Why the customer experience is so important!

Not only do customers HATE waiting on hold (look no further than onholdwith.com for proof), when they can’t reach you, they’ll go elsewhere. A study from YouGov shows that 76% of respondents said, “just one unpleasant contact center experience was likely to make them take their business elsewhere”. In fact, according to callcenterhelper.com, 6/10 customers have ditched a company because its telephone customer service has been so bad.

This isn’t news to most of us. Though we’d like to hire additional staff and modernize our call centers to meet the increasing demand of today’s consumers, the reality is that we’re stuck with shrinking budgets, legacy infrastructure and call volumes that are increasing nearly 20% every year. But this doesn’t mean we need to accept high abandon rates and frustrated customers.

Why virtual queuing?

Virtual queuing solutions like Fonolo can improve the experience for callers and lower cost-per-call (by reducing average handle times, abandon rates and telco costs). But more importantly, offering call-backs to customers can actually improve sales. Companies like Abercrombie & Fitch, Cruises.com, and Thomas Cook (full disclosure: they’re all Fonolo customers) know this, and so do their customers.

Find out how replacing hold-time with a call-back can improve your bottom line. Sign up for one of our free weekly demo sessions to learn more!

Sign-up for a LIVE demo!

Your customers will never wait on hold again, regardless of where the conversation begins – web, mobile or inbound call. Learn how Fonolo can help you increase sales, lower handle times and create happier customers!

Join one of our experts for a live 30-minute demo of Fonolo’s products.

Multi-channel customer service means offering a variety of mediums for customers to reach you; this includes phone and email, but also extends to new platforms such as social media, live chat and mobility. Since 77% of consumers use more than one channel when seeking service, a key ingredient to happy consumers is offering support where and when they need it.

Ultimately, every business must consider the impact of offering multi-channel customer support. If handled appropriately, this support strategy can improve efficiency, increase customer satisfaction, and generate new sales opportunities.

Is your call center providing a seamless experience, regardless of the channel?

Customer service conversations are happening across an increasing number of communication channels every year. Customers want and need better customer service regardless of the channel being used, and if you’re not providing it, they’ll move on to your competitors.

Don’t be left in the dark!  Watch this live conversation unfold as we hear from front-line industry experts.

We’ll discuss:

• The impact of mobility
• The role of the voice channel
• The effects of social media
• Plus so much more!

The Panelists:

Ethan Francis

Global Director Mobility, Genesys

Twitter: @jEthanFrancis

Tobias Goebel

Director of Mobile Strategy, Voxeo

Twitter: @tpgoebel

Andrew Maher

Owner, ServicePlease

Twitter: @serviceplease20

Daniel Hong

Senior Director, Product Marketing Strategy, [24]7

Twitter: @D_Hong

Shai Berger

President, Fonolo

Twitter: @shaiberger

A second rule of thumb for maintaining a loyal customer is the attention we give to them. It matters more than you think to treat your clients with respect and promptness, addressing their questions and desires in a quick and effective manner. Keeping in touch with them increases our chances of winning their loyalty and also gives them the feeling that they are valued. However, as with all customer-oriented business, slip-ups can happen at any time.

Most common customer service mistakes:

1. Lack of Information: The client should be viewed as a complex entity, one which is constantly changing and looking for innovation, improvement and diversification. A long stagnation means a loss of customers.
   
2. Product Feedback: Some managers don’t take the time to talk to customers. Regular communication and feedback are important components underlying innovation and positive change. Customer critiques, suggestions and recommendations must be accepted and dealt with in an objective manner.
3. Unprepared Employees: Workers who don’t know their products or services well enough in order to promote the company’s image can send customers away. Thus, it’s essential to keep the staff well trained for the positions they held. Make sure they are in step with changes in the company, and have the right service skills to deal with the customer’s approach.
4. Poor Pricing Policy: A policy that has not been well thought out, is inconsistent with the market value, or does not reflect the true quality of the services / products offered by the company will only redirect customers to the eagerly awaiting competition.
5. Prompt Service: Regardless of whether it’s a delay in delivery or a slow response to an inquiry, customers will feel treated with a lack of respect. A solution to this problem is an investment in staff training and an efficient approach with all customer channels, such as social media. You can also enable self-service for the customer in order to make them self-sufficient and to lower average hold times for the call center. Companies like WalkMe can enable self-service with ease, and guide users through simple tasks while they complete them.
6. User-Friendly Website: Promoting business services through a website that is not user-friendly will discourage customers. Your website should be easy to access and use, whilst giving clear and complete information about your company’s products. It should also feature an appealing design.
7. Communication Frequency: Adopting an attitude that is too intrusive will not help you win or retain customers. It’s imperative to keep a professional tone with your clients and not to bombard them with phone calls or e-mails. It’s alright to inform them from time to time about the changes in the services you provide, about your existing promotions, or about the newly-created discounts which are available to them.

