Conversations 2007

Avoiding customer rage

There are entire sites devoted to customer service, or the lack thereof.  I can't -- and won't -- compete with them.  However, from time to time there's an interesting flare up of customers due to poor service, such as the infamous Comcast technician-sleeping-on-hold video that's already made the rounds, or an unusually strong public reaction to a bad service, like when JetBlue trapped its customers on the airport runway for 11 hours.  And sometimes, they're downright funny.

Take, for example, the Australian man who commandeered an armored vehicle to knock over six of his mobile phone carrier's cell towers.  Complete with video goodness!  He was on his way to a seventh when he was apprehended.  In my brain, I imagine he said, "Tanks for nothing."  (Yes, my brain also supplies its own groan track.)

Of course, like many misfortunes, they're funny as long as they're not happening to you.  The sad thing is, of course, most contact center agents are pretty used to customer rage.  Many people have advice on how to work the system by screaming at agents, asking for a manager, or somehow gaming the automated system to get help quicker.  (My favorite such wisdom: "Choose the Spanish option... you often get in the fast lane to speak to a bilingual agent who can help you with anything, because many companies haven't bothered to build out the Spanish automation menu."  No, I haven't tried it yet.)

This is the end result of the arms-race started by customers looking for help, and companies looking for ways to cut costs related to helping those customers.  It's an easy to measure but ultimately short-sighted goal for many organizations.  As I'm often fond of saying, if you want a 100% automation rate, I can give it to you easy -- just hang up on every customer that calls.  Congratulations!  Look at the money you've saved!  (Hey, where'd all of your customers go?) 

Automated systems, voice-enabled or not, are often measured strictly on their deflection rate, and therefore, by the money they save.  Why?  Probably because it's the easiest metric to measure.  It's like the story of the gentleman who lost his keys in a dark alley, but started looking for them under the corner street light.  Why?  Because the light was better.

We're planning at least one session at Conversations this year that will focus on Key Performance Indicators and other metrics worth watching when you're evaluating the performance of a contact center and its automated system.  It's no surprise that automation is only a small part of the equation, and that finding ways to improve customer satisfaction is a critical success factor for your customer care... and for your automated system.  If a customer is happy with an automated system, the caller will choose it again and again... and how about that?  Customer satisfaction is driving your automation rate higher.  Think of it as another exercise in deflection... but instead of deflecting callers, you're deflecting caller rage.

Published Monday, July 16, 2007 1:42 PM POST BY: Jeff Foley