Have you ever been browsing the Internet for self-service answers or awaiting an e-mail response from customer support, when instead you decide to turn to your social media chat platform of choice (e.g., Facebook, Google Chat, AOL Instant Messenger) to find a real-time answer from (who else)—your online friends! With the technology’s popularity expected to grow to 1.7 billion users by 2013, companies too are exploring (and, in many cases, already trying out) web chat as a customer support channel to save on phone and e-mail costs while capitalizing on the customers’ growing comfort with online chat in general.

And while chat can be a great tool to interact with friends, does it truly fulfill its promise of cost-savings and improved online customer experience as a service and support channel? Read More »

Multi-channel investments remain a big focus for many service and support organizations as they balance changing customer needs and preferences and cost to serve.

But given limited investment resources, the question remains which channels should be prioritized.  Some colleagues recently discussed the value of social media as a channel, but here we want to discuss e-mail and chat specifically.  In question: If you had to choose just one, is e-mail or chat the better investment?

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Do you ever feel like you talk in complete shorthand during the workday? 

I do. 

I’ve written entire e-mail subject lines using acronyms, and it wouldn’t be too farfetched to send a message like this to my fellow researchers: “FWIW, the CES scores are on the CCC site.  The rest of the study will be there EOW, but I’ll be OOO on PTO by then. YWIA.”

Maybe it’s a sign of the times.  As a global population, we’re busier than ever before and the efficiencies gained through acronyms might be small but maybe make us feel like we are working faster.  But although this type of acronym alphabet soup is common across many functions, I feel like the customer service world has a very special penchant for the abbreviations.  Knowing that call centers are often a place where folks don’t intend to land (raise your hand if you majored in customer service at university), I thought it might be helpful to make a list of the more commonly-used call center specific acronyms.  Thus the first list you see below.

But the more I thought about it, I also realized that acronyms not related to call centers specifically are also becoming increasingly important for call center professionals to know.  As we move toward full integration of chat channels, surveys by mobile text messaging, and service via social media, we really ought to know our stuff!  So then I came up with the second list you see below, which is more general to the workplace and general online acronym lingo used on blogs and in chat conversations. 

HTH (Hope this helps)! Read More »

Wish your service and support organization could bring in an extra $8 Billion in service-to-sales revenue?  This isn’t so unattainable after all.

In fact, in 2010, U.S. airlines collected an additional $8 Billion, or 6% of revenue, outside of traditional plane tickets.

How did they do it?  Cross-sell/up-sell.

As it turns out, those $5 in-flight snacks, $50 airline lounge passes, and $47 early boarding/increased legroom upgrades add up to quite a lot.  (Collective groan noted here.)

Many of these upgrades and additional fees once  were relatively ad hoc—one could purchase such add ons at the airport but making arrangements in advance necessitated a phone call or complex navigation on the Web.  But recognizing that such secondary services are actually quite profitable, airlines are becoming serious about streamlining the ability to purchase such services.

Or as CCC would phrase it: Airlines are making it easy to for customers to buy more.

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Every few months companies pose questions about the upcoming trends of the service and support function.  Though typically prompted by companies revisiting their strategic plans and technology roadmaps, vendor whitepapers are probably equally responsible for causing hype and questions.

I’m certainly an avid reader of trade press and secondary research, and keep a list of the top trends to the side of my desk (CCC members, find the latest here).  But in my role as a researcher, I also try to break away from the latest technology enablers and innovations and consider more holistically what an “excellent” customer experience might truly look like.

So what are the top things that would radically change the service and support experience?  Here’s my take:

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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 »

Procter & Gamble, Walmart, and Walgreens are all limiting customer choice in the grocery and drug store aisle.  Why aren’t their customer service and support organizations following suit?

In line with the economic downturn, many retailers and consumer product good firms have realized that limiting customer choice can actually help drive purchase decisions.

The “Paradox of Choice” movement has evangelized this idea.  But it seems the message hasn’t trickled down to service and support…yet.

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