[November 14, 2006]

SoundBite, Mindshare Combine For Instant CRM Feedback

By David Sims

TMCnet Contributing Editor

You might have seen the news TMC reported yesterday on SoundBite Communications (News - Alert) Inc. and Mindshare Technologies, announcing a "partnership to develop and deliver on demand Customer Experience Management and Monitoring" products for enterprise organizations.

The partnership uses what SoundBite officials describe as the "virtually unlimited telephony capacity" of their hosted customer contact product with Mindshare's survey and real-time analytics expertise to "provide businesses with immediate customer experience feedback."

Chris Selland, Vice President of Business Development at SoundBite told this reporter that "this partnership is important for a few reasons," first of all that "we've found that automated messaging generally performs much better," with the emphasis on "much," than live operators "for companies who are seeking honest feedback from their customers."

Quite simply, Selland says, "people are much more willing to be more direct with a machine than they generally would be with a live agent." Stands to reason, especially if the agent is one of those "virtual reps."

Selland points out that "the feedback we get is near-immediate -- we can survey the consumer right after they've had the experience, when it's most fresh in their minds. And, if there's a problem, we can resolve it -- right away."

Indeed, the example Selland uses is Asurion, a provider of specialty insurance, warranty and other marketing services to the wireless telecommunications industry, who's using the new SoundBite-Mindshare product to continuously survey and measure customer experience with its Roadside Assistance Service.

Asurion's services include towing, lockout assistance, tire changes and much more. Customers requesting roadside assistance are provided with an estimated time of arrival of the service provider. Ten minutes after the estimated arrival time, the customer receives an automated voice message asking him to confirm that help has arrived and invites him to participate in a brief survey about his experience with the service. If a customer indicates that help has not arrived, he's immediately connected to a live agent for assistance.

Donna Drehmann, Asurion's Director of Customer Satisfaction says they're using the Mindshare and SoundBite tool to "immediately survey our customers so we can ensure that they received the best service possible as well as learn ways in which we can further help them." The ability to continuously measure performance and respond to real time customer feedback "in an automated and cost-effective manner" is "invaluable" to their business, Drehmann says.

"Mindshare and SoundBite have highly-complementary capabilities," Selland explains. "Our ability to contact the customer and initiate the survey and their experience and capabilities in conducting and deeply analyzing the results are basically a perfect match.

And, last but not least, this isn't just a hypothetical offering -- we're already out there delivering today."

Using automated voice messages in a hosted environment "allows businesses to reach customers faster without the need for live agents or on-premise hardware and software," partnership officials contend, calling it "a cost-effective survey that can be applied to virtually any type of customer service initiative that is supported by a call center."

"Customer experience continues to play an important role in brand preference and customer loyalty," Selland correctly points out, saying such information is "compelling" for businesses that "want to immediately understand how their customers perceive the service experience, and respond in real-time to enhance satisfaction and loyalty."

David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims' columnist page.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]

Discussions: