Customer Service News

• Will Nordstrom’s online, customer-facing integration of store and warehouse inventory pay off? Sources say yes. [New York Times]
• Facebook’s informal valuation is now as high as $33.7 billion [FT]
• EMarketer estimates that 28% of the American public will access the web from smartphones in 2010, up from 17% in 2008 [Adweek]
• Intuit will launch new credit card platform for iPhone [Mashable]                       
• …while Consumer Reports pushes for more fraud protection on mobile payments platforms [ReadWriteWeb]                                      
• Throwing cold water on the smartphone hype [Mashable]                                           
• An in-depth analysis of the spread of Twitter in the first few years of the service’s life [Hubspot]                                   
• Pew study finds that social media use has nearly doubled for internet users 55 and up [Mashable]               
• Only 1.2% of executives say it is important to use social media channels to offer customer service [Marketing Profs]                                 
• Are consumers becoming desensitized to product recalls? [AdAge]
• CFI report shows decline in offshore contact centers for the second year running [Business Wire] 

We are starting a new experiment on the blog today – aggregating the latest and best customer service news from around the Web on a regular basis, bringing you the freshest perspective on the customer service landscape.

Let us know if you like this approach, hate it, or other types of information you’d like to see in this aggregator.

Customer Service News

• The next big country to outsource your contact center to is…the United States? [NPR]
• American Express survey shows that customer service – or lack thereof – plays a large role in purchase decisions. We concur! [Brandweek, Customer Contact Council]
• New report: social media users expect requests for help (in emergency situations) to be answered within the hour [ReadWriteWeb]
• Wired’s Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff say the Web is dead, having been replaced by an ecosystem of semi-closed “apps” for mobile and desktop alike. Note that you are reading the article…in a web browser. [Wired]
• Taking self-service to the next level – a partnership between Bank of America and Visa will bring mobile payments to New York this fall [Mashable]
• Does more social media data mean more insights? Maybe, says Zach Hofer-Shall of Forrester [Forrester Research]
• Richard Branson’s first rule of customer service – and when to break it [LiveMint]
• A Boston hospital starts texting service for ER wait times (a twist on the web-based version we’ve blogged about) [The Boston Globe, Customer Contact Council]
• The Wall Street Journal takes on one source for continued innovation – your employees [WSJ]

This post draws from a story first presented by our sister program, the Marketing Leadership Council, in their blog Wide Angle.

The U.S. is in a kind of tough place right now.

• Unemployment is hovering around 10%, not only idling millions of workers but keeping millions more stuck in jobs they don’t like
• It’s shaping up to be the hottest summer on record in many parts of the country
• To top it all off, traffic is getting worse as local governments run out of money to invest in public transit and new roads.

Add these (and many, many other) factors up, and it’s no secret why your average American is a little on edge these days.

So when JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater made a dramatic exit from his job recently, delivering an expletive-laced tirade to passengers over the intercom before grabbing beer from the service cart and sliding down the plane’s emergency chute, it wasn’t surprising when he became something of a cause celebre. A Facebook fan group established after the news broke now has more than 200,000 fans, and there’s talk of a legal defense fund (Slater was cited for public endangerment). Slater has been hounded by reporters and paparazzi since being released on bond, and his relatives have made the talk-show rounds. Read More »

I saw an interview on CNN over the weekend with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. In this short spot, only a few minutes long, one of Dorsey’s few talking points was how wildly popular Twitter is as a customer service platform. 

We all know that Twitter is popular. And not just among the millennial generation—almost 65% of Twitter users are over 35 years old. Last month’s World Cup Final is a prime example of Twitter’s reach—people from 172 countries tweeted in 27 different languages, generating more than 2,000 tweets-per-second.

The opportunities in social media for customer service are many: drive loyalty, deflect contacts, educate customers, and capture VOC. Those are nice goals, but are they really different from goals of the live channel? Mostly not. But there’s something unique about the spirit with which Twitter accomplishes these goals.

Read More »

(This is a guest post by Victoria Koval of the Sales Executive Council, our sister program for sales  leaders and their teams. It builds on Jacob’s popular post that discusses ways to eliminate the word ‘no’ from your rep’s vocabulary.)

Think about how many times and ways a customer says “no”… There is the “matter-of-fact no” ( I am not interested in this offer); there is the “no-without-no” (I’ll contact you myself when I am ready to make a decision);   there is the “passing-the-buck no”  (The decision is out of my hands now); there is the “maybe-yes no” (I’ll have to check my calendar) and the “restraining-order no” (For the last time, no).

