The Entitled Consumer

Can Customer Care Help You Weather Any Business Climate?

JuliaO — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:57:00 GMT

This week has been full ups and downs as you monitor the down and dare to watch the late night talk shows disect those disecting each other in Washington. Despite all the hot air moving ideas, opinions and economic direction on Wall Street - there is one thing that is constant - and that is "the customer." And the function interacting most with these critical asset is your call center. Now more than ever you need to retain those customers as acquisition costs are about 40% higher than retention costs. Just a few thoughts to consider (as I'm sure you are being asked to whittle down expenditures) 1) can you be sending out proactive notifications to customers on things they care about (and reduce your inbound call volumne) 2) can you leverage call center analytics to improve call center performance (and even provide data to marketing org on their latest campaign?) 3) are you thinking ahead - and planning on how to leverage the mobile device to provide a differentiated care experience 4) are you aware of conversations happening about your care interactions in social media outlets.(one negative interaction can easily create millions of impressions)

During any change - if you always keep your customers as your "constant" you'll navigate thru tough times and fly thru the good ones.

Are they talking about you? The Consumerist

JuliaO — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 22:10:00 GMT

In preparation for the Nuance customer event Conversations '08 https://www.conversations2008.com/controller.php?action=Default_Display - I've been talking to a lot of people interested in the impact of social media on brand and business. Ben Popken, editor of The Consumerist www.consumerist.com will be joining us in a session at Conversations entitled "are they talking about you." I was introduced to Ben through Paul Gillin www.gillin.com who will moderate the session. If you aren't aware of this site yet - you should be. It is a very active site where consumers post their complaints about customer care, where consumers can get access to corporate email and phone directories, and where consumers get together to share similiar experiences. Very powerful. Check it out - and see if they are talking about you. More than ever, the importance of quality service and customer care goes beyond the operational metrics. One unhappy consumer can influence many other opinions and purchase intent.

Can Customer Care Drive Top Line Growth? Is it in your '09 Plan as a Biz Strategy?

JuliaO — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:00:00 GMT

What role will customer experience - how your company interacts with customers - play in your company's strategy in 2009? Increasingly, companies are starting to see customer care/customer experience as a "critical" part of business strategy. In a report released last February, Forrester stated that of the 287 leaders surveyed, 91% said that customer experience would be either very important or critical to their 2008 efforts — a significant jump over results in a similar survey last year. I wonder how/if economy shifted that at all this year? Truth is - customer care is not just an operational expediture, but an opportunity to also drive profit and you should think of it that way - moving into the planning season.

Many companies don't think of their call center as a channel for growth. But with customer acquisition costs on the rise, leading companies are finding a hidden source of revenue already in their organization - existing customers. The call center is the hub of ongoing customer activity. It is central to creating customer lifetime value which drives increased growth and profit. The fact is that best-in-class call center service (Aberdeen 2009 Transforming Contact Center into Profit Center Report) can deliver up to 34% more revenue per customer and nearly half of today's companies include contact center goals in top-line performance goals.

Leverage outbound messaging (not annoying predictive dialing) to deliver courtesy reminders that also include a promotional message (can reduce inbound call center traffic while driving possible incremental revenue.)

Think about it. Put "profit" next to "efficiencies" in your '09 plan. Those of you already doing that, share your thoughts. Is it realistic? how are you doing it?