A common question I hear members ask is, “Given all of the channel options available, how do I select the right channel for my post-contact customer survey?” In this two-part post, I weigh the pros and cons of using different channels for surveying customers.

Here, I cover automated survey channels, including e-mail, Web, and IVR.  Part two will address manual channels, like outbound phone and mail surveys. Taken together, this information can guide you toward the survey administration channel that is best suited for you and your customers.  Read More »

Last week a company asked me how much more first contact resolution (FCR) improvement it has left.  The company knows its FCR rates—the ability to resolve an issue on a single contact—aren’t perfect, but at 84%, it finds it increasingly difficult to move the dial.

As I shared some of our benchmarks, I couldn’t help but comment how inflated some of the figures are—95% and above in some industries in the phone channel, and even higher rates in the e-mail channel.

This wide benchmark variance results from highly diverse definitions and measurements of issue resolution, most of which are not terribly accurate or beneficial.

Most FCR metrics have a vital flaw–they track assumed issue resolution.  Customers typically believe that upon interacting with the service organization, the issue has been resolved.  And so asking the customer via a survey or frontline rep, “Was your issue resolved?”, as conventional wisdom dictates, inevitably leads to a “yes.”  Yet unbeknownst to the customer, he may have to call back for a related issue or obtain clarification. Read More »

I recently came across some data indicating Twitter’s user base has decreased by as much as 19% over the second half of 2009.

While many contradicting findings have been reported—and Twitter says usage is at its highest levels yet and expected to grow—if it isn’t already happening, user base consolidation likely will occur soon as growth cannot continue indefinitely.   Read More »

A week ago I contacted my publishing company to request a new login and password because I deactivated my old e-mail address.  The bottom of the email submission form page listed some basic e-mail turnaround times and operating hours. Not a terrible wait time, I thought, and thanks for setting expectations.

Fast forward 24 hours, the response read: “Go to our site, enter your User ID and we’ll send a new password to that address.”  Sounds good right?  But…my User ID was my old e-mail address. Strike #1.  So for round 2, I was more explicit in my request.

Fast forward another 24 hours to the second response: “Go to our site, enter your User ID and we’ll send a new password to that address.”

Yep.  They sent me the same response (verbatim) two days in a row. And the worst part is that this type of email “resolution” is the norm in my experience, not the exception.

Call me the jaded contact center geek, but it seems that the usefulness of email as a service channel has expired.  I recognize some B2B interactions may be an exception to the rule – given more regular customer interactions – but for most service interactions, it’s a poor channel. Read More »

Lately I’ve been fielding a lot of questions about how to write an effective post-contact customer survey. Although survey writing may seem simple (just write a few interesting questions and push go), a good amount of thought work must be invested up front in order to get useful data back from your customer survey. Below I’ve captured my top 4 tips for rewriting or creating a new survey:  Read More »