By Matt Hoffman
Propelled by websites like Instructables and magazines like Make, the do it yourself (DIY) community has recently morphed from a fringe group of counterculturists into a mainstream group of self-branded lifehackers. As the DIY movement has grown, it has slowly shifted its focus from home improvement and knitting to technological areas like open-source software and solar-powered audio graffiti.
Overwhelmed by the flurry of digital communication in their lives, a few intrepid DIYers recently created their own DIY contact centers. These innovators believe that miniature contact centers offer one route to restoring balance to their busy lives.
To learn about the realities of a DIY contact center, we interviewed Rob and Christy Greene, newlyweds from Minnesota who created a contact center to handle communication about their recent wedding.
CCC: Why did you decide to create a DIY contact center?
Christy: “We’re busy people. I knew I didn’t have the time to listen to Aunt Polly’s critiques about the color scheme of our RSVP. I knew Rob didn’t have the time to respond to people who were wondering if we might prefer some cutlery from IKEA instead of the gifts we listed on our registry. A DIY contact center seemed like a logical solution to this problem.”
CCC: Was it difficult to create the contact center?
Rob: “The process was actually far easier than I expected it to be. We used Google Voice to create a phone number for the contact center. Depending on the time of day, we programmed this number to forward to one of our two ‘agents,’ Jennifer and Brad [Christy’s sister and bridesmaid and Rob’s college roommate and best man, respectively].”
Christy: “After setting up the system, we put our contact center’s number on our RSVP and gave it to all of the caterers and vendors that we worked with. I know I saved at least five hours of my life by not giving my personal phone number to the chatty florist that had a huge crush on me.”
CCC: Did you adopt any strategies used by larger, more traditional contact centers?
Rob: “We stumbled across information about customer segmentation when we were researching the basics of contact centers. Segmentation seemed like an easy way to ensure that we made the most of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get expensive gifts from our friends.”
Christy: “I don’t want it to sound like we’re greedy people, but we’re both still paying off student loans. We need all of the money we can get, and this was our only chance to have our family and friends give us gifts. We were determined to do everything in our power to ensure that rich Uncle Mark didn’t skimp and get us a waffle iron.”
CCC: How did you execute your segmentation strategy?
Christy: “We gave Jennifer and Brad [their ‘agents’] a list of our invitees ranked by wealth, and trained them on how to delicately nudge people toward the most expensive gift they could afford. For example, we made sure that wealthier callers were told that Rob has been wishing that we could afford the honeymoon suite at the Hotel Artemide. Callers of more modest means were nudged toward more appropriately expensive gifts, like the Saeco Via Venezia espresso machine or pairs of his-and-hers skis we registered for.”
Rob: “Our segmentation strategy wasn’t entirely based on money. I also wanted to make sure that I didn’t pass up the opportunity to antagonize my friends when their favorite sports teams lost. I wrote up a chart for Brad and Jennifer listing the teams that all of my friends root for. The taunting was good fun for both our agents and our callers. For example, one of my friends called the contact center to see if he could be seated at the same table as Christy’s attractive cousin Lisa. Brad replied, ‘I would have thought that you would be too busy crying about Duke’s loss in the NCAA tournament to care about your seat at the wedding.’ Nailed it!”
Rob: “Even though we created a contact center to communicate with our friends, I wanted to be sure that we didn’t lose that personal touch.”
What segmentation strategies would you recommend to future contact center DIYers?
(This post inaugurates an annual series of April First blog posts.)
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