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Disaster Recovery In a
While
most call center managers agree that a customers’ satisfaction is vital to a companies’
success, most don’t realize that their call center is their profit center. A
customer’s satisfaction relies heavily on whether he can get through to an
agent and once he makes that connection, if he is helped properly. Downtime —
whether due to a natural disaster or something man-made — means a barrier in
that connection or lack of proper information reaching customers. Therefore,
Downtime in a ZRG
is a technology company providing call center solutions (hardware/software
tools, equipment, gadgets) in Q: How important is a call center to a
business? Ayub
Butt: Companies are using call centers to deliver answers, information,
resolve complaints, take orders and a wide range of valuable services by
telephone and other channels. A call center is the electronic version of the
entrance door of a service center for customers to virtually visit and get
things done. This spares the customer from physically going to a service
center, it saves time and today’s customers like it very much. This makes it
important. Q: What types of things can cause
downtime in a call center? Ayub
Butt: Downtime in a call center spells disaster for the businesses that rely
on call centers as a primary method of providing services to their customers.
Downtime means customers cannot get through and this can cause irreparable
harm to a business. Downtime can be due to any number of reasons, but there
are main three categories. Natural disasters like flood, earthquake; Man-made
events like labor strikes, law and order situation, sabotage, civil works
related damage and Technical or Mechanical failures of equipment, power
outage, telecom or data network outage, etc. Q: What can a business do to plan
against downtime? Ayub
Butt: Due to the increased importance of the call center, a business needs to
consider disaster recovery and business continuity planning or BCP. BCP is a
process to ensure that critical operations will survive and continue in the
event of downtime. Q: What should be included in a BCP? Ayub
Butt: A good Business Continuity Plan can be taken to greater details,
however, the most essential elements for a call center are a disaster
recovery or DR site, an evacuation plan and a mechanism to re-route customer
calls. Q: What is a DR site and what should it
include? Ayub
Butt: An
alternate approach could be to have Home Agent setup. In this method, in the
event of a disaster, agents are asked to login from home and perform their
jobs such as call placing and receiving, reviewing forms, processing requests,
etc. With this approach, no physical site is required, however, the backend
site where all the data and communication systems are placed must have a There
are several companies that provide DR locations and call center technology
solutions for setting up DR sites such as IBM, ARY, ZRG, Apollo, Al-Futtaim,
Siemens and Optimum Technology. Q: Why is an evacuation plan important? Ayub
Butt: People are the most valuable asset for a company and are not as easily
replaceable as equipment. Therefore, in case of a disaster during office
hours, the premises should be vacated in a managed, organized and calm manner
to ensure the safety of your most valuable asset. This requires that a proper
evacuation plan must be specified and regularly drilled. One or more persons
could be assigned to act as Manager Evacuation to exclusively carry out the
evacuation as per guidelines of the company. Q: Why we don’t see such kind of
exercise drills taking place? Ayub
Butt: There are some companies that regularly conduct these exercises. I
think that there is a need to highlight the importance of such drills and
urge the management to invest some time in considering this important aspect
of business continuity. Premises evacuation could also be the responsibility
of building management/association to make this a regular practice. |
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CRM – A way to retain your customers For years, businesses have focused their efforts on cost reduction,
profit enhancement and improving efficiency within their organization. They
have attempted to streamline internal processes, often automating elements of
‘back-office’ functions such as manufacturing, logistics, finance etc. In
contrast, efforts put into customer-facing activities, such as sales and
marketing, have more than often fallen short of receiving management
attention. As markets consolidate and suppliers become more effective in
delivering products and services, it becomes harder to differentiate among
rival offerings. What differentiates one bank from the other? Simultaneously,
as the quality of products and services improves, customers’ expectations
follow the path of higher satisfaction. Availability of unfiltered
information on the go gives the customer a head start at making choices even
before they hit the market on a particular day. As long as the customer has
the ability to switch supplier relatively painlessly, it becomes ever more
difficult to keep track of loyalty. In order to retain customer loyalty, several organizations are
investing a lot of money, time and effort into customer relationship building
activities, hence putting it on higher priority as part of their strategic
focus. Keeping the Customers The majority of consistent business is generated by a fifth of
loyal customers. Several businesses unfortunately neglect this loyal customer
base and go for new customers instead. These days, the key to a successful
business is maintaining a steady customer base. Organizations are now
realizing the importance of customer retention, therefore the need for
comprehensive Customer Relationship Management or CRM has arisen. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a concept, developed
from marketing theory, and a technique successfully employed in millions of
businesses worldwide. The main focus of CRM is forming relationships with
