This post is the second in a two-part series on bill formatting and paper bills versus online billing.  Read part one here.

When we last left off with billing, we had considered the complexity of changing the format of a paper bill and steps companies can take to make the transition to a new bill layout painless for both customers and contact centers.

With the increasing popularity of self-service and adoption of online platforms for routine processes, many companies have reconsidered channels of bill distribution in addition to bill format and have moved from paper to e-bills.  After all, the Web is the first place that 56% of consumers look to find answers to their customer service questions, and as more people manage their bank accounts and credit cards online, the move from paper to online billing feels like a natural progression.

There are a number of benefits to switching from paper to e-billing.

• Improved cash flow: Electronic payments are faster and thus improve the company’s cash flows and net present value.
• Decreased call volume and improved customer service: Considering that billing questions can account for up to 70% of contact center calls, when customers are able to check their balances and do basic payment adjustments online, call volume drops and reps can spend their time with issues that require their expertise.
• Increased customer satisfaction:  Considering that Generation X and Y-ers think of the Internet as a one-stop shop and perceive paper bills to be relics from another era, online billing is more convenient for them.

The future of billing certainly appears to be online.  So how does your business get there? 

1. Choose an online platform. To begin, there are two primary models: the biller-direct model and the consolidation/aggregation model.
2. When making the switch from paper to e-billing, it’s important to think about whether your business will automatically shift all customers to online bills or if customers will have a choice between the two formats.  If the latter is the case, is the eventual goal to move all customers to paperless billing?   The way your company launches and advertises e-billing to customers will be influenced by these factors.
3. Communicating these changes to customers is even more important than clarifying changes to paper bill layouts, as is discussed in the first post in this series, because the different platform introduces a host of new questions and adjustments.  Still, the same methods that are effective when it comes to letting customers know about paper bill reformatting can be modified and applied to inform customers about e-billing options.

• In the biller-direct model, the biller manages online bill payment through the establishment of its own electronic bill pay system.  This model can be expensive and resource intensive because of the setup and maintenance costs of the electronic system.  However, the business can retain oversight of things like the bill’s visual representation and customers are often more comfortable with online transactions with a familiar party.
• In the consolidation/aggregation model, electronic payments are outsourced to a third-party bill consolidator that handles the process.  Customers view and pay their bills on the third-party’s Web site.  Consolidation/aggregation is often a better option for smaller companies without the resources to invest in their own electronic bill payment infrastructure.  Further, some consumers may be able to pay multiple bills on the same third party site, so this option is more convenient for them.  However, this model also runs the risk of experiencing third-party integration and security problems.

What are the important considerations for your business when it comes to making decisions with regards to billing channels?  What have your experiences been with moving to online billing?

Given the unique issues that customer service professionals in the Financial Services industry face – including customer privacy and financial risk regulations – it can be difficult to know what CCC resources would be most helpful.

Wondering what others in your industry are reading? Here is a list of the CCC resources that your industry peers are downloading most often.

Top 3 CCC Resources for Financial Services Customer Service Professionals

1. Engineering a Low-Effort Customer Experience

What it is: A popular CCC download, this research outlines the most effective, up-to-date strategies for customer effort reduction.  In today’s competitive banking landscape, differentiating the customer experience may be a great way to win and retain customers.

Why your peers use it:

• To understand the sources of customer effort.
• To identify ways to reduce both the objective and subjective sides of effort.
• To coach frontline reps to employ techniques to reduce “in-the-moment” customer effort.

You might also be interested in: The Customer Effort Score – a customer experience metric that accounts for ease of customer interaction during a service request. CCC research has found that this is the most accurate measure of loyalty in a service organization. 

2. Coaching Starter Guide

What it is: A tool that helps supervisors and coaches identify rep development needs and address them through a behaviors-based coaching model.

Why your peers use it:

• To determine the objectives for coaching interactions. Given regulatory constraints in the industry, it is very important for service professionals to monitor rep behaviors.
• To decide the appropriate behaviors to coach on.
• To leverage example “starter” questions for coaching interactions.

You might also be interested in: Redefining the High-Performing Supervisor. This research provides guidance on the profile of most (and least) effective supervisors and identifies methods to replicate those behaviors.  This is a must-read if you are seeking guidance on how to engage your supervisors to improve service center performance.

3. Average Handle Time Root Cause Analysis and Recommended Opportunities

What it is: In an industry where there are so many metrics, it is crucial that Financial Services companies focus on the right ones. This tool can help companies identify the key drivers of Average Handle Time (AHT) and provide a blueprint for ways to reduce it.