There are always going to be mistakes made, but that’s how we learn. The key is to make sure you deal with the issues at the time they happen, add a little empathy, (if dealing directly with the customer) and make sure next time you improve the service.

Guest Blogger: Stefanie Amini

Stefanie Amini is the Marketing Director and Specialist in Customer Success at WalkMe, the world’s first interactive online guidance system. She is chief writer and editor of I Want It Now, a blog for Customer Service Experts. Follow her @StefWalkMe

5 Major Ways Social Media has Changed Contact Centers

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]]> http://fonolo.com/blog/2013/05/the-7-worst-customer-services-mistakes-and-how-to-fix-them/feed/ 0 http://fonolo.com/blog/2013/05/click-to-call-virtual-queuing-virtual-hold-call-backs-what-it-all-means/ http://fonolo.com/blog/2013/05/click-to-call-virtual-queuing-virtual-hold-call-backs-what-it-all-means/#comments Thu, 09 May 2013 10:00:28 +0000 Shai http://fonolo.com/?p=12205 When it comes to reducing hold-time in the call-center, there are a number of terms that overlap each other, which can be confusing. Let’s try to clear things up.

I’ve written about this topic several times, but the questions keep coming up (most recently, in last week’s webinar with cruise industry giant World Travel Holdings – which you can watch here.) So, I guess it can’t hurt to revisit it.

In the beginning

Lets start at the very beginning. In the days of the Garden of Eden, there were enough agents at every call center that no one ever had to wait. Of course, there were only two people in existence, so that wasn’t very challenging. (Those two also got excellent cell coverage.)

In the real world, there will always be times when there are more callers than agents, even when companies have the best intentions. That’s where “Virtual Queuing” comes in.

Virtual Queuing

Virtual Queuing is basically the “take-a-number” approach. In the real world that means you can go sit down, relax and wait for your turn to be announced over a loudspeaker. In the phone world, it means you can hang up, go about your day, and wait for the call-back.

Virtual Queuing describes any system where you can keep your place in line without having to stay on the phone.

Call-Backs

This term is easy to understand because it’s part of our vocabulary for plain old person-to-person calls:

Hi. Can’t talk right now. Call you back in 5?

When used for a “person-to-company” call, call-backs can take several forms, but what’s common is that the direction of the call gets reversed. That is, you want to talk to Acme, but the call comes from Acme to your phone.

Virtual Queuing always involves some form of call-back.

Here’s an important point:
Virtual queuing always requires a call-back, but the reverse is not true. That is, companies might offer call-backs, but you would still end-up waiting on hold after you answered the call.

Click-to-Call

You can characterize a call-back by how it was requested. You can dial-in and request a call-back by interacting with an IVR (“press 1 to get a call-back when an agent is ready”), or you can click a button on the company’s website or mobile app.

Click-to-call is a web-triggered call-back.

Virtual Queuing options on the market

Virtual Hold pioneered the space, so people sometimes use the term “Virtual Hold” when talking about Virtual Queuing. But Virtual Hold is a trademark of Virtual Hold Technology and that term refers only to their product. People often call us and ask if we offer “virtual hold” when they mean “virtual queuing”.

So let’s say you’ve been tasked with reducing hold-time (aka “Average Speed to Answer” or ASA). If hiring more agents is not an option, then your only option is virtual queuing.

Every major call center vendor now has some offering of virtual queuing. For example, Avaya has “Call-Back Assist”, Cisco has “Courtesy Callback”.

