I’m a consistent viewer of NBC Thursday night TV, so I probably would have given the new show “Outsourced” a chance even if my job had nothing to do with customer service.  My experience in customer service, though, did make me a tougher critic.  While most professional critics have focused on the cultural and economic aspects of the show (reviews are mixed, at best), my focus here is mainly call center specific.

As a quick background for those who did not watch the show: the premise is that an American novelty company has run into financial difficulty, so they cut costs by sending their call center operations—and one American manager—to India.  The main dynamic for the manager is that of a stranger in a strange land – experiencing the TV-version of India for the first time.  What ensues is an in-your-face barrage of crude humor that is as subtle as a jackhammer.  This being TV, I expected everything to be exaggerated for the sake of gaining a few extra laughs, though I’d argue that the writers beat my expectations. Read More »

On my daily browse of the New York Times, I ran across an article listing the biggest pet peeves for consumers.  I had a sneaking suspicion that customer service would make it on this list, and as the title of this post infers, we did.  The comment on the service experience went as follows:

ENOUGH AFTER-CALL SURVEYS!
“You call, say, an airline for a reservation, and after navigating the monkey bars that stand between you and a human being, a recording asks if you can stay on the line once the call is completed and take a brief survey about the experience.  The answer is no. If the point is for Company X to improve its customer rep system, it is probably recording and “monitoring” those conversations, as we are often reminded by the same automated voice. So the company should eavesdrop on its own time without asking to take up any more of ours.”

The experience described above represents an unfortunate, but common, sentiment that could be dismissed as simply a rant.  But, what I find interesting about the complaint above is it shows how customers don’t always appreciate the different purposes and value between the IVR for routing vs. the IVR for surveys. Read More »

Prank calling is one of those things we know is wrong, but it is hard not to laugh at a good prank call.  It’s a similar feeling to slapstick comedy—you’re indulging in somebody else’s misery.  Once upon a time, to enjoy a good prank call, you actually had to make the calls yourself.  Today, though, YouTube offers a seemingly endless supply of prank calls at your fingertips.  All of the laughs, and none of the guilt.

If you browse the prank calls posted on YouTube, you might find your company is on the wrong end of the joke.  These interactions are generally benign (aside from wasting your money), and your company likely won’t come away with a tarnished reputation (assuming that your rep handled it as a normal call or at least exited the conversation gracefully).  For now let’s entertain ourselves with perhaps the most adorable prank call ever, conducted by Little Becky (she’s a pro).

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As CCC’s resident benchmarking expert, I thoroughly enjoy looking at customer data.  I find it to be one of the most interesting parts of what we do in the service environment.  Of course, the challenge here is how to analyze the data and come up with conclusions that match with true customer needs.

I believe we have a tendency to look at individual data points in relative isolation (for example, tracking higher handle times or lower resolution rates) which can lead to a myopic point of view that doesn’t take into consideration the context of that data point, nor connect with what the customer is actually experiencing.

Instead, I’ve found that every data point has a rich story behind it – a story that better explains what customers actually need to have a positive customer experience (as opposed to what they may say at any singular time).

The key is to recognize the difference here – and to dig a little deeper to get a true understanding of the customer.
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I recently worked with a member to determine optimal service organizational structures and staff counts.  I began my research with our new benchmarking data for 2009, attempting to find relationships between center staff size and various productivity and quality metrics.

The most concerning relationship I found was a strong correlation between larger staff size and a higher average number of contacts to resolve issues.

While this was a quick-hit analysis, and not an intensive deep-dive, I believe it highlights one of the most difficult challenges larger centers face: decreased individual ownership of issues, leading to unnecessary repeat contacts.

While we don’t have a comprehensive model to understand why this relationship exists, my hypothesis is that larger operations, foster a “just a number” mentality among staff.  The outcome: reps believe if they don’t give 100% one day (but still passably handle calls, meet QA requirements, etc.) they’re doing their job, especially as it pertains to the thousands of customers who have issues.

I know you’re asking, “Brad, are you suggesting we get smaller?”  Let’s be realistic here – that’s not going to happen. But, I do think you should be asking, “How do I make my center feel smaller?” Read More »