Why your peers use it:

• To manage call volume by understanding the factors that drive AHT.
• To identify both short-term and long-term action steps to overcome AHT-related challenges.

You might also be interested in: Benchmarking Portal. A comprehensive look at CCC’s latest annual survey, this portal will allow you to compare your service center operations with those of your peers.  Financial services companies can use the portal to: prioritize opportunities for performance improvements, compare metrics, and identify areas in which to manage costs.

What other CCC tools or industry-related web sites do you have on your “must-read” list?

In one of my earlier blog posts, I dissected our finding that customers expect (or even prefer) to wait between 30 to 50 seconds before speaking to a live rep- and that these customers would trade off 30 seconds of wait time for a 1% better chance of getting their issue resolved.

My conclusion was two-fold:

-One, that a faster average speed of answer (ASA) is a minor consideration in the customer experience unless it goes past the 50-second mark and

-Two, customers care much more about what happens during phone conversations than how long they were on hold.

A recent article from HBR on customer experiences waiting online (you know, those progress bars that pop up when you are searching for flights or seeing if there are any iPads left in stock) adds to our initial findings and provides some interesting food for thought.

The article finds that transparency is key.  When customers are shown why they had to wait – even if it is a symbolic show – they are more satisfied than those who had to wait without any indication of what was being done to retrieve their information.  The coolest part: this finding largely holds true even when the group with no transparency has a significantly shorter wait time.

So, a customer would rather wait and see what is being done on their behalf (like viewing a list of airlines being searched or a tabulation of stores being checked for inventory) as compared to an instant response (or even an online game to play while they wait).  Customers just want to feel like companies are working hard to help them – and all that transparency can really pay off in the customer experience.

But, just like our findings, the article shows that no matter the wait time – we have to come up with high-quality answers when the customer finally gets a live rep or the online results page.  If we show all the work we are doing, but come up with inaccurate results, well that’s a lose-lose scenario.

So, it’s not necessarily a matter of speed.  At the end of the day – the customer wants to know why it is taking time to get them the information they need AND we have to be accurate in getting them that information.  Simple as that.

The article details many examples of showcasing the effort we put into serving the customer – from online to phone to live interactions.  What do you do to show the customer how you are working hard on their behalf?

CCC Related Resources:

Boosting Web Self-Service Stickiness

Improving Issue Resolution Performance

Advice on Reducing Cost Per Contact

Complaints are an added hassle, typically creating additional and time-consuming work, both for service and support and for other parts of the business.

So it is no wonder that for a long time, many organizations have minimized their attention to the efficacy of the complaint handling process.

The result of this?  Complaint policies that require customers to call a specific phone number, repeat their issue to multiple tiers of staff, submit a written report, and provide intricate evidence of an issue.  (These are all examples surfaced from companies we work with.)

Certainly all of these policies are well-intentioned, but they often signal to the customer that companies do not actually want to hear about the issue.

The good news is that we are seeing a renewed desire to reexamine the complaint handling process, in large part due to recent government mandates regarding complaint follow up, but certainly also due to increased attentiveness to customer centricity and tracking the customer experience from end to end.

These companies making improvements are increasingly realizing the true value of customer complaints, of receiving proactive input about problematic policies, processes, and products.  This is particularly true in an age when the percentage of customers who actually complain and provide feedback typically is much lower than the pool of customers affected by those problems.  (TARP Worldwide finds that 50% of affected B2C customers complain and 75% of affected B2B customers complain).

For those companies focusing on revising their complaint handling processes, below are a few pointers to ensure the processes are customer centric:

1. Take the time to root cause complaints. Too often companies take complaints at face value from customers, responding only to the customer-stated issue.  More progressive companies take the time to root cause complaints, asking probing questions to surface additional information helpful for both resolving the customer issue at hand as well as in improving the issue for all customers.

How To: Organizations either can create probing surveys to capture more specific information related to particular issues or train frontline staff on how to ask probing questions.  Providing frontline staff with a list of good questions organized by complaint type makes this very easy and intuitive.

2. Always set customer expectations as to timeframe for complaint resolution. Too often customers lodge complaints but lack clarity as to when the issue will be resolved, often causing them to call back and spend additional effort following up.   More progressive companies clearly set expected deadlines and follow up with customers to re-set expectations if necessary.

