Self-service customer support has a long way to go to be perfect, but as we saw yesterday, support self-service
is making rapid gains. Service is increasingly being offered through
self-service mechanisms, using automated voice and speech-recognition
systems over the phone, and Web-based portal systems with knowledgebase
libraries.
The
underlying dynamic of customer service and support is to empower
customers with multiple choices, and yet not to alienate them, always
offering a direct connection to human agents. Then the goal becomes to
make sure that the agent has the fullest access to company knowledge,
and this is one of the most critical aspects of today’s CRM development.
“To optimize business results, sales and service
executives must provide proactive tools to intervene and support the
employee during the moment of truth with a customer. The information
must be immediately customized and delivered so that every employee can
deliver the right resolution to the right customer at the right moment.
Background support is no longer sufficient to cover some increasingly
impatient – even unforgiving – customers.” – The Variance Factor
Dovetail CRM is
noted for the increased reach into the Clarify database that it brings
to support agents. When the customer is calling, or even when internal
resources require answers now, agents can generate a multiplicity of
views that bear on the specific case or issue at hand. They can do this
often all in the same browser window, making ad hoc queries,
amending files, and creating portal views that simply weren’t possible
with the Amdocs Clarify applications. Customer loyalty is actually
created when a dissatisfied customer has an issue resolved on the spot
by an empowered and knowledgeable worker.
On the other
side of the coin, while background support during a customer call is of
no value compared with immediate answers on the spot, most of the
customer issues that arise stem from a mishap somewhere in the
background operations of the enterprise. Good logistics performance,
especially in the area of fulfillment, is usually crucial to customer
loyalty, and this all comes from integration of software and systems,
coupled of course with human performance. This is especially noticeable
in retail industries whose primary visible action is merchandise
delivery.
“The most common difficulty cited by the 32 percent
of respondents who reported problems was shipping delays, accounting
for 37 percent of respondents. Backordering and lack of available stock
came second, with 35 percent of respondents noting the complication.” –
E-Commerce Stumbles with Customer Service
Results are varied throughout the CRM
industry, but the universal bottom line around the world is that
customers generally still don’t feel very satisfied with service and
support delivery by companies.
”’Quite often we find that financial institutions in
many markets in Asia put a lot of their marketing budgets into
acquiring customers,’ Bain partner Edmund Lin, one of the report’s
coauthors, was quoted as saying.
”’To get people to be real advocates of your
institution, you often have to invest more in retaining and deepening
customer relationships,’ he added.” – Customers Give Low Service Marks
Software and systems are striving to
integrate all the company’s knowledge – both from the past and as it
arises in the moment – and make this knowledge accessible to agents and
tacit workers
throughout the enterprise at all customer touchpoints. But companies
are still trying to discover what customers want, both in general terms
and in specifics that pertain to the individual customer. Surveying and
analytics are being added to the CRM arsenal in the attempt, and more on this later.
