Month: June 2013
Citizensourcing: Building a Next-Gen Government
If you’re familiar with “social innovation” or “crowdsourc…
What’s citizensourcing? “Citizensourcing is the idea that governments can leverage crowdsourcing techniques to tap into their citizens’ collective intelligence for the greater good of the community. The hope is that through this collective and collaborative thinking, citizens can help governments solve critical issues and improve outcomes.”
See on blog.granicus.com
Tips for Social Media Success and Citizen Participation
For those of you who are at the 3CMA conference in Austin, TX you probably attended Sarah Smith&…
Really enjoyed reading the examples of how cities use social media to connect with citizens.
See on blog.granicus.com
Govies Deserve Good Customer Service Too!
We’ve all heard the refrain about how government needs to be better at customer service. We’ve heard the horror stories from the DMV and IRS filings gone amuck…
Love this quote: “In order for government to be a great provider of customer service to the public it first has to have good internal customer service.”
See on www.govloop.com
Inspiring Call Center Supervisors to Lead Teams
Most call center employees fall into a rut of comfort in which they try to get through their workday with the least amount of pain and hassle.
See on www.icmi.com
Infographic: Why social customer service can’t be ignored
Your customers demand it and your reputation depends on it – a new infographic from Conversocial illustrates why social customer service can’t be ignored. CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE
Social media channels are not going away. Organizations should begin to create and implement customer service strategies to meet this growing customer channel.
See on www.mycustomer.com
10 Surprising Stats About Great Customer Experience
Whether you provide most of your customer service through email, social media, call centers, or your in-house call agents, your main goal is to provide customers with the best possible experience.
How are companies identifying customer experience ‘pain points’?
An excellent customer experience is a vital as companies look to gain an edge over competitors, yet many still lack a complete understanding of the issues facing customers.
More than three quartera of respondents in our Reducing Customer Struggle 2013 report, produced in association with IBM Tealeaf say they have a ‘good’ or ‘okay’ understanding of their customers’ online experience.
While the number rating their understanding as ‘excellent’ has increased from 4% in 2012 to 7% this year, 14% still rate their knowledge of this as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’.
So how are companies seeking to understand the online customer experience, and which methods are effective?
See on econsultancy.com
The History of Customer Support | Zendesk
There was a time when customer support meant you told a shop owner your issue with what they sold you, and they either decided the problem was for them to fix or your own damn fault. But then the telephone was invented and everything changed. Call centers emerged, phone trees were born, and suddenly there was no way around pressing “1″ for one thing and “2″ for another. It’s actually pretty interesting stuff.
So when you find yourself wondering how on earth hold music came to be, and why it always seem to be smooth jazz, let this little history lesson fill in some of the blanks.
See on www.zendesk.com
Infographic: Why Bad Customer Service Bleeds Your Company Dry (Avaya Connected Blog)
Stay up to date with trends in the ever changing arena of business communications and technology with the Avaya blog.
Great service = loyal customers
See on www.avaya.com
Should Your Organization Have a Customer Service Plan? Part Two
This post is part two of last week’s “Should Your Organization Have a Customer Service Plan?”
Now that we’ve gone over the importance of getting buy-in and understanding your customers, let’s explore how to actually develop the customer service plan and see what strategies are right for your organization.
Develop the Actual Plan
As I’ve said in the Customer Service Officer’s Program, a customer service plan is not a “one-pager” and cannot be completed overnight. Also, a customer service plan cannot come from a template. Each department or organization needs to develop a customer service plan that caters to the needs of their specific customers. Taking the buy-in from your leaders and feedback from customers, you need to develop a customer service plan that intricately identifies and explains your customers and walks-through the steps of how you department can make them happy. And although all customer service plans are different, here are a few points worth considering in your development:
- Did you open as many channels as possible for the customer?
- Have you made provisions to establish an actual culture of customer service in your department or organization? (Providing real customer feedback to employees; newsletters; rewards-systems; etc.)
- Are your initiatives sustainable?
- Will your initiatives be valued from the customer’s perspective?
- Are your initiatives engaging? Will it feel like your organization is listening?
- How will you measure and mark success?
Developing Metrics and Accountability
After developing a customer service plan, you need to develop the metrics of how your success will be measured. Perhaps you will use customer satisfaction surveys, wait-time on the phone or number of follow-up calls. Like every other aspect of creating a customer service plan, these metrics need to be specific to your department or organization’s business.
Our customer service officers work with our PhillyStat performance management analysts to determine what metrics best convey customer service success, per their specific customer service plan. Once metrics have been developed, these officers are held accountable and asked to speak to their results at quarterly performance management meetings.
Use the Metrics, Improve
Once your first few months-worth of metrics come back from your new customer service plan, take the time to digest and open your mind to how your plan can be improved. The best customer service plans are, in their initial stages, a living, breathing document that embodies the voice of your customer. Make changes to some initiatives and scratch others if that’s what the customers want. Then use the metrics to actual benchmark and improve performance.
While I hope this post helped get you started in thinking about the key components and steps to developing a customer service plan, I am more than happy to offer you guidance along the way. Please keep me updated on your customer service journeys in the comments sections. Best of luck!
Rosetta Carrington Lue is the Chief Customer Service Officer and Senior Advisor to the City of Philadelphia’s Managing Director. Follow Rosetta on Twitter @Rosettalue or visit her blog at www.rosettacarringtonlue.com
Innovative Customer Service Leadership Strategies 