How To: Organizations can give guidance to staff regarding how to set expectations based on customers and issue types.  A simple matrix of issue type and expected resolution can be very helpful in giving customers more specific information.

3. Always consider the customer impact of complaints. Too often companies view complaints as lower priority than new incoming inquiries.  Progressive companies, however, take the time to understand what the urgency and long-term impact is to the customer and to the customer’s customer.

How To: Train staff to ask probing questions about urgency.  Industrial Automation firm Rockwell Automation teaches frontline staff to ask questions around circumstances, deadlines, and information requirements to better understand customer needs.  It provides staff with sample questions to ask such as, “If I got you an answer by Thursday, would that fit your timeline?” and “Is this issue holding up any existing products?”

If you have recently revised your complaint resolution process, what else would you add to the list?

CCC Related Resources:

• How to Respond to Customer Complaints
• How to Become More Customer Centric on a Shoestring Budget
• New Government Mandate: Good Customer Service
• Questions to Understand Customer Channel-Switching Behaviors

“I need a flight from Phoenix to Washington, DC on Monday morning.”

“I want to return this GPS unit.”

What do these customer requests have in common?  In both situations what the customer needs isn’t necessarily the flight or the product return.  In the first situation, the customer might need to fly to get to an important meeting…or to see his daughter’s dance recital.  And maybe the customer returning the electronic product needs something with more features – or international maps for an upcoming trip to Japan.

Either way, the customer isn’t just going to volunteer this additional info – which makes it hard for the rep to give the customer what they need if the Monday morning flight isn’t available or if the product is outside the window in which it can be returned with a full refund.

So, what to do?  When reps can’t give a customer what they want, they will often default to the first available alternative – or even present the customer with a variety of alternatives.  But, the customer always ends up feeling like the alternative is ‘second best’, often arguing and negotiating to get what they asked for because it is their ‘first choice’.

Fortunately, there is a way to make an alternative seem as good (or even better) as the customer’s ‘first choice.’

The answer is for the rep to do a little informal digging – to figure out the ‘why’ behind the customer-stated request.  By figuring out this ‘why’, reps can position an alternative to meet the customer’s underlying need.

So for the customer returning the GPS unit outside the refund time – if the rep can figure out that what the customer needs is international map options, then he could suggest a plug-in with these additional maps or an upgrade to a unit that has them.  And voilà– the customer feels like the alternative is actually a valued option.

LoyaltyOne, a loyalty rewards points program in Canada, has employed a smart methodology that has upskilled their frontline to figure out the why and position alternatives as valued options. A few tips to get you started:

• Give your reps a flexible framework: No, this isn’t a typical call flow or scripting model.  Instead, consider either building out call competencies that a rep must display – or build out stage-gates the reps must pass before moving to the next part of a call.  Both of these methods allow the rep freedom in how they accomplish their goals, but ensures all reps achieve the same basic outcomes.
• Encourage your reps to use ‘smart’ small talk: Most companies probably discourage their reps from making small talk with customers – likely because it drives up handle time without much benefit.  But by using targeted questions to get to the ‘why’ – so ‘What did you want to use this GPS system for?’ can open up the conversation to extracti important information to help position an alternative.
• Teach your reps to make use of ‘idle time’: During a call, there is a time when the rep is waiting for something to come up on the screen – even sometimes putting the customer on hold while they wait for their systems to pull up information.  Instead of putting the customer on hold, use that time to make the targeted small talk – and you’ll reap the benefits.

Looking for more?  CCC is also developing some train-the-trainer tools for this technique, along with other ways to make customer experience feel low-effort, even when it is a complex or difficult issue.

What about you?  How do your reps position alternatives for customers?

CCC Related Resources:

• Engineering the Low Effort Customer Experience
• Positive Language Positioning Guidelines (Osram Sylvania)
• Personality-Based Issue Resolution (Bradford and Bingley)

“Take off your contact center leadership hat for a second and think about your past experiences as a consumer.  Tell me about a time when you had to call customer service that resulted in a high effort experience for you.”

Of course, every one of us is not just a customer service leader, but also a consumer.  Our experiences with our banks, telecom, and online retailer companies are all great fodder that helps us internalize what high effort means to our customers by putting context around the concept of customer effort.

So, I asked members of the CCC research team to talk about their recent high-effort experiences.  And, I not only got quite a response but started to see some interesting trends emerge.