customers, with the intention of improving customer satisfaction, leading to
increased profitability and goodwill. In many industries, CRM has always been
at the center of the business process. FMCG companies have always fought to
establish their brands around the premise of quality and price. The change,
however, is the measure and scale of ‘customer empowerment’ that hits the
market trends. Moreover, CRM intelligence can be the basis of highly effective
communications with customers – resulting in more and better-focused
campaigns, lower operational costs, higher response rates, and better returns
on investments in the customer relations management area. On the front, it is similar to the normal process of receiving
calls, emails, faxes or having face-to-face conversations with a customer or
potential, with the sales, marketing or back office departments. This is the
place where the action actually starts: the query is documented and stored in
a database, and assigned to responsible personnel to take appropriate action
to meet the customers’ or potentials’ request. CRM – Methodology or Technology One of the elementary misconception
about Customer Relationship Management or CRM is it represents a new stream
of IT systems. The reality is somewhat different, yet close, at least today. CRM is business thinking,
spelling out the strategy of placing the customer at the heart of an
organization’s processes, activities and culture. The culture thus developed
is that of care and understanding, a reason to listen to what the customer is
saying and thinking, and trying to identify the product or service that will
deliver satisfaction. IT applications are the tools employed by organizations
to implement that strategy. So, although it may seem that new IT developments
are driving organizations to adapt their strategies as they go along, but the
fundamental starting point is always the business philosophy. The
Process In a proper CRM-ready
environment, as the interaction progresses from generating initial query to a
sale, all information is stored at a centralized location and can be
retrieved from the database at any time. The Contact Management component
running at the agent’s screen logs customer complaints and issues which can
identify what the customer actually needs. It also defines how they have been
treated and how much satisfied or annoyed the customer is with the services offered. This systematic approach
proves to be quite comprehensive, in terms of functions, accessibility and
ease in providing customer satisfaction without delay, assessing performance,
efficiency levels. Since the customer database is integrated to the system,
it gives a complete overview of the preferences of the customer, the
opportunities to up-sell or cross-sell goods and services to customers arises
more frequently, being fully informed. The use of CRM in the
banking industry is the best example to understand its usage. From the point
when a complaint is lodged until it is resolved, the system watches over all
the activities that take place for completing the required work on time. It
also helps in calculating the turnaround time of each complaint which helps
in knowing the number of issues resolved and those waiting and even those
whose turnaround time has exceeded. CRM has also assisted better than
anticipated in the shipping industry. Most of the progressive organizations
are currently using ZRG Contact Management System for improving their
customer retention objectives. The contact management and
problem resolution component allows organizations to obtain customer feedback
and data. Customer information is used to improve business transactions, enhance
customer satisfaction and loyalty, and increase profits. Best-practice
organizations realize the importance of sharing so that everyone can get the
benefit. All of the companies
incorporate complaint management measures as part of their overall satisfaction
achievements. This link is critical to the success of the contact management
system and customer satisfaction end to end. As a result, complaint center
managers, supervisors, team leaders, and customer service representatives are
accountable for customer satisfaction and performance of the contact
management system. The
Decision for CRM Retaining and maintaining
good relationship with customers becomes easy with a comprehensive CRM
solution to assist your business, as it will be targeted to help you to
achieve your goals. The main focus before acquiring a system is to ask
yourself what features you like to have in it, and the objectives you would
like to achieve by making use of this system. If you want to have: ·
reduced
operational costs for managing customer relations ·
increased
levels of efficiency and service quality for customers ·
knowledgeable
responses to customer queries ·
proper
communication and integration tools and resources for “knowing your
customers” ·
secure
and centralized management of customer information ·
reporting
and analysis tools to depict customer loyalty trends Keeping in mind all of the
above, and the willingness from your side, a CRM system could be one of the
best investment you ever make. The
Integration Factor Before you move on to
acquire a superb and well-known market leader CRM package, be sure you don’t
lose sight of the most important factors relevant to your organization. The
last thing anyone would want is to throw away all the available hardware and
software you have acquired over time. With open standards based technology,
you don’t have to settle for those traditional and proprietary solutions with
limited functionality. It is not surprising that most of the progressive and
technology-aware businesses have deployed open standards technology in their
call centers. Thus leading you to a maximum level of customization needed for
implementing CRM for your organizational customer retention needs. Return
on Investment It really works. You can dramatically improve your
chances of getting a relishing ROI on your CRM investment. Your main focus
should follow 3 simple steps every time: 1.
