Posted by Ted Hopton on April 19, 2008
In the annals of customer service, 2007 will go down as the year fed-up consumers finally dropped the hammer. In August a 76-year-old retired nurse named Mona Shaw smashed up a keyboard and a telephone in a Manassas, Va., Comcast office after she says the cable operator failed to install her service properly.
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Posted by Ted Hopton on April 19, 2008
Sprint dumped 1000 customers who were calling 40 to 50 times more than other customers, specifically about issues that could not be resolved (e.g., billing disputes). Did the company do the right thing?
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Posted by Ted Hopton on April 19, 2008
Affinity’s vice president of customer relations, Scott Willey, says post-call surveys have helped the Ventura, CA-based company improve call handling and the customer experience it delivers.
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Posted by Ted Hopton on April 4, 2008
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 »
Posted in Customer Sat, Customer Service, Leadership, Management | Tagged: complaints, customer satisfaction, Customer Service, customer-centric | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on March 12, 2008
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.
So it should not be surprising that the March 2008 issue of ICMI’s Customer Management Insight (CMI), includes two articles that address call center metrics. Cliff Hurst, of Career Impact, Inc., offers his thoughts in “Identifying the KPI’s that Matter Most” and Fred Van Bennekom, of Great Brook Consulting, provides his own explanations in “Measuring Service Effectiveness.” I know both of them, as well, since they have been speakers at ICMI’s conferences and I respect the experience and judgment that each brings to the table.
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:
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 »
Posted in Call Center Management, Call Centers, Customer Sat, Customer Service, ICMI, ICMI Publications, ICMI's CMI, Metrics | Tagged: Call Center Management, Call Centers, Career Impact Inc., Cliff Hurst, Customer Service, Frederick C. Van Bennekom, Great Brook Consulting, ICMI, KPI, Metrics | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on February 5, 2008
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:
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 »
Posted in Call Centers, Customer Service, Customer Sat, ICMI's CMI, ICMI, Call Center Management, ICMI Publications, Metrics | Tagged: ICMI, Call Centers, Call Center Management, Metrics, first call resolution, first contact resolution, Donna Fluss, KPI | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on February 5, 2008
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.
Posted in Call Center Management, Call Centers, Customer Sat, Customer Service, ICMI, ICMI Conferences, ICMI Publications, ICMI's CMI, Metrics | Tagged: Call Center Management, Call Centers, ICMI, ICMI's Customer Management Insight, Metrics | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on February 5, 2008
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 »
Posted in Benchmarking, Call Center Management, Call Centers, Customer Sat, Customer Service, ICMI, ICMI Publications, ICMI's CMI, Research, Statistics | Tagged: Benchmarking, Call Center Management, Call Centers, ICMI, mystery shopper, OmniTouch, Research | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on February 5, 2008
Take a look at what four call center professionals have to say about getting IVR right, in this CMI article, “Characteristics of a Customer-Focused IVR System.”
call center management
Posted in Call Center Management, Call Centers, Customer Sat, Customer Service, ICMI, ICMI Publications, ICMI's CMI, Technology | Tagged: Call Center Management, Call Centers, customer-focused, IVR | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on February 5, 2008
Great article by Greg Levin in ICMI’s Customer Management Insight (CMI), Tactics of Truly Customer-Centric Centers.” I recommend reading it. Here’s a taste:
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 »
Posted in Call Center Management, Call Centers, Customer Sat, Customer Service, ICMI, ICMI's CMI, Technology | Tagged: Call Center Management, customer satisfaction, Customer Service, customer-centric, Technology | Leave a Comment »
call center metrics