1. Sent in an appeal to insurance company:
   I sent a letter to the company per instructions from a phone agent, called twice to follow-up, and was transferred three times on second call after 30 minutes on hold because the first rep gave incorrect information and second rep didn’t have access to answer question.  In the end, I learned I didn’t have to send the letter in the first place.
2. Called a transportation company to make a purchase:
   After waiting 5-6 minutes in queue, tried to apply two credit vouchers to an upcoming trip but the rep wasn’t communicating clearly with me – using a lot of company jargon.  She sounded disinterested and at one point said, “You’re not understanding me.” I couldn’t do this on the web site, so I felt stuck with her.  While we eventually worked it out, I was frustrated with her lack of interest in helping me.
3. Called a retail company after purchasing a high-end product:
   The customer service department’s use of the word ‘them’ (versus ‘us’) made me feel like I was not a valued customer.  I asked about delivery and was told it was shipping’s responsibility, and they were the only ones who could help me. Customer service couldn’t transfer me, so I had to call another number and talk with a new set of people who didn’t know anything about me–requiring me to repeat my information and eventually get transferred again to someone else.
4. E-mailed a utility company after a move:
   E-mailed utility company to tell them the stop-start details about a week before I moved.  Only got a response three weeks later, after we had moved and after I had called the contact center multiple times to get the issue resolved.
5. Called an online retailer for shipping issue:
   Purchased an item on the web and asked for instore pickup.  Even though the web site said the item was available instore, when I went to pick it up they didn’t have it… so I called customer service.  I had to type in my confirmation number into the IVR and repeat the information when the rep picked up.  The rest of the call went well, but having to repeat myself really stuck with me.

See some of those highlighted words?  Transferred, repeated information, called more than once, poor communication, delayed resolution, not taking responsibility, frustration, on hold for extended time periods – all things that smack of high effort.   

And, once we have the list of highlighted words, my next question is, “How many of our own customers have to go through these same things?”

Often, that sparks conversation in the room around top causes of customer effort – even leading to next steps to identify and reduce these high effort areas.

If you are getting started with the customer effort concept, it’s worth asking these two questions at your next meeting with your team leaders – writing up their stories on a whiteboard and then using that list to brainstorm high effort experiences that happen within your own organization.  It not only gets the conversation flowing, but often reveals some previously undiscovered areas of customer effort.

Have you done something like this with your team?  How did it go?  Or, share one of your recent high effort experiences as a consumer (please don’t name names!).   

CCC Related Resources:

• Customer Loyalty Topic Center
• Customer Effort Score
• Customer Effort Audit Tool
• Shifting the Loyalty Curve
• Engineering the Low-Effort Customer Experience

 For those of you familiar with our loyalty work there are no real surprises here, and our work on customer effort and web self-service are prominently displayed.  The six big myths we debunk include:

1. Customer service interactions should strive to ‘delight’ the customer
2. Highly satisfied customers will be more loyal
3. First contact resolution(FCR) is a great way to gauge whether we are making service ‘easy’ for customers
4. Customers want to talk to companies
5. Customers need to be educated and persuaded to try self-service
6. Customers want a consistent service experience

So far, we’ve gotten some great feedback on the post.  One question in particular was interesting – the commenter asked us if the finding that customer satisfaction ≠ customer effort was same for the relationship between employee satisfaction and employee loyalty to a company.  And in fact, we have found that employee satisfaction is not a sufficient predictor of employee churn.  Instead, we found companies should look both at the employee’s level of discretionary effort (to go above and beyond the basic duties of their job) and intent to stay to better understand how engaged their workforce is.

So, check out our latest article if you get a chance.  And what do you think about the parallels between customer/employee satisfaction and their respective loyalty to the company?  Is it a coincidence…or is something else happening here?

By Matt Hoffman

A CCC member recently asked me whether his organization could eliminate too much customer effort.  According to this executive, a service experience is an important touchstone for customers.  If you eliminate customer effort, you might also eliminate a rare personal connection between a large company and its individual customers.

Our research has shown that, in general, reducing customer effort increases customer loyalty.  However, are there instances where a little bit of customer effort is a good thing?

Below, Rick Delisi and I offer our two cents on this question.  We’ll also explain why we put a photograph of eggs in a blog about customer effort.

Rick: No. Customer effort is not a good thing.

When I think of the “effort” required to resolve an issue, I think more about “mental effort.”  Not how much physical effort is required (’cause…c’mon now…it ain’t THAT hard to push a few buttons or talk to some agent for a few minutes), but…how hard does my brain have to work?  In my ideal resolution experience, my brain doesn’t have to work hard at all.

