From Tactical to Strategic: Contact Centers Evolve to Help Meet Corporate Business Objectives

From Tactical to Strategic:Contact Centers Evolve to Help Meet Corporate Business Objectives John Ragsdale Research Director, CRM Forrester Research

The Contact Center is poised to become one of the most strategic businesses in the enterprise… . . . but not without organizational changeand embracing new technology.

“Turn Your Contact Center Into a Profit Center”

Yadda, yadda, yadda . . . • Traditional CRM and e-service vendors have focused on: • Technology to deflect calls • Technology to streamline agent activities • Downsizing and outsourcing

New Drivers for Contact Center as Profit Center • It’s no longer about acquisition, it’s about retention • Marketing taking ownership of customer interactions to protect brand • Viewing service interactions in context of overall customer experience • Legislation, consumer control, harder to gain access to the consumer

Enabling Technology • Analytics/personalization present offers in context of service call • Quality monitoring derives business intelligence from captured interactions • Tools enabling marketing to extend to multi-media service channels • More intelligence in agent assisted and self-service

Objectives • Increase revenue generated in call center • Provide value not matched by competitors • Challenges with Inbound Sales • CSRs resistant to the idea of selling during a customer service call • Sales efforts frequently took the focus away from the caller’s purpose, impacting quality of service • CSRs handling calls for more than 300 magazines cannot remember complex offers and qualification criteria

Results • More than 850,000 offers presented • More than 100,000 offers accepted – 8.5% accept rate • Generated $1,700,000 in incremental sales in 2003 • Able to do up-selling without impacting the quality of service provided • Impact on call length much lower thanoriginally expected • Offer extension is a good control tool for callwrap-up

Barriers to Blending Service/Sales • Philosophical view of service as separate from sales • Traditionally contact centers are driven solely by agent productivity metrics and costs • Some existing metrics are in conflict with revenue goals • Training - Agents refuse to sell or very bad at selling

Invest in Agent Training • Pitney Bowes • 14% increase in revenue from tech support calls • Adelphia • 14% increase in sales units per CSR • Continental Airlines • 8% increase in e-tickets • 22% increase in vendor transfer program • Bank of America • Grew contact center sales by 20%

Web Email Quality Monitoring Enables Business Optimization Customer Channels Mail In Person Phone Fax Account Management Technical Support Order Processing Complaint Tracking Fulfillment Agent Activities

Quality Monitoring Enables Business Optimization Customer Channels Web Email Mail In Person Phone Fax Account Management Technical Support Order Processing Complaint Tracking Fulfillment Agent Activities • Product feedback: quality, usability, pricing • Missing products, features, services • Process feedback: too complex, too lengthy • Reaction to corporate news or events Captured Interactions • Reaction to announcements • Reaction to promotions or campaigns • Competitive product information • Competitive pricing information

Web Mail In Person Phone Fax Email Quality Monitoring Enables Business Optimization Customer Channels Account Management Technical Support Order Processing Complaint Tracking Fulfillment Agent Activities • Product feedback: quality, usability, pricing Product Planning • Missing products, features, services • Process feedback: too complex, too lengthy • Reaction to corporate news or events Market Intelligence Captured Interactions • Reaction to announcements • Reaction to promotions or campaigns • Competitive product information Sales Strategy • Competitive pricing information

Visual Mapping: Audentify

Upsell/Cross-Sell for the Web • Marketing messages in context of self-service questions

Proactive Service and Support • Convenience overrides paranoia • Just in time knowledge delivery: notifications and alerting • Underlying search technology improving • Adding intelligence for predictive problem solving

BellSouth FastAccess.com • 50% to 75% of customers call each month • Typical connection time: 30 to 40 minutes • High churn factor: 20% to 30%

Case Study: Electric Insurance • Challenge • Reduce policy terminations due to non-payment • Two full-time agents only able to call 10% of at-risk customers • Implemented EnvoyWorldWide • Integrated to back-office/billing system • Now reach 100% of at-risk customers • Same success rate as with live agents

Snapshot 1.3 million customers with 7 million computers across Europe Over 1 million calls annually 250 agents in five multi-lingual contact centers, located in France, Italy, Holland, Spain and Scandinavia. Project Goals Decrease the complexity of current support processes, cutting costs and increasing customer satisfaction Implement technology to streamline problem diagnosis and resolution process Improve self-help options on the Web NEC Europe

Solution: Kaidara Guided search using dynamic induction, which prompts for specific details to correctly diagnose a problem Implementation complete in three months Six agents trained as authors, spending 50% of their time on adding and editing content Results 8% of total issues resolved via web self-service, deflecting over 100,000 issues a year Reduced time in creating and maintaining content 10-15 % increase in agent productivity Shorter hold times for customers. Higher agent quality scores, agent job satisfaction and customer satisfaction scores NEC Europe

Recommended ‘best practices’ • Tightly integrate web self-service with CRM • Technology supports, not replaces, process change • Single system for both customers and agents. • Leverage the system for multiple channels • Promote self-service to encourage customer adoption

Future: Anticipating Customer Needs “My ice maker is overflowing.” “I’m empty. I’m contacting PeaPod!” “I’m due for a service call.” “My plug isn’t grounded. My warranty is not valid.” “I’m set on 10 degrees and freezing the milk.” “My door seal is loose. I’ve called for repair.” “Oh, snacking at 2 a.m. again?” The Web Refrigerator

Stake Your Claim on Customer Experience • Find a champion at the VP or C level • Inventory all existing customer data and figure out ways to leverage it • Metrics, metrics, metrics • Strong training programs can help change long-held attitudes

From Tactical to Strategic: Contact Centers Evolve to Help Meet Corporate Business Objectives