"Don't You Already Have This Information?"

You don't need extensive market research to realize that the call center market is still in its infancy -- All you need is a telephone, a mortgage or a credit card.

America's economy is destined to become a service economy. How many times have we heard this? Service companies are making a killing on Wall Street with huge market capitalization numbers and future business projections are equally impressive.

But for a company to remain competitive, this is only part of the picture - Every company needs to have incredible customer service. Insurance, banking, manufacturing…everyone. So as we approach the next millennium, we have made great strides in customer service and the future looks bright. Right? Wrong!

I recently had two encounters, one with a bank and the other with a credit card company, that were absolutely infuriating. I am not in the banking or credit card business, but I can guarantee you that service is the key to long-term growth in both these industries. Bank advertising seems to be at an all-time high: the airwaves are full of radio and television ads, newspapers are chock full of them and it seems there are billboard ads for them every few miles along our highways. Add to this the fact that electronic banks are popping up everywhere on the Internet and you can conclude that the market seems to be very hot. Couple this with the fact that interest rates are ridiculously low for every bank and you wonder what keeps a customer with their existing bank if another offers a better deal or better service.

Credit card companies constantly send me incentives to get their cards. I have been offered platinum cards, diamond cards, gold cards, free gas, free long-distance, free grocery shopping, free miles, free cash back; credit limits from $20,000 to $100,000, 2.9% interest, 3.9% interest -- where does the madness end?

You'd think the largest of the large financial institutions would have this customer service problem licked. They should be models of perfection. They should make sure that under no circumstances would they lose a customer to poor service. These institutions have millions of customers and advertising budgets in the tens of millions of dollars to attract new customers. If they didn't have great customer service, every day a smaller, nimbler competitor would be chasing their prime customers, stealing revenue from their pockets and bread from their tables. This is what I always thought, but boy was I nave.

In the last few months, I have witnessed customer service atrocities that would make me cringe if they came from my company. You wonder if executives in these large financial institutions ever try calling their own customer service lines themselves to see what the average customer has to suffer through.

Case in point is my recent need to acquire a mortgage for a house. After some shopping around, I decided to do business with the company that has also been handling my primary credit card. This is one of the largest banks in the country. When filling out my application and speaking with the representative from the mortgage company I mentioned I had a credit card with the same bank. This had absolutely no effect on cutting down my paperwork. I was a new customer and that was all there was to it -- I had no credit history with them, they did not know me from Adam. I was a stranger. My credit card has been with this company for over ten years, yet I wasn't even in the computer. I mentioned my loyalty but no one cared.

Well, I got the mortgage and all was well for a few months until I realized I needed my credit limit extended on my credit card. So I called the credit card telephone number and told them that I needed my credit limit increased. After a week I received a letter informing me that I would need to send in a copy of my paycheck or a letter from my boss stating how much money I make. I called to tell them that my salary information, in fact my entire life story, was in the mortgage department's computers. I mentioned to the customer service rep that the mortgage department could tell him how many square feet my house has, how many bathrooms, the year it was built; they know my lawyer, they know my accountant, and they even pay my property taxes for me -- who knows me better? "I'm sorry sir, it doesn't work like that," I was told politely. "But why not?" I insisted. "Well, you see sir, the mortgage department works on a different computer system than the credit card department and we can't access their information and they can't access our information," he replied, being ever so polite. "Well great, I have their phone number, would you like to call them and double-check the figures I gave you?" I explained, hoping to ruffle the agent's feathers a bit. "Mr. Tehrani (now that he used my name I could tell I was getting to him), our corporate policy maintains that the credit limit adjustment department (or some such arcanely named department) must have the document faxed or mailed to us for record-keeping purposes," he said in an agitated tone. I decided I had better things to do at this point than argue on the phone when I knew I was getting nowhere. I figured if "record-keeping purposes" were really that important, they would actually share some of these records with their other internal departments. Who needs these records? Are the agents getting commission on the number of records they save up? Are the agents archiving records in the computer in competition with each other? A brief flash of squirrel-like agents busily burying nuts in the yard flashed through my head. Well, I lost too much work time on this; I needed to get back to my job.

After a month or so, I forgot all about this encounter. I seem to be on the road more and more these days, and nothing clears my mind and helps me forget my problems like spending hours in an airplane. Thankfully, all my traveling has added up to a wealth of frequent flyer miles.

Frequent flyer miles equate to nobility in airports. I have hundreds of thousands of miles on certain airlines and merely thousands on others. If I fly airline X, I am a traveling god -- my mere presence flying standby immediately reduces all other standby passengers in rank. I check in at certain "no wait" lines at airports. Life is good when I fly airline X.