Think about the great companies you do business with.  When you call them, within a few seconds the agent almost seems to be reading your mind.  They’re not just pleasant and friendly, they’re a full step ahead of you.  They anticipate your needs, advocate on your behalf and gently guide you toward a perfect resolution.  The experience doesn’t require any effort at all.   (This is what we at CCC call “experience engineering“)  So, there’s no such thing as TOO low-effort.  Solving problems should ALWAYS be that easy, that intuitive, that effortless.

Think of it this way.  You know those “match.com” ads, or those “eHarmony” commercials where these now-married couples always say, “Within the first few seconds—even though we’d never met each other before—we just clicked.  We spoke the same language and shared the same thoughts.  It was SO easy.”  Wouldn’t it be great if most of your customers felt like that when they talk to your agents?  (not the marriage part, just the “so easy” part!)

Matt: Yes. Customer effort is occasionally a good thing.

Effort is a two-sided coin.  On the one hand, as Rick alludes to, people dislike expending effort on anything.  We—or, at least, I—daydream about living the low-effort beach bum lifestyle epitomized in Corona commercials. 

On the other hand, effort can generate positive feelings like pride and a sense of accomplishment.  Imagine watching your son or daughter graduate from college.  Doesn’t that experience mean something to you precisely because you put in a gargantuan amount of effort to raise him or her?

Customers can also derive positive feelings from certain types of effort.  Consider a peculiar aspect of our modern lives:  Why do you have to add an egg to cake mixes? The entire raison d’etre for buying a cake mix is to reduce the effort it takes to make a cake.  Why wouldn’t manufacturers simply add dehydrated eggs to their cake mixes and eliminate unnecessary customer effort?

As it turns out, the first generation of cake mixes were designed so that eggs weren’t necessary.  You simply added water or milk to the mix, baked the batter in the oven, and—presto!—created a low-effort cake.  There was just one problem:  people didn’t buy the no-egg cake mixes.  Though these mixes were very low-effort, they were also low-pride:  people didn’t feel proud of their dessert creations when they just had to add water.  It was too easy.

A dash of effort fixed this problem:  second generation cake mixes required the addition of eggs, and people began to feel proud of their cake mix creations.  As a result, they started buying cake mixes.  When a little bit of additional effort can make customers feel a personal connection to a company or its products, customer effort might not be such a bad thing.

What’s your take?  Is customer effort ever a good thing?

By Kirsten Robinson

As the holiday season wraps up (no pun intended), we find ourselves sending off a multitude of “Thank You” notes to relatives, friends, whomever—for gifts they’ve so generously given us. Because, hey, who doesn’t enjoy being appreciated for a kind thought or gesture?

The same goes for your company and executives. When you work hard to help and please the public and consumers, it’s nice to be recognized for doing so. But, what do you do when your business receives a “Thank You” note? Put it on your fridge? Share it in your internal newsletter? Publish it in the media?  How will stakeholders perceive the publication of a “Thank You” note? Self-serving? Inauthentic? Positive? After having widespread negative media coverage? You want to communicate to the public any positive recognition—but is it appropriate to publish such notes in the media?

Our sister program, CEC, recently responded to an executive who posed this very question in their External Stakeholder Relations Forum. Other members weighing in on the discussion had differing opinions, but were unanimous on one account—no matter how you publish the note, ask the author for permission first. Here are some takeaways from that discussion thread:

• Post the note to your web site. One member suggests posting the full text of the letter online, and then using social media to drive traffic to it. The benefit of posting a “Thank You” note to your company’s site is that it is made public, but can’t receive negative coverage or comments.
• Use the note for internal communications. A company that has been blasted negatively in the media most likely has a lower morale than those being praised consistently. Publishing a sincere “Thank You” letter in internal communications will help raise the spirits of employees—even if they’re the only ones reading it.
• Ask author to send the note as a letter to the editor. Members agree that it’s not appropriate to forward a “Thank You” note to the local papers to publish; there can be room to backfire. As one executive stated, “The gesture could be construed by the press as chest-pounding, and even if they did publish it in its entity, [the letter] may invite others to forward letters about any other issues for which they have a bone to pick.” Ask the author to forward their letter to the editor, and provide them with the appropriate e-mail addresses.

View the rest of the discussion about publishing a “Thank You” note.