CCC has partnered with Iconoculture to bring you the latest in global consumer trends.  Below is our bi-weekly update featuring the latest Iconoculture insights available now on the CCC site.

A recent survey of European shoppers found that 96% of UK customers are likely to speak up about poor customer service experiences, along with 95% of shoppers in Italy and 91% in Germany.  This is an alarming statistic for companies doing business in Europe – especially in light of recent technology that has drastically simplified the customer complaint process.

Not long ago, a customer who wanted to complain about a bad service experience had few options: hand-write a letter, send an e-mail, or make a phone call.  Complaining required a significant investment in both time and effort.

Thanks to social media, however, customer complaints are easier than ever. Not happy with the service you received from your airline? Quickly send a 140-character gripe to the company’s Twitter handle. Dissatisfied with a recent interaction with your bank? Tell the world about it on the company’s Facebook page. These websites provide a more convenient platform for complaining customers – and with 73% of European internet users now participating in social networks, it is crucial that companies pay attention to online customer content. Read More »

Customer Service News

• Vodafone to integrate social media inquiries into its regular customer service systems by March 2012 (ZDNet)
• Nine ways in which top brands use social media for customer service. (Mashable)
• Xerox Customer Service earns a spot in J.D. Power and Associates’ Hall of Fame for exemplary standard of technology service and support. (Business Wire)
• A tough economy and increased competition drive hotels to include body language reading skills as part of customer service in hotels. (MailOnline)
• Customer experience key to building brand loyalty in a discount obsessed market. (Forbes)
• In the U.S., new online services from the IRS and the State Department are being planned to improve federal customer-service engagements. (InformationWeek)

Let’s talk about something that is familiar to all of us in the customer service world – Average Handle Time (AHT). Since the inception of the contact center, this metric has existed to help track productivity and ensure rep accountability. In the old world, where issues were (usually) simple and the primary goal was to maximize the number of calls handled, AHT was a wonderful tool that served a very good purpose. But as that world changed, we now find ourselves in a wholly different era of customer needs—and maybe it’s time to reevaluate some of these age-old practices.

This is a time in our industry that we at CCC have coined “customer service era 2.0.” In it, issues are increasingly complex and customer expectations are growing. While customers previously wanted fast resolution of simple issues, today there is a call for customized handling of any and all problems. What this means for the reps is a growing need for them to deliver valuable, personalized, and flexible service to their customers. Customer satisfaction is no longer dependent solely on the quickness of issue resolution, but on quality of that resolution as well.

Read More »

Today, your customers seem to have it better than ever.  Through social media, online search engines, DVRs, Smartphones, and apps the customer can have nearly everything they want, when they want it – and how they want it. The world is at their fingertips.

But if customers have all this power, what does that means for our frontline reps? Suddenly, they are dropped into a world that is not only increasingly complex (as products and services become more intricate) but also has well-informed customers that are demanding more.  Customers want things faster, they want the rep to know them, and to do more of the work for them to boot.

Pretty hard for a frontline employee who only a few years ago was probably focused on efficient resolution of pretty simply issues, right?

Well, the strain on the rep is starting to show.  81% of service organizations have not seen their frontline performance improve in the past few years.  Over 25% of reps say they are currently highly disengaged in their jobs – putting forth less effort and more likely to leave their job.

So, what’s the answer?  How can the service organization get the next boost in rep performance?   Well, we’ve identified a previously undiscovered, but extremely powerful skill set that will deliver a 11% increase in rep performance.  (Hint: it’s probably not what you think it is!) Read More »

When I have a question about the best way to do something, more often than not my first step is to ask a peer for help. Not only are my peers the most likely people to know what I’m going through and have the right answer, but they’re also the most convenient, comfortable source of knowledge to which I have access.