Airline Y however, is different. When I fly this airline it seems to be for short hops. I can never accumulate the miles I need to reach the next level of flying status. Once, airline Y made me wait in an airport for 12 hours before I could fly out of the city - I was bumped off 6 standby lists. Recently, when I saw an ad offering a credit card yielding free frequent flyer miles on airline Y, I jumped at the chance. I had visions of reigning as an airport god on this airline as well. Better yet, the credit card company was the same company that offered my secondary credit card.

I immediately called the number on the screen and was barraged by questions: Name, age, social security number, etc. I mentioned I already had a card from this company but the agent, although pleasant, seemed unfazed. So I continued for a while until the agent finished the queries and I went back to watching TV.

A few days later, a letter came to my attention telling me that I must submit employment verification. So I found a pay stub and looked for the fax number on the enclosed letter. No fax number? In this day and age? I am impatient -- am I supposed to wait another week just for them to get to opening my letter? So I called and asked for the fax number. It turned out this bank didn't seem to have the same "record keeping" system as the last bank. In this case, only a letter will do. Here we go again. So I patiently explained that I have been a cardmember in good standing for over 12 years. He said, "Oh, Mr. Tehrani, I did not realize this. Please give me your social security number again." Progress, I thought, progress. So I iterated the magic number and, lo and behold, my prior history was revealed to the agent and I no longer needed to submit anything. I hung up satisfied, but my subconscious didn't rest. I thought to myself that if the social security number is a unique identifier, why didn't I get picked up as a long-time customer already. I needed to tell the agent and the company that I am in their computer? This whole situation wasted time, paper, postage and telephone charges. We could have avoided all of this with a simple database query.

Based on these experiences, I know we are still in the nascent stages of a wonderful technology revolution in the call center. These above cases are ridiculous. A small company should be embarrassed, let alone a large company or the hugest of the huge, knowing that this sort of thing takes place in their call centers.

Perhaps you are thinking about your own call center. Do you have these issues brewing? Are your databases in synch? Do they cross-reference and communicate with each other? Do you have call center software designed to catch this sort of problem?

I have issued a challenge. I have picked some of the major companies in the call center industry and presented them with the challenge of solving the above problems. I have asked for the products they would suggest and how they can link together to make sure the above scenarios never happen in your company. Our October issue of C@LL CENTER Solutions™ will have a mini-round-up of companies that can tackle this challenge. Please be sure to read it thoroughly so you will ensure your company serves its customers as well as possible.

These types of scenarios remind me of the days when agents used 3 x 5 cards to keep track of their accounts. Call center software vendors have barely scratched the surface -- every company needs to make sure its call center data is accessible as needed by all other departments that have outside contact. People are busy and they are getting busier. Every call center must look at the latest products that will be outlined in the next issue and beyond.

To those banks in question: I noticed you subscribe to C@LL CENTER Solutions™. It seems to me you may not be reading as carefully as you need to be. Might I suggest that you take these challenges seriously before I or someone else decides to name you in future articles?

Sincerely yours,

Rich Tehrani
Group Publisher
rtehrani@tmcnet.com

Dear Mr. Tehrani:

Your editorial (September 1998, "Don't You Already Have This Information?") was absolutely on the mark. I can't tell you how manytimes we've had the same sort of experience. There is absolutely noexcuse for it in this age of computerization. So many times my vendor'ssales department has different information from the same vendor'sshipping department. How can that be allowed?

Here's a doozy for you: I often get asked for my name and company nameby a receptionist who answers the phone. But when I am transferred to the rep I wish to speak to, the rep doesn't know who's on the line. SoI'm forced to repeat everything again. And what about phone receptionists who ask if you have an account after you just asked to speak to a particular individual? How would you know whom to ask for if you weren't supposed to speak to that person? What difference does it make if you've got an account? Some practices are not only stupid, but down right rude as well.

Finally, there is no exception to the fact that a business should have a customer, or prospective customer, service department that knows how to get the information a caller needs, or knows whom to put them in contact with regardless of the problem or question. We recently spent a lot of time doing some research into multifunction devices in the copier industry, and I can tell you that the problem of not knowing whom to talk with to get the information needed is rampant through out U.S.business today. A simple question becomes a major obstacle to doing business. And what a loss of business this creates. Most CEOs must be brain dead to allow their companies to operate this way. Service must never be allowed to take any other but first place in a company's affairs.

Thanks so much for commenting on this serious problem.

Michael Kitchen
Front Row