Month: August 2013
VIDEO POST: How to Effectively Use Customer Service Data
Video Posted on Updated on
While I’ve written posts about customer service metrics and how to choose the right ones , I wanted to write a follow up post about what you actually do with the customer service data you collect. I came across a Software Advice’s video titled “How to Capitalize on Data Collected at Your Help Desk” which features insight from Zendesk’s JD Peterson. The video gives a great overview of how to effectively use your customer service data. Here are a few of my favorite points made:
- Customer Satisfaction is—without a doubt—the most important metric. The best part is that it can be measured relatively easily. All it takes is a quick 5 minute survey to gauge customer satisfaction.
- Start measuring the ratio of users between self-service channels against service channels. This data will give you insight into your customers’ behaviors and preferences. When comparing this data with your customer satisfaction data, you will also be able to determine which channels require the most attention.
- The best way to use your data is to share it. Share it with everyone, especially other departments. But data needs to be two-way street. Other departments benefit from customer service data just as customer service operations (everyone from call-center agents to senior level executives) benefit from other department’s data.
- Benchmark! Set benchmarks to track your performance. Also, it’s beneficial to benchmark against your competitors performance. This can be done through certain customer service software or by networking and sharing data with colleagues in your industry.
If you have a few minutes, watch this video. Also, if you have any tips for how to effectively use customer service data, please leave a comment below.
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
5 Things to Think About When Creating a Social Media Content Strategy
An article discussing five things to think about when creating a social media content strategy.
See on www.socialmediopolis.com
Bad Customer Service Speaks Louder than a Great Product
Bad Customer Service Speaks Louder than a Great Product http://t.co/6XubWd6zXl via @somedsatisfied
See on socialmediasatisfied.com
Keep Customers Coming Back with Social Media Customer Service
Social media is continuing to grow as a customer service channel, but is unlike any of its predecessors.
Very interesting article. Plan to incorporate some of these practices into the contact center operations.
See on sococare.com
Using Disney’s Customer Service Model in Government
It’s no surprise that customer service models differ from company to company. Depending on an organization’s mission, customer service models could focus on anything from low cost, high convenience to personalized care. Regardless of what your organization values, a customer service model should focus on customer satisfaction and how to continuously drive it. This means fine-tuning your touch points and developing strong internal policies and training programs. It also means evolving to meet the ever-changing needs of your customer.
As I looked around for a model that could provide more pieces for CXO’s to use in developing their customer service models, I stumbled across a post written on the Disney Institute Blog about a year ago called A Model for Customer Service. While Disney’s customer service model focuses on exceeding a customer’s expectations, there are six pieces of their quality service model that could be applied to any organization’s model—even if that organization is a government entity. Here they are:
“• Guestology – the study of our Guests and their wants and needs. Who are your customers? How can you anticipate their needs?
• Quality standards – Disney’s operational guidelines to providing an outstanding experience for the Guest. These questions may include, “Are the hours I operate ideal for my Guest?” or “What can I do to lessen or avoid overcrowding?”
• Cast (employees) – The people charged with delivering outstanding service. Are you properly aligning the talents of each individual with a role (job) that will utilize those gifts?
• Setting –The physical environment. Is it clear where your Guests should place their order? Is your entrance inviting? Would a Guest describe this area as clean?
• Process – The step-by-step procedure for accomplishing a task. If a Guest has a complaint, what is the appropriate channel to direct it?
• Integration – How do you make sure that each piece works seamlessly with the others to deliver the best possible experience for your Guest?”
Although these six pieces were written for Disney, their concept can be the applied across industries. I used similar concepts developing a model for the City of Philadelphia. Guestology had to do with understanding constituent wants and needs. Cast meant developing a great training program and hiring the right people.Process meant fine-tuning our operations and Service Level Agreements with other departments. And Integration meant coordinating internal and external processes to work together as well as communicating our feedback and data to our senior team for ideas on how we can improve.
Setting is the only piece that does not perfectly translate. While Philly311 does have a walk-in center, our most popular channel is still the telephone. For us, “setting” meant evolving our channels to work as efficiently as possible. It also meant developing new channels so that we could bring our “setting” to our customers. Some of this was accomplished by developing a community engagement program—attending community meetings and training citizens in our self-service portal. Another piece of our setting was a mobile strategy—bringing our same service plus new technology and information to every smart phone. In governmental customer service, developing the right setting was one of the most difficult and yet most appreciated pieces of our customer service model.
Could Disney’s customer service model work for your organization? Are there any other essential components to your model? Let me know in the comments.
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
Best Practices in Multichannel Customer Care « Rethink Outsourcing
Members of our Operations Team recently listed their top tips for providing the highest level of service to multichannel connected customers. Keep reading to hear what they had to say.
See on www.24-7intouch.com
Social Customer Service: 5 Tips for Handling Negative Comments
Don’t ignore negative reviews! Respond & they might become loyal #customers – #custserv #custexp http://t.co/r0myLsdyUI
See on www.business2community.com
New Research Unlocks the Secret of Employee Recognition
We just completed a comprehensive research project on employee recognition (saying “thank you”) and the results are really astounding: organizations that give regular thanks to their employees far out perform those that don’t.
See on www.forbes.com
Choosing the Right Customer Service Metrics
I recently came across Kate Leggett’s article on Forresters about choosing the right customer service metrics. She called it, “Choosing the Right Customer Service Metrics Requires Alignment to Your Brand” and I think its focus is perfect for any organization, public, nonprofit or private.
The point that the article makes is that customer service metrics need to tie directly to an organization’s specific brand and core mission. Using a cookie-cutter set of metrics will result in your customer service operations existing as an almost external entity—not as a true extension of your organization. If customer service metrics speak to both the value proposition and the organization’s brand, however, they will pump life into the operation and demonstrate, internally and externally, that the customer service function drives value into the organization.
Although I agreed with the entire basis of the article but I also found three of Kate’s points particularly useful when considering which customer service metrics to choose:
1) Metrics depend on the audience. Kate writes, “Once you understand your value proposition, choose the high-level KPIs that support your company’s objectives. These metrics are the ones that you will report to executive management and include overall cost, revenue, compliance, and satisfaction scores.” Kate then goes on to argue that while high-level KPI’s should speak to the organization’s value proposition, operational metrics should tie directly to a company’s brand or mission. (Metrics that relate to first contact resolution, handle time, etc. depending on what’s important to the organization.)
2) Don’t track too many metrics. With this point, Kate warns not to choose metrics simply because they were suggested or supplied by a vendor. Use a senior or executive team to decide on which key metrics will actually work for you. If you have a small amount of key metrics, each number will seem more relevant and the right reactions to performance will seem more apparent.
3) One of the most important parts to choosing key metrics is communicating results and meaning to staff. Metrics are nothing if your staff does not understand what they mean and how they are affected by specific behaviors. In fact, a customer service operation is nothing if the staff behind the operation does not live and breathe customer service excellence. Choosing the right metrics is one great way to communicate customer service values to your staff. A way to give these metrics meaning is to celebrate and reward staff members when great performance metrics come back.
What are some of your organization’s customer service metrics? Why did you choose them? Leave me a comment below.
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.rosettacaringtonlue.com
2013 ICMI RESEARCH RELEASED: Extreme Engagement in the Multichannel Contact Center Research Report and Best Practices Guide – The Sacramento Bee
/PRNewswire/ — The International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) has released its 2013 research report, Extreme Engagement in the Multichannel Contact Center: Leveraging the Emerging Channels Research Report and Best Practices Guide,…
See on www.sacbee.com
Innovative Customer Service Leadership Strategies 