For those of us in the service industry, there are a few phrases that are so common we don’t even think twice about them.  When was the last time you pondered the meaning of “This call may be recorded for quality and training purposes”?  Or have you ever thought that the question “Have I fully resolved your issue today?” might not actually be customer-friendly?

Well, sometimes it’s a good idea to approach something familiar from a new angle.  In CCC’s most recent post on the Harvard Business Review blog, Matt Dixon and I explored a few common call center statements (including those mentioned above) through the lens of customer centricity.  Just how customer-centric are modern corporations?  We argue that you needn’t look beyond the call center for the answer.

Read the full HBR post

I want to start a discussion on what innovation means in the context of the customer service world by telling you a tale of two cities (or in this case, two banks). This will move us closer to understanding what innovation might mean, specifically in the banking industry, but we can apply the principles to any industry. And think about these examples from the perspective of a customer service executive and also from the viewpoint of a regular customer.

Story #1–A few weeks ago I left the Holborn tube stop in central London on the way to work and it was the grand opening of Metro Bank in London, the first new consumer bank in the U.K. in more than a century. I had seen the signs for the new bank since I walk by it every day on the way to work but beyond the advertisements (the bank is open early & late and open seven days a week) I hadn’t given it more than a glancing thought.

But what was going on for this new bank opening wasn’t your typical ribbon cutting ceremony (although that happened too). It was a carnival atmosphere with free popcorn, performers on stilts wearing costumes in the bank’s brand colours, a shoe shine stand was setup, and there were balloons everywhere. I watched both tourists and office workers get caught up in the excitement.

I wondered what all the hoopla was about. It’s just another bank right?

Read More »

My favorite American football team, the Washington Redskins, is preparing to kick-off the 2010 season with a new coach, Mike Shanahan.  Mr. Shanahan was hired earlier this year to replace Jim Zorn, who was fired last year after coaching for only two seasons.  Mr. Zorn’s successful career as a player (he was a quarterback in the National Football League and threw for over 20,000 yards during his career), however, was not a very good predictor of his success as a coach: in two seasons as head coach the Redskins were an abysmal 12-20, including an embarrassing 4-12 last year.

How could a former player, someone who seemingly knows the game so well, fail miserably as a coach?  Well, like brokerage statements say: Past performance is not an indication of future success. Read More »

Customer Service News

• If there’s one thing you should read today, it’s this Economist piece on the value of data-mining social networks [Economist]
• The Washington Post has suspended sports columnist Mike Wise for a Twitter hoax he started last week in an attempt to illustrate how bad information can spread rapidly through the medium [NYT]
• Facebook has patented an algorithm for social search [Mashable]
• Survey respondents agree: America (and her customer service representatives) are getting ruder [Adweek]
• MediaPost explains why the Wall Street Journal’s “expose” on tracking consumer behavior on the web is nothing to fear [MediaPost]
• Taking a look at the sea change in American demographics, expected to be confirmed by results of this year’s Census [AdAge]
• Has poor customer service contributed to the climate of frustration in America? [New Yorker]
• Why ‘innovation machines’ are key for large enterprises [Economist]
• Travel industry leading the charge to connect with customers on Facebook and Twitter? [USA Today]

It’s a focus for every company: How to prevent customer churn?

Following the philosophy that customers are easier to retain than they are to convert, over the past decade, companies have created escalation “saves” desks manned by staff empowered to do almost anything (read: offer discounts, refunds, or other financial incentives) to retain a customer once the customer says the magic words, “I’m leaving your company.”

The only catch is the cost to run these “saves” operations.  Not to mention the looming question whether such moves actually drive long-term, quality relationships with customers (or merely set precedent for customers to argue for major discounts year after year).

So how to save customers without having to offer sweet monetary incentives?  Certainly many companies have built comprehensive, predictive models to identify potential customer churn.  Such models of course can be helpful, but these models are resource intensive, and many organizations fall short in how they execute on the intelligence—they’re often too late.

In fact, it’s not just about modeling customer proclivity for disloyalty but proactively reaching out to customers before they actually become disloyal.

Read More »