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What does it mean to be customer-centric? Is it enough to have a cool slogan like “Every Encounter Counts” and that makes you focussed on your customers? Of course not. Slogans don’t interact with your customers. People do.
Slogans are useful when people understand them. But since they are so short and simple, different people may interpret differently how to act on them. Lots more has to happen besides printing the slogan on coffee mugs and sending them to all employees. A culture has to be built over time, and it’s hard work.
When a customer complains about how your company has treated them, how do you respond? Do you generate a series of internal emails among the players involved, in which it gets explained how the company didn’t really treat the customer badly? Or do you Read the rest of this entry »
Call center metrics are the source of so very many questions we hear at ICMI. What should be measured, how should you measure, what standards or benchmarks exist for each measure, how do you interpret and act on measured results — all of these and more are issues that trouble many call center professionals at one time or another.
It’s interesting, though, that Fred is in his “sweet spot,” since his area of expertise truly is in measurement, particularly statistical measurement, while Cliff is probably best known for his work on quality monitoring. I think this difference shows in the two articles and the approaches each writer takes.
You’ll see in Fred’s a precise organization, where every metric or method gets defined and then has its advantages and then its shortcomings explained in order. He knows in depth what he’s talking about and so can get to the point concisely. I like the graphic he included, too, which again shows the orderly way he has addressed his subject:
The Portfolio of Customer Feedback Research Techniques
What I like about Cliff’s approach, however, is that this material does not come across as routine when he writes about it. Read the rest of this entry »
Ever since I was first tasked many years ago with implementing a first call resolution (FCR) measurement in my call center, I have been acutely aware how big the gap is between the simple, laudable concept of FCR in contact centers and practical, accurate measurement of it. Donna Fluss tackles the topic, “First-Call Resolution Drives Contact Center Improvements,” thoroughly in ICMI’s Customer Management Insight (CMI), but my favorite part is the graphic she includes that lays out the pros and cons of each option for implementing an FCR solution in a call center. If you’re trying to figure out how to make FCR work in a practical, feasible way in your call center, click on the graphic to expand it and take a look:
Analysis of Call Completion Identification Methodologies
Is it just me, or is there no truly appealing option among all those FCR implementation choices — what’s a call center manager supposed to do? Read the rest of this entry »
We get more questions at ICMI about metrics than just about any other call center management topic. This article, “Metrics: Expanding Perspectives to Increase Effectiveness,” by consultant (and popular speaker at ICMI’s conferences) Tim Montgomery, in ICMI’s Customer Management Insight (CMI) takes an in-depth look at conventional views of call center metrics — such as accessibility, productivity and quality objectives — and explains alternative approaches to measure what matters most in your contact center.
It’s a good review of the key principles for getting call center metrics right, so I recommend that you read it. Here’s Tim’s conclusion:
The best contact centers know that metrics are simply an indicator of opportunities, and that real positive change happens when leaders focus on the right behaviors that help the voice of your company get better.
Introducing a new measure of call center performance: ICMI’s Global Service Index Report offers insights into customers’ perceptions of the call center service experience across sectors and countries.
Developed and executed by OmniTouch International, an ICMI Global Partner headquartered in Singapore, the Global Service Index Report will focus on a different industry sector each quarter. Upcoming sectors include the mobile industry, consumer electronics and hospitality. The results can be used to identify country, regional and global trends on an ongoing basis, and to document individual company performance standards within each selected country.
There’s a wealth of contact center management data and analysis in the report, so it’s certainly worth taking a look for yourself. Here’s an excerpt from the findings: Read the rest of this entry »
If I had a dollar for every contact center that claims to be highly customer-centric, I’d be able to purchase a condo in Aspen. If I had a dollar for every contact center that truly embodies customer-centricity, I’d be able to purchase a lift ticket in Aspen — maybe.
To get you started, here are the seven (7) “critical tactics of the most customer-centric contact centers” that Greg identifies: Read the rest of this entry »
I just had an insight. Maybe it’s so obvious that I should have seen it sooner, but it just dawned on me tonight as I was reading yet another gloomy posting on The 1to1 Blog (seems to be a pattern with them of highlighting the lowlights when it comes to call centers and inviting people to pile on by sharing their sad stories) — if customer service stinks and all that call centers are doing now is not good enough, then the answer must be: NEW TECHNOLOGY!
That’s it! We’d better buy the latest techno-wizgadget (see my earlier post on automated callbacks, “Just Answer the Phone Quicker!”) so we can finally provide good customer service!
What led me to this epiphany? I followed the money, of course. The 1to1 Blog cited an amusing video produced and uploaded to YouTube about a man who so dreads contacting a call center that he would rather clean his house, give the dog a bath, do his taxes, and so on, instead.
Ha, ha, cute, we get the point. Yes, it’s an *original* point: customer service stinks. Read the rest of this entry »
Thought-provoking post from John Quelch on HBR’s blog site, titled “How To Be a Customer.” Here are the five behaviors he cites (read his post for the explanations for each):
Check this website out if you want to see what your customers think of your customer service: http://www.measuredup.com/ They’re making a business out of letting consumers easily rate their customer service experiences, and by consolidating these responses they have the potential to have more influence than isolated complaints (and those already have potency in blogs, YouTube and “I_Hate_Your_Company” websites).
What does it mean to be customer-centric? Is it enough to have a cool slogan like “Every Encounter Counts” and that makes you focussed on your customers? Of course not. Slogans don’t interact with your customers. People do.
call center metrics
call center management 
Check this website out if you want to see what your customers think of your customer service: 