There are notable downsides to these offerings. They …

1. won’t work in a multi-vendor environment,
2. probably won’t work with an outsourced call center, and
3. require considerable effort to set-up and configure.

Where Fonolo fits in

Fonolo’s main innovation is offering virtual queuing as a cloud-based service. This brings with it vendor-independence, quicker deployment and lower cost. The other solutions above all require on-premise deployment, which allows deeper integration, but with the trade-off of higher cost and complexity.

Fonolo is also very strong with multi-channel call-back. When we first launched our product, we focused exclusively on click-to-call and visual IVR for the web and mobile so we have deep experience and a very polished offering on that front. We added “In Call Rescue” last year, for customers that dial-in directly, so now we cover all the bases.

Connecting your Call Center to the Smartphone Revolution

DOWNLOAD THE FREE 11 PAGE REPORT!

“How” you say? Finding solutions that are geared at improving the call center experience resonate particularly well with this strategy. Fonolo, call-back software for the call center, has a number of customers in the travel sector taking this approach with our web call-back solution.

It’s Click-to-Call plus so much more!

You may not have heard of World Travel Holdings, but I guarantee you’ve seen some of their many in-house brands (like Cruises.com) and partnerships (like American Airlines Cruises). With Fonolo, they’ve added the ability for customers to easily request a call-back from a travel agent, right from their website. (For example, see the “SAVE TIME! Have Us Call You!” button on Cruises.com.)

Here we’re providing more than just click-to-call; we’re tracking and reporting custom analytics, plus passing contextual information from the website through to travel agents.

Thomas Cook, one of the world’s leading leisure travel agencies, is also a Fonolo customer. They served tens of millions of customers last year alone and have always embraced innovation – a key reason why they’re number one or two in all of their core markets.

Adding Fonolo to the Thomas Cook website allowed them to give their customers back what they value most – their time. In addition to virtual queuing (we call the customer back when an agent is available); we’re making sure that the agent is ready to handle the caller’s request. By asking for customer details and a reason for the call, Fonolo is able to pass this information to the agent before the connection is made.

Another customer we’re proud to have is Travel Planners International (TPI), who supports independent contractors and travel agencies. TPI’s customers use Fonolo’s web-based click-to-call functionality to work more effectively. Allowing the agents to reach TPI’s call center – without having to navigate their phone systems or wait on hold – allows them to work more efficiently.

These are all examples of customers who took advantage of Fonolo’s Web Rescue solution, with its light-touch approach to integration, in order to offer an improved caller experience and increase sales.

Sign-up for a LIVE demo!

Your customers will never wait on hold again, regardless of where the conversation begins – web, mobile or inbound call. Learn how Fonolo can help you increase sales, lower handle times and create happier customers!

Join one of our experts for a live 30-minute demo of Fonolo’s products.

Taking a random sample of the industry, a questionnaire was distributed to 205 call center managers and directors. The result is the 6th edition of the largest and most comprehensive study of the contact center industry. The report identifies six of the major pain points that affect the industry and contains a directory of organizations that provide services, products and solutions to contact centers. Companies like Genesys, Avaya and Interactive Intelligence can be found in the document.

Major Paint Points in the Contact Center

1. Improving Quality and Performance
2. Maximizing Efficiency and Agent Optimization
3. New Media and the Customer of the Future
4. Increasing Profitability
5. HR Management and Improvement
6. Strategic Direction

Specific solutions are identified to help solve these issues, combined with the analysis of primary research data. In addition, third-party whitepapers, case studies and thought leadership pieces are available to assist readers who need more information or would like another viewpoint.

Fonolo is pleased to once again be a sponsor of this high quality report!

“In the past year, we’ve seen growing momentum in the industry towards solutions like ours and we’re proud to be part of that progress.

This new industry research is valuable information for the call center industry and will shape strategies for the upcoming year.”

- Shai Beger, CEO

US Contact Center Decision-Makers’ Guide 2013

DOWNLOAD THE FREE REPORT!

We were quite excited when Nate agreed to do this webinar because he’s really pushed the envelope of what’s possible with Fonolo. Cruises.com didn’t just embed the web widget; they really integrated it with their site. We were hoping Nate would dig into some of the behind-the-scenes details, and he didn’t disappoint.

