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The Customer is Not Always Right: Differentiation Makes Sense in the Call Center

By Chris DiMarco, TMCnet Managing Editor

While the old adage that the customer is always right may work for the local mom and pop grocery store, for today’s multinational corporation, balancing the expectation of customers with the resources available is paramount to success. It might not be something that companies are always comfortable saying out loud, not all customers are created equal.

Differentiating service based on the value of a customer versus the level of effort it takes to satisfy them is something that many call centers are now adopting as they seek to increase profitability. That doesn’t mean that difficult customers should simply be left out in the cold, but it does mean that call center still need to minimize the cost of each interaction.

So making every customer happy is still priority number one, but from a financial perspective there are two more goals. The first is maximizing the lifetime value of each of those customers; the second is minimizing the cost of handling those interactions.

Having multichannel strategies can aid in obtaining these goals. For customers who know exactly what they want, there’s the self service option via IVR. Those that want answers but are willing to deal with them in a less timely manner have the option to choose email. And for those that want as much support as possible there’s always the call in option.

With as many options as possible you’re saving money on agent interaction by resolving interaction through less expensive means. The outcome of this strategy is when customers have an issue that requires extra service, you’ve saved enough money elsewhere to justify an extended interaction on the phone.

Customer differentiation offers a real advantage to customer service operations that need to reduce cost. For more information on the strategies you can deploy check out call center provider inContact’s site on the subject, or check out the archived version of their webinar on the topic when it becomes available on TMCnet.com.

Chris DiMarco is a Managing Editor for TMCnet. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University. Prior to joining TMC (News - Alert) Chris worked with e-commerce provider Suresource as a contact center representative and development analyst. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page. Follow him on Twitter (News - Alert) @cpdimarco.

Edited by Carrie Schmelkin