While searching for more examples (and for my own amusement), I Googled “how to say no.” As I looked through the more than 206,000,000 results, I learned how to say NO in over 520 languages and how to come up with 100 Excuses to Say No (my favorite one: “because my subconscious says no”).

The all-mighty Internet taught me how to say no to bosses, relatives, friends, co-workers and pushy sales people, but it had little to say about how to push back on customers.  Is that because we’ve been brainwashed that the customer is always right?

Maybe…But, unless you’re running a charitable foundation, saying no is a critical skill, especially now. In the current economy, customers feel entitled to more discounts, more customization and less risk, and they don’t hesitate to ask for more.     Read More »

By Hannah Hellebush

In speaking with members we hear that many service center professionals are interested in the merits of rep-level certification programs. There are a lot of programs available—most offer an online course for frontline reps who become “certified” after the completion of a test. The courses take a few weeks to complete and are priced per individual rep.

Certainly, rep-level certification programs could potentially help in skills training and upskilling.  But many companies we talk to say it’s hard to measure the gains from these programs in terms of direct rep performance gains.  And of course, CCC has long held that coaching (not training) is by far the best skill development lever you can pull. 

So, I’ve got to wonder – if the jury is out on rep-level certification programs to drive performance, what are some other benefits the programs could have? Read More »

CCC wrote a blog post for Harvard Business Review’s blog on customer preferences for self-service, research with which CCC members are most likely familiar (click here to read the research).  What members might not be as aware of is the visceral reaction this finding has sparked across the customer world.  Over the past 48 hours, since the post went live, it has been the #1 most viewed item on the HBR site and has garnered 60 comments on HBR and an additional 58 comments on YCombinator.  What’s more, it’s been Tweeted on more than 800 times around the world.

[5 Aug. update: the post has been live for a week now, with more than 80 comments on the HBR site and over 1,000 Tweets worldwide.  The blog remains one of the most frequently read pieces of content on the site, currently ranked #3.] 

As a service leader, you owe it to yourself to review not just this post, but the comments which it sparked.  You are sure to find some eye-opening customer stories and reactions that will dial up the urgency for you and your team as you consider how to improve the customer experience.

Here’s a sampling of the reader comments: Read More »

By Dan Clay

Here’s a common sight on courses around the world: a golfer with a $500 driver and a horrible swing.  The unfortunate reality that these club-connoisseurs confront is that the lightest titanium clubhead in Callaway’s line can’t fix a broken swing. 

It’s an expensive lesson to learn, and many contact center leaders make a similar discovery following a new technology purchase.  They put a new technology over a broken process or let a fancy vendor presentation define a process for them – and are then frustrated by lackluster returns.

That’s why, whenever a member asks me, “What’s the next great technology we should consider for our contact center?” I provide the most annoying answer known to mankind: another question.  “Well, what are you trying to accomplish?”  To be successful, technology purchases and implementations must clearly align with specific business objectives.   Read More »

By Hannah Hellebush

It happens often; a new product or idea is immediately heralded as the next big thing and although there’s a lot of buzz surrounding it, the actual “innovation” turns out to be a dud.

Even the savviest among us aren’t immune to the hype circling “the next big thing.”  Steve Jobs thought the Segway, a personal transportation device, was about to become a revolutionary innovation in 2001, placing it in the same category of ‘cool’ as personal computers. Nine years later it’s clear that Segways have not become the preferred mode of transportation for the 21^st Century. The opinion of mall cop squadrons aside, it is safe to say Segways have not lived up to their initial billing.

In the customer service world, there has been a similar level of excitement around Web chat as a new service channel with considerable cost-savings and customer experience enhancement potential.  In addition, many members we talk to tell us they are investing in chat in an effort to “keep up with the Joneses” (i.e., competitors are doing it, so we need to as well).  But despite all of the enthusiasm about this new channel, CCC members who implemented chat often tell us they have difficulty realizing a healthy ROI.  Across our conversations with members, we’ve identified a few of the major impediments to a successful chat implementation.  Read More »

Like every July, a new class of freshly minted higher education degree holders are preparing to enter the workforce.  But, many who have completed a post-secondary (or undergraduate as it’s called in the U.S.) education won’t start work in their chosen field of study.

Holding a degree in Political Science, I’m an example of this phenomenon. When I graduated, I didn’t consider a job in political science. Instead, I looked at job openings where I could exercise the analytical and research skills my degree had prepared me for.   

In fact, most of my peers did the same. Philosophy majors don’t typically become philosophers – nor do most history majors become historians.  Your degree may not train you to do anything, but it does prepare you to do many things.  Read More »