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Measuring Customer Satisfaction in the Hosted Call Center

The constant buzz within the technology space tends to focus on the opportunities that exist with cloud computing. Do these opportunities extend to the call center arena? When an organization has the opportunity to leverage cloud computing as they deliver customer service, the hosted call center has a platform for success. At that point, the company has to examine whether or not the hosted call center is delivering an experience that is satisfying to the customer.

This recent inContact blog explored the power of the hosted call center when it comes to the customer experience. The biggest challenge within the hosted call center is identifying how to measure the customer experience. The two most common approaches to this measurement involve loyalty and satisfaction.

Customer Satisfaction, otherwise known as CSAT, tends to be measured with surveys that ask questions such as, “how satisfied are you with product ABC?” Opponents to the CSAT approach argue that the results lack emotion. It is possible that the customer in this situation is perfectly satisfied, but moves on to the competitor anyway?

The hosted call center can measure customer satisfaction in another way by asking a different set of questions. Fred Reichheld introduced the concept of measuring loyalty in this alternative method in 2003. The question asked in his approach sought to capture the likelihood that the customer would recommend a company to a friend or a colleague.

The responses captured are then used to calculate the Net Promoter Score (NPS). This score is meant to measure satisfaction, but also loyalty. The theory to this approach for the hosted call center is that a customer who is simply satisfied will still leave a company at any moment. One who is willing to stand up and vouch for your company is unlikely to defect.

While both approaches are upheld by leaders in the hosted call center space, they still do not directly measure the overall customer experience. To address this gap, Forrester (News - Alert) Research developed the Customer Experience Index (CxPi) in 2007. The CxPi can help organizations benchmark their customer experience against competitors and even across other industries.

In the process of developing the CxPi, Forrester identified the key drivers of the customer experience: usefulness / meeting needs; ease of use; and enjoyability. As a result, there are three questions behind the CxPi, as reported in the inContact hosted call center blog:

1. Thinking about your recent interactions with these firms, how effective were they at meeting your needs?
2. Thinking about your recent interactions with these firms, how easy was it to work with these firms?
3. Thinking about your recent interactions with these firms, how enjoyable were the interactions?

Regardless of which method you think is the most effective to drive optimal customer service delivery, the reality is that it matters little to the customer whether yours is a hosted call center or an on-premise operation. What is important to your customer base is how well you cater to their needs.

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Chris DiMarco