Comments on: Sometimes it’s Better to Let Customers Hold for Service http://servicestrategies-blog.com/?p=150 Blog by Service Strategies Tue, 29 Jun 2010 05:37:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Greg Coleman http://servicestrategies-blog.com/?p=150&cpage=1#comment-428 Greg Coleman Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:26:00 +0000 http://servicestrategies-blog.com/?p=150#comment-428 Thanks Terri and James for the comments... I've got to recognize Ben Stephens for contributing the post though! Great work Ben... Another excellent article. Thanks Terri and James for the comments… I’ve got to recognize Ben Stephens for contributing the post though! Great work Ben… Another excellent article.

]]> By: Terri Kolander http://servicestrategies-blog.com/?p=150&cpage=1#comment-387 Terri Kolander Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:04:39 +0000 http://servicestrategies-blog.com/?p=150#comment-387 Great article Greg! It is always interesting to observe the customer behaviors that develop from answering the phone to quickly. When considering your second bullet, there is an opportunity to encourage customers to engage readily with their "integrated electronic support environment " because the experience exceeds that of a phone being answered within seconds. Many times I have observed that a more conservitive ASA pairs up with an active e-service environment. Thanks for the great read. Terri Kolander Great article Greg!

It is always interesting to observe the customer behaviors that develop from answering the phone to quickly. When considering your second bullet, there is an opportunity to encourage customers to engage readily with their “integrated electronic support environment ” because the experience exceeds that of a phone being answered within seconds. Many times I have observed that a more conservitive ASA pairs up with an active e-service environment.

Thanks for the great read.

Terri Kolander

]]> By: James Cowie http://servicestrategies-blog.com/?p=150&cpage=1#comment-367 James Cowie Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:25:09 +0000 http://servicestrategies-blog.com/?p=150#comment-367 Hi Greg. Great list and very similar to the advice we give clients and the changes we help them achieve. We've split this problem into 2 elements: reducing calls for support and making the call resolution process as efficient as possible. We achieve call reduction through monitoring, reporting and improvement activities, usually setting up tight teams with product development staff to reduce defects and product quality related issues. We attack each issue as a single bite size issue to be resolved and have significant success in eliminating calls through this process. We often work with groups other than services to improve QA, Professional Services, or Training. Through this approach, we have not only eliminated many causes of support calls, but also improved support for new releases, which has flow-on in response times, resolution times and further issue reduction. Our primary approach to improving the productivity of Support Staff and therefore getting through more calls with the same or less staff and reducing support costs has been to assist our clients in implementing and managing solid integrated electronic support environments within their products, but more importantly in their support websites and knowledge management. The goal is to make support less of an ordeal and provide solutions when the customer needs them. We have achieved significant breakthroughs using normal language recognition and easy to navigate tools that facilitate quick access to solutions and a simplified support request process. Using this automated approach allows answers for the 20 - 30% of issues that create the calls that generate 50 - 60% of workload to be answered quickly and with only the time required for the specific caller. Counter-intuitively it frees up time. We then establish processes to take the freed up support time and use it to build in more answers. We are using telephone technologies (VoIP and traditional), social media, traditional systems and a range of other techniques, to produce significant results for our clients, many of whom had already achieved high performance levels. For a number of them, it has also opened up opportunities to reduce costs, raise service levels and bring work back home thereby reducinge the amount of off-shoring they had been doing. A spin-off of the automation has been that we have made it easier for our clients to basically remove queues and to utilise staff with secondary skills to provide high quality 'expert' support and resolve cases thereby almost eliminating backlogs. We've even managed to make work-from-home, on-demand support work seamlessly (any time support at a reasonable cost). An added advantage of the approach we use is that it makes all request recipients appear as experienced and knowledgeable, rather than just warm bodies. And most importantly it raises their resolution accuracy, speed and closure rates, which increases their confidence levels. This in turn improves the customer experience and frees up more time for customer engagement, which customers tell us they see as greatly improved service levels. So in a nutshell, we reduce service costs, improve the support experience, raise customer satisfaction and loyalty levels and achieve great staff satisfaction. Not a bad outcome for those who take your advice. Take care, James Hi Greg. Great list and very similar to the advice we give clients and the changes we help them achieve. We’ve split this problem into 2 elements: reducing calls for support and making the call resolution process as efficient as possible.
We achieve call reduction through monitoring, reporting and improvement activities, usually setting up tight teams with product development staff to reduce defects and product quality related issues. We attack each issue as a single bite size issue to be resolved and have significant success in eliminating calls through this process. We often work with groups other than services to improve QA, Professional Services, or Training. Through this approach, we have not only eliminated many causes of support calls, but also improved support for new releases, which has flow-on in response times, resolution times and further issue reduction.
Our primary approach to improving the productivity of Support Staff and therefore getting through more calls with the same or less staff and reducing support costs has been to assist our clients in implementing and managing solid integrated electronic support environments within their products, but more importantly in their support websites and knowledge management. The goal is to make support less of an ordeal and provide solutions when the customer needs them. We have achieved significant breakthroughs using normal language recognition and easy to navigate tools that facilitate quick access to solutions and a simplified support request process.
Using this automated approach allows answers for the 20 – 30% of issues that create the calls that generate 50 – 60% of workload to be answered quickly and with only the time required for the specific caller. Counter-intuitively it frees up time. We then establish processes to take the freed up support time and use it to build in more answers.
We are using telephone technologies (VoIP and traditional), social media, traditional systems and a range of other techniques, to produce significant results for our clients, many of whom had already achieved high performance levels. For a number of them, it has also opened up opportunities to reduce costs, raise service levels and bring work back home thereby reducinge the amount of off-shoring they had been doing.
A spin-off of the automation has been that we have made it easier for our clients to basically remove queues and to utilise staff with secondary skills to provide high quality ‘expert’ support and resolve cases thereby almost eliminating backlogs. We’ve even managed to make work-from-home, on-demand support work seamlessly (any time support at a reasonable cost). An added advantage of the approach we use is that it makes all request recipients appear as experienced and knowledgeable, rather than just warm bodies. And most importantly it raises their resolution accuracy, speed and closure rates, which increases their confidence levels. This in turn improves the customer experience and frees up more time for customer engagement, which customers tell us they see as greatly improved service levels.
So in a nutshell, we reduce service costs, improve the support experience, raise customer satisfaction and loyalty levels and achieve great staff satisfaction. Not a bad outcome for those who take your advice.
Take care,
James

]]>