Understand
the value your customer desires 2.
Deliver
the value and profitably 3.
Repeat Identifying
the supplier When it comes to the latest and most flexible,
cost-effective and efficient customer interaction solutions with
comprehensive integration capabilities, you are looking for a leader with
solid client references to back their reputation. Therefore, the ideal supplier would be one who can
provide: ·
a proven
and tested solution or components suitable to meet your objectives ·
a phase
wise approach in acquiring tools, based on customer feedback ·
a
flexible, fully customizable and integrated solutions ·
necessary
training for the supplied tools ·
end-to-end
support locally and on-time |
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15 CUSTOMER SERVICE NO-NOS Sometimes it seems like rude customer service
is the rule rather than the exception. But there's rude — and then there's rude. When it comes to
getting customer service, what's your definition of rude? What unprofessional
behavior irritates you the most when, as a consumer, you are interacting by phone
with another company? Sometimes, customer
service that is perceived as rude is not intentional and often is the result
of absent-mindedness or carelessness on behalf of an employee. Either way,
bad customer service can translate into lower sales and lost business. Based on its own
surveys, the expert has compiled the 15 biggest sins of customer service
employees today. They are listed below, along with Telephone Doctor's
guidelines (in parentheses) on how to do it right. If your company's
customer service managers and front-line employees are guilty of any of
these, it's time for some action. Otherwise, you may have an image problem
that could sabotage your effort to produce and market great products. 1.
Your
employees are having a bad day, and their foul mood carries over in
conversations with customers. (Everyone has bad days, but customer service
employees need to keep theirs to themselves.) 2.
Your
employees hang up on angry customers. (Ironclad rule: Never hang 3.
Your
company doesn't return phone calls or voice-mail messages, despite listing
your phone number on your Web site and/or in ads and directories. (Call
customers back as soon as you can, or have calls returned on your behalf.) 4.
Your
employees put callers on hold without asking them first, as a courtesy. (Ask
customers politely if you can put them on hold; very few will complain or say
"No way!") 5.
Your
employees put callers on a speaker phone without asking them first if it is
OK. (Again: Ask first, as a courtesy.) 6.
Your
employees eat, drink or chew gum while talking with customers on the phone.
(A telephone mouthpiece is like a microphone; noises can easily be picked up.
Employees need to eat their meals away from the phone. And save that stick of
gum for break time.) 7.
You
have call-waiting on your business lines, and your employees frequently
interrupt existing calls to take new calls. (One interruption in a call might
be excusable; beyond that, you are crossing the "rude" threshold.
Do your best to be prepared with enough staff for peak calling times.) 8.
Your
employees refuse or forget to use the words "please," "thank
you" or "you're welcome." (Please use these words generously,
thank you.) 9.
Your
employees hold side conversations with friends or each other while talking to
customers on the phone, or they make personal calls on cell phones in your
call center. (Don't do either of these.) 10.
Your
employees seem incapable of offering more than one-word answers. (One-word
answers come across as rude and uncaring.) 11.
Your
employees do provide more than one-word answers, but a lot of the words are
grounded in company or industry jargon that many customers don't understand.
(If you sell tech products, for example, don't casually drop in abbreviations
such as APIs, ISVs, SMTP or TCP/IP.) 12.
Your
employees request that customers call them back when the employees aren't so
busy. (Customers should never be told to call back. Request the customer's
number instead.) 13.
Your
employees rush through calls, forcing customers off the phone at the earliest
opportunity. (Be a little more discreet. Politely suggest that you've got the
information you need and you must move on to other calls.) 14.
Your
employees obnoxiously bellow "What's this in reference to?"
effectively humbling customers and belittling their requests. (Screening
techniques can be used with a little more warmth and finesse. If a caller has
mistakenly come your way, do your best to point him or her in the right
direction.) 15.
Your
employees freely admit to customers that they hate their jobs. (This simply
makes the entire company look bad. And don't think such a moment of candor or
lapse in judgment won't get back to the boss.) In defense of
customer service workers, customers can be rude too. And customer service
jobs can often be thankless, with little motivation or incentive to do the
job right. But the problem here is that life for customer service
employees may not be fair. Customers can be rude and get away with it.
Employees cannot — if they want to help their companies to succeed and keep
their jobs as well.
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Copyright © 2005 ZRG International. All Rights Reserved
Worldwide |
