September 15, 1997

Technology For Success Leading-edge technology and an investment in personnel are the secrets to improved customer satisfaction, says market survey By Lou Bertin ata mining, database management, and Internet and intranet technologies let companies consolidate their customer-service operations, saving money and increasing customer satisfaction. Those are the key findings of a recent survey conducted by Coopers & Lybrand Consulting in Toronto. The survey also found that companies that make strategic use of outsourcing are seeing immediate returns on their investments. The survey report's author, senior partner Stanley Brown, says the survey of more than 800 companies i llustrates that while there is no single formula for success, companies that have succeeded in improving the overall satisfaction of their customers have done so largely with leading-edge technologies. "The key for companies that are dedicated to providing breakthrough customer service is linked to the company's ability to assess the needs of customers and to combine that knowledge with an understanding of people-and technology-to create innovative solutions," Brown says. The common threads in adopting technology as the backbone for customer service operations include: Consolidating and, in some cases, outsourcing operations; Integrating customer-care functions to minimize points of customer contact and maximize resources; Improving workforce skills by investing in training customer-service representatives on how to make the best use of the technology at their disposal. In the report, Achieving Breakthrough Customer Service, 61% of the respondents say they are r educing the number of customer-care centers they operate, relying instead on fewer sites linked to centralized database systems. In addition, respondents say they're cross-training their customer-service representatives, creating in essence a single point of contact for customers. The trend toward consolidation is a paradox for companies whose customer base is growing and becoming more geographically dispersed, Brown says. "Conventional wisdom suggests that as the size of an organization and its customer base increases, so must the number and locations of its customer-care environments," he notes. "While that logic is correct in that all organizations want to remain close to their customers, advances in technology make this type of decentralization no longer necessary." Benefits Realized From Outsourcing The 35% of survey respondents that have turned to outsourcing and co-sourcing arrangements say they have seen almost immediate returns on their investments. The leading forms of ROI included decreased operating costs (33% of respondents) and improved customer service due to making more expert advice available (32%). Other areas of improvement cited were improved operations, reduced capital costs, and increased flexibility. Among companies that have decided to keep customer-care operations in-house, the trend is toward integrating the operations that impact customers. Chief among these is tying together marketing, sales, and product information systems into a single system that customers can access with one phone call. Here, the technology itself is key. The report shows that the companies with the highest levels of customer satisfaction have augmented database-management and data mining systems with computer telephony integration and automatic call-distribution systems. These technologies help companies boost productivity by switching tasks among representatives and balancing inbound and outbound call loads. Companies are also turning increasingly to Internet technologies that let customers control the service and support process. But the human element remains important, says Brown. "Technology must be seen as an enabler of people, a tool to better equip customer service representatives to serve customers, not as a replacement for human contact," he explains. Survey respondents said the principal challenges include continually upgrading skills, facilitating better teamwork among in-house departments, improving productivity, and providing cross-functional training. Most Important Services For Customers The survey also found that companies commonly use standard benchm ark models to evaluate customer-care centers. They also silently monitor customer service and reward excellent service. They use expert systems to provide instantaneous advice to customer-service reps, and computer-aided instruction at workstations. The key to achieving breakthrough customer service, says Brown, is not only creating the perfect mix of people and technology, but also fundamentally changing the processes and culture of the organization to ensure that change is actively encouraged. "Improving either technology or the skills of the workforce will produce incremental change," he adds. "Improving both will produce substantial results." Improvements Resulting From Database Marketing Most Common Workforce Challenges Back to News in Review Send Us Your Feedback Top of the Page

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