Unlike me, though, the typical rep in today’s service organization doesn’t have too many opportunities to learn from his or her peers; in fact, given the time constraints and scheduled nature of the call center, peer-to-peer learning—when it happens at all—tends to occur in an informal, ad hoc fashion. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it highlights an opportunity to introduce some more structure to the peer support that’s already taking place. And with more structured support, we can not only help avoid some of the potentially negative effects of unstructured peer support (for example, reps unknowingly sharing bad information with one another), but also:

1)      Decrease the burden on supervisors, who reps most frequently turn to for support in the absence of a helpful, accessible peer.

2)      Tap into an existing need for reps to connect with and support their peers.

3)      Develop coaching skills in reps, preparing them to fill future supervisor, coach, and leadership positions.

In short—there are some BIG benefits to be realized by creating the right conditions for effective peer-to-peer support in today’s service organization. Read More »

Customer Service News

• Oracle bids to acquire cloud-based customer service company RightNow for $1.5B [Reuters]
• Consumers are reevaluating their lending options as big banks rollout new fees [Reuters]
• Rising salaries, inflation push some Indian call centers to outsource to the Philippines [The Washington Post]
• More evidence of the impact that social media is having on customer service… [The Huffington Post UK]
• …but is it wise for all companies to invest in social media service? [Unified Communications]
• The Top 5 tips for financial institutions when it comes to serving customers on Facebook [Mashable]
• A closer look at the new retail customer experience for AT&T customers [Forbes]

Whether they need to know a product price, gather information, or simply complain about something, Asian customers are increasingly turning to social media for assistance. Ovum reported that nearly 40% of Indian consumers use social media for customer service— compared to only 12 % of consumers in the United States and the United Kingdom. In China, too, service through social media has almost doubled in the last two years, as people turn to social media as a viable alternative to phone. This trend of increased use of social media by customers is pushing companies to tap into social media as a service channel in Asia.

Before jumping in, however, companies should consider the diverse social media landscape in Asia, as well as the cultural/local nuances of various regions: Read More »

Consumer behaviors have changed in many ways coming out of the recession and in today’s time of economic uncertainty.  Some say consumers are more price sensitive and less loyal to brands – others talk about customers who demand more for less.

In the healthcare industry, recent data found an alarming new trend among U.S. consumers taking risks to avoid healthcare costs:

-There’s been a 10% increase since 2010 in the number of Americans who have done without or postponed healthcare-related expenses, including medical treatments, exams, tests, and prescriptions.

-Not only that, but Consumer Reports found that almost 50% of Americans who are on prescriptions actually delayed a doctor’s visit, declined tests, or bought their drugs outside the country.

-Plus, 25% of folks with prescriptions also scrimp on their prescriptions – skipping doses, not refilling, and taking expired medication.

All of this is to save on healthcare costs and avoid doctor visits.

While it is certainly a risky personal choice to view healthcare as a discretionary expense and hold off in the hope that one will stay healthy (and that’s a whole different topic that our friends at Iconoculture cover), today I want to focus on the additional potential impact to the company – especially the service organization. Read More »

The latest trend in learning and development?  Incorporating videogame techniques into the workplace (i.e.,“gamification”) for training and other often menial tasks.

Companies like IBM, SAP, and Deloitte all have used gaming technology to better engage employees in training and data entry and make the tasks seem less tedious and more resonant.

What they have found is that winning virtual badges (indicating an advance to the next level) and interacting in entertaining landscapes and backgrounds (unsurprisingly) actually is far more engaging (for millennials and boomers) than sitting in a classroom for hours on end listening to someone.  And in some studies, videogames even yield better knowledge retention (some research finds that if learning is not put into action within 2 weeks, staff lose that knowledge).

Read More »

Customer Service News

• Colleges make an effort to support students through Twitter, but is it working? [US News and World Report]
• Canon’s guide for improving customer support [PCWorld]
• Zappos’s service reputation tarnished by upgrade problems- how even a customer service leader is sometimes not perfect [Reuters]
• When—and when not— to use social media as a support channel [Unified Communications Strategies]
• Domino’s completely transparent service proposition improves company earnings [Bloomberg]
• Sears Holdings announces rollout of handheld devices for customer service [PR Newswire]