survey found that the average cost per contact was £15 for face to face, £12 for postal enquiries, £5 for the phone enquiries and 6p for online. For 120,000 contacts it would cost £1.8m to manage face to face contacts, £1.44m to manage postal enquiries, £600k to manage the phone enquiries and just £7,200 to manage the online self-service.
Complaints Handling
These are just few suggestion regarding the service delivery and complaint handling*. These complaint handling ideas can also be applied to reduce any non-complex queries received by your organisation.
To help improve service delivery, the process needs to be reviewed internally but from the customers perspective:
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What must be in place before any contact is made with the customer?
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What happens at each step of the interaction with the customer?
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What happens following the interaction with the customer?
Make sure that any documentation produced by your service delivery teams is simple, straightforward and user friendly for both customers and staff alike. Test your processes to destruction before implementing them so you can be certain they are achieving the expected end result. Ask yourself and the team involved:
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Can this process be simplified?
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Can it be reduced?
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Could it be eliminated completely?
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From the customers perspective, how can it be made more flexible, more convenient and more efficient?
And of course you can also involve your customers in this process – they will have a very relevant and particular view of your processes and procedures!
Despite the best efforts of everyone involved in generating your service delivery processes, complaints will arise. To get to the root cause of an issue which generates complaints and make the most of your chances to resolve it while also prevent the complaint from recurring, you must involve the appropriate people. Employees who work in the area of service delivery about which the customer is complaining are usually the best people to say what may be the cause of the problem.. After all, the guy on the production line often sees whats causing a problem with the finished product but has no way (or is not encouraged) to get involved in putting that right. Make sure you engage with your people to harness their knowledge and practical experience.
At the same time, use your CRM system to help you record information, spot trends and take remedial action before third parties such as the press or social networking sites force you to do so. An analysis of your complaints data will help you measure the impact of complaints on all parties involved – customers, colleagues across the business and even suppliers. This will galvanise you in seeking out the real root cause of the complaint and enable you to focus on the obvious influencing factors with the intention of overcoming them.
Summary
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Appoint a senior board member as a possible project sponsor
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List the Top 30 simple FAQs across all channels with their answers on a monthly basis. Based on this information we can decide how to eliminate, automate and simplify them with self service
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Plan and deploy a pro-active campaign to market your self-service
* = The complaint handling ideas above were submitted by Kathy Stiff from Supporting Customer Care Ltd
Contact James Tanner at Communications Department Ltd. Tel: 0845 013 0123.
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