| RT: What
are the critical elements of managing customer relationships in the
Internet economy?
LF: In the Internet economy,
using information technology to manage customer relationships is a
key source of competitive advantage.
An efficient supply chain is
necessary to stay competitive, but no longer sufficient. The
Internet, global competition and deregulation make it harder for
companies to compete on the price, quality or variety of their goods
and services. Customer service becomes a key competitive advantage;
customer-facing technology is used to efficiently and effectively
identify, acquire and retain customers.
The critical elements of managing
customers in the Internet age are customer context and customer
interactions.
Customer context tracks the
customer's relationship with the company, and enables more efficient
and more effective customer service at every customer touch point.
Whether via the Web, a call center, an account manager or a service
department, every interaction with the customer is more effective
and more efficient because the customer context is fully known.
The other key element of managing the
customer relationship is managing customer interactions. Effective
management of the customer interaction ensures that each customer
gets a consistent level of service across all forms of interaction,
and -- simultaneously -- each human resource is always interacting
with the most important customer to the organization at that moment
in time.
Superior management of customer
relationships requires integration between these fundamental
functions to provide a seamless customer-facing deployment.
RT: Why is efficient and
effective multichannel customer service so essential to business?
LF: The Internet raises
expectations for customer service, and it is easy for customers to
defect to new vendors that provide a more satisfactory experience.
Keeping existing customers is an
imperative for every business. Acquiring a new customer is typically
10 to 20 times more expensive than retaining an existing one.
Indeed, Bain & Co. estimates that a 5 percent improvement in
customer retention improves profitability by 25 to 100 percent.
Companies that have finely tuned
their call centers are facing challenges as customers look to
interact via e-mail and the Web. Unless companies offer superior
service across all communication channels, they risk losing their
existing customers to companies that do.
Moreover, effective multichannel
customer service attracts new customers and increases revenue.
Datamonitor, for example, estimates that companies will lose $173
billion in online transactions over the next five years...revenue
they could have salvaged with effective customer service.
Customers shift between different
forms of interaction, depending on their location and their needs.
Amazon.com, for example, has a 900-seat call center, and is adding
another 375 agents to support online interactions. Regardless of how
customers choose to interact with the company, they expect
consistent context and consistent levels of service.
RT: What has to happen to
enable superior multichannel customer service?
LF: Companies need to make
both elements -- customer context and customer interaction solutions
-- work efficiently and effectively together.
Managing the customer context is
accomplished through customer relationship management (CRM)
software. The CRM vendors have done a terrific job over the last
five years consolidating various customer tracking packages -- sales
force automation, help desk and marketing software -- into new
solutions that offer a complete view of the customer context.
The customer interaction solutions,
however, are still largely fragmented, making the delivery of
superior multichannel customer service very difficult.
RT: What role do customer
interaction management (CIM) solutions play in multichannel customer
interactions?
LF: CIM solutions are the
foundation of superior customer service. CIM solutions:
- Prioritize and route inbound
interactions,
- Initiate and pace outbound
interactions,
- Offer customer self-service,
- Monitor and record the
interactions, and
- Report on the interactions.
The main problem with most current
contact center implementations is that they expanded tactically in a
voice-dominated world. The installations typically consist of 8 to
12 different pieces of equipment, resulting in expensive, complex
and fragile deployments.
Adding the all-important Internet
interactions -- e-mail and Web communications -- exacerbates the
problem. Many companies have responded to the challenge and
opportunity of Internet interactions in one of three ways:
- Ignore the problem and offer
limited forms of Internet interactions;
- Divide and conquer by setting up
different systems and different staffs to handle different forms
of interaction (this invariably results in inconsistent levels
of service); or
- Add additional systems to the
already expensive, complex and fragile CIM deployment, which
erodes responsiveness and efficiency.
RT: What is the best way to
provide superior multichannel service?
LF: Similar to how companies
have deployed CRM solutions to efficiently and effectively provide
consistent customer context, leading companies are now deploying
comprehensive CIM solutions to efficiently and effectively provide
consistent customer service.
A comprehensive CIM solution manages
all forms of customer interaction in a single solution, and delivers
the following benefits:
- Improved customer satisfaction by
offering a consistent level of service across all forms of
interaction, resulting in higher customer retention and more
customer revenue.
- Improved agent productivity by
blending all forms of interaction across an agent pool. Each
agent is working on the most important contact for the company
at any moment in time.
- Faster service creation improving
market responsiveness.
- Lower capital cost.
- Lower operating cost.
Comprehensive CIM solutions,
integrated with CRM solutions, deliver superior multichannel
customer service.
RT: How does CELLIT help
provide multichannel customer service?
LF: CELLIT provides a
comprehensive customer interaction solution. Our product, CCPRO, has
a single rules engine for routing and initiating contacts across all
forms of interaction, including voice, e-mail, fax and Web
communications. It offers customer self-service and the ability to
record, monitor and report on all the integrations.
By integrating with leading CRM
solutions, CCPRO plays a key role in ensuring consistent customer
experiences across all forms of interaction. |
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