Source: Aberdeen Group | December, 2011 | Delivering a Seamless Customer Experience with Multi-Channel Support | by Sumair Dutta
While the Industry Average are seeing reasonable success in retaining customers, they still need to make significant strides to match the Best-in-Class in improving resolution rates at lower overall service costs. As a result, they need to:
- Make service a stand-alone business unit. Compared to 41% of the Best-in-Class, only 29% of Industry Average organizations have a stand-alone service business unit. Most of the Industry Average have service reporting directly to operations. Industry Average organizations with an independent service business unit saw better customer retention (87% vs. 80%) and cost management (1% decrease in 12 months vs. 1% increase) results compared to those where service reported to operations or other business functions. An autonomous business unit, with profit and loss responsibility, will look to understand and improve cost, operational and customer-focused performance with its strategic initiatives.
- Develop a single knowledge base for use by all service channels. While Industry Average organizations are further down the path of leveraging social, chat and other self-service support models than Laggards, these organizations trail the Best-in-Class in providing support agents with a single knowledge base to aid resolution. As a result, these organizations trail the Best-in-Class in resolution rates across voice (70% vs. 87% for the Best-in-Class), email (62% vs. 86% for the Best-in-Class), chat (64% vs. 67% for the Best-in-Class) and self-service channels (58% vs. 60% for the Best-in-Class). In the next 12 months, 43% of these organizations are looking to invest in a single knowledgebase for all support channels.
- Don’t discount training programs in the new multi-channel support model. Training of service agents around diagnostic, resolution, and escalation practices in a single channel environment such as the call center is vital, as seen in Aberdeen’s May 2011 Contact Center research, wherein leading organizations were 29% more likely than all others to have a periodic training regime. In a multi-channel environment, training can become even more vital to ensure the consistency of service experience and identify the best resolution path if multiple channels are required. Compared to 67% of the Best-in-Class, only 55% of Industry Average organizations focus on frequent and consistent training programs for their service agents.
- Focus on customer feedback management. Soliciting customer feedback after a service session may seem reactive, but really can boost a proactive service culture by revealing changes that must be made to improve service request handling. Best-in-Class organizations are 39% more likely (64% vs. 46%) than Industry Average firms to seek feedback after a service session. In addition, Best-in-Class organizations are 47% more likely than their Average counterparts to monitor customer sentiment and feedback proactively across the web.
Organizations with disciplined customer feedback programs were much more likely to improve customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty year-over-year, compared to those with ad-hoc feedback programs.
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