Below, I’ll talk briefly about some of the cool things they’re doing like passing information from the web session to the agent (so that the context of the conversation is preserved) and tracking click-to-call actions together with all their other site metrics. If these topics interest you, keep reading or better yet, watch the webinar on-demand.

Maintaining Context

In today’s multi-channel world, a “customer journey” might include calls, web sessions, emails and more. The key to delivering a pleasing experience is to maintain the context between channels. Making a customer repeat information is a guaranteed way of causing frustration – not to mention the increase in average handle time. Longer calls means higher costs, so finding a way to maintain context has an immediate ROI.

When a customer is logged in at Cruises.com, and then requests a call from an agent, Fonolo captures the relevant booking number from the web session and passes it to the call center. The agent who receives the call hears a “whisper” with the booking number before being connected to the caller. Using this whisper approach meant that there were no changes required to the call center.

This is really a ‘wow factor’ for our customers… the agent to pulls-up the booking info before connecting …and starts the call more personally…  makes it seamless … we have high hopes of extending this into other areas of the site…

- Nate Sidmore, World Travel Holdings

Advanced Analytics

Most companies track customer behavior on their website very closely but, when the journey jumps from web to phone, the tracking hits a brick wall. Companies might also track call center metrics closely, but it’s hard to map that back to the web interaction. With Fonolo, you can connect the two pieces of the customer journey.

We use CoreMetrics [Now IBM Digital Analytics] to track user engagement and clicks through our site… that’s really key for us… We wanted to know how Fonolo influenced behavior…  Page context, joined with widget engagement, gives us lots of dimensions into what [customers] are using it for and where their using it from…

- Nate Sidmore, World Travel Holdings

The charts aren’t just eye candy — they’re driving iterations to improve engagement and bookings.

[based on the data] we removed two call prompt options and we introduced a new one … [because] we were able to determine it had strong value as a driver toward conversion… with bookings that we track through our web analytics platform, we were able to make a ‘join’ between people engaging with [Fonolo] and the booking they made later.

- Nate Sidmore, World Travel Holdings

Working with Fonolo

One reason the call center experience is often lacking is that projects that involve the contact center have traditionally been lengthy and expensive. Part of the Fonolo mission is to change all that. Our cloud-based approach, combined with lots of clever technology, makes it dramatically easier to add features like click-to-call, virtual queuing and visual IVR to any call center.

We basically plugged [Fonolo] in… it was very seamless… in terms of actual deployment to our website, it was just copying the HTML code and pasting it in… the Fonolo team was fantastic to work with while helping us think through the process…

Today’s call center agent is often overloaded, juggling dozens of different applications while trying to keep a cheerful disposition. Thus, call center managers are often leery to add “one more thing” for them to think about. Luckily, Fonolo placed no burden whatsoever on the agents:

We did very little training… just introduced it by email and it became second nature for our agents. Our call center manager said … we hear nothing from [the agents] about it [so] that’s an outstanding indicator of how it’s come off…

- Nate Sidmore, World Travel Holdings

Guest Speaker:

Nathanael Sidmore, Web Analyst, World Travel Holdings

Nate’s passion dives deep into web analytics and driving strategic website enhancements. He keeps a keen eye on ongoing web improvements to optimize conversions and improve the customer experience. Nate aims to modernize the way consumers connect with his call center using the web.

Webinar On-Demand: 3 Ways to Make Your Call Center the Star of Your Brand

We talk about:

• How to eliminate hold time
• An easy way to improve the web experience
• Tips on increasing sales
• A simple way to engage the mobile consumer
• How to deliver a consistent service experience

Who should watch:

• VP’s & Directors of Customer Service
• VP’s & Directors of Contact Centers
• VP’s & Directors of Web/Social Media

It’s not always the case that consumer behavior varies by age. For example, the ferocious Millennials (anyone born between 1980-2000) are 1.5 times more likely to make a retail purchase using their mobile devices and 3 times more likely to be influenced by social media. However, across all age groups (Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers), 40-41% say they would shop online or via mobile if they wanted a product outside of business hours.

In the digital era, it’s no surprise that buyers want efficiency and convenience. In a recent survey:

• 49% said retailers need to offer better integration of shopping channels to improve the experience.
• 94% found in-store shopping easy and 74% said the same of online shopping.
• Only 26% found the mobile shopping experience easy.

With all this talk about in-store, online and mobile shopping, I began to wonder what people had to say about the customer experience when calling a retailer. The importance of customer service NEEDS to be addressed across ALL channels. As a Millennial myself, if I can’t find information online, I quickly resort to picking up the phone.

I sourced onholdwith.com to further investigate what tweeters had to say about the retail experience over the phone. In these cases, it seems service is not up to par:

The last thing customers want to do is wait on hold. The phone channel is one of the most critical interaction points a retailer can have with a customer. Companies need to consider how long it takes to answer a call and resolve an issue, in order to maintain consumer satisfaction. The more seamless and efficient the calling experience is, the happier your customer will be.

STELLAService talks about how some (but not all) retailers advertise the estimated hold time as a way of setting expectations for the customer. Dr. Roland Rust, Director of the Center for Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland, says,

Prospect theory states that if people have an expectation and it’s exceeded, there will be a bonus to the company.

It could very well be that retailers are promoting longer-than-normal estimated hold times in order to make it appear that they’re exceeding customer expectations; however there are other ways of surprising your customers with great customer service!

Call-back solutions have been around for quite some time and more and more organizations are seeing a need for it. It’s surprising when you actually get a live person on the other line after dialing a support number –  we’re all too accustomed to waiting on hold. Imagine being offered this when hold times are too long … “Press 1 and receive a call-back from the next available agent”. Maintaining efficiency and convenience on the phone – the same way it’s done online – will create the seamless experience your customers crave.

About onholdwith.com

This site provides consumers with a platform to post and discuss their aggravations. It catalogs and publishes tweets from people waiting on hold and alerts the offending company – ultimately giving consumers a voice. We’re hoping the pressure will motivate companies to take necessary steps that will improve the call center experience.

Connecting your Call Center to the Smartphone Revolution

DOWNLOAD THE FREE 11 PAGE REPORT!

Companies that get it right stand out from their competitors and reap the benefits. Those who ignore, run the risk of damaging their brand’s reputation – amongst a global audience. In the call center, social media adoption is expected to grow by 23%, more than any other technology.

Why do people use social media for customer service?

• 50% - To get a response about a service issue
• 48% - Praising a company for great customer service
• 47% - To share customer service experiences with others users
• 46% - Complaining about a poor customer service experience

Social media is quickly changing what’s expected in today’s customer service world. As William H. Davidow put it:

The longer you wait, the harder it is to provide outstanding customer service.

 

This inspired the Fonolo team to track down the BEST customer service stats, trends and quotes for social media – and we compiled the top 50!

Here’s a sneak peak at what’s inside.

Investing in great customer service is vital!

Poor customer service is one of the biggest deterrents to brand loyalty. According to a recent survey, 72% of consumers say service drives brand loyalty and 48% say that the most critical time to gain brand loyalty is during the first impression. Once they’re happy, 78% of consumers will spread the word and tell others!

Jerry Gregoire, CIO at Dell, puts it this way,

 The customer experience is the next competitive battleground.

How can you improve the call center experience? 

In this one hour webinar you’ll learn how to better manage customer interactions to improve perception, sales, and loyalty. Check out the preview slides for a sneak peak!

You’ll also hear from Nathanael Sidmore, Web Analyst at World Travel Holdings, who will talk about how his company seized the opportunity to offer a great customer service experience.

Guest Speaker:

Nathanael Sidmore, Web Analyst, World Travel Holdings

Nate’s passion dives deep into web analytics and driving strategic website enhancements. He keeps a keen eye on ongoing web improvements to optimize conversions and improve the customer experience. Nate aims to modernize the way consumers connect with his call center using the web.

 Here’s a sneak peak at the slides:

Webinar On-Demand: 3 Ways to Make Your Call Center the Star of Your Brand

We talk about:

• How to eliminate hold time
• An easy way to improve the web experience
• Tips on increasing sales
• A simple way to engage the mobile consumer
• How to deliver a consistent service experience

Who should watch:

• VP’s & Directors of Customer Service
• VP’s & Directors of Contact Centers
• VP’s & Directors of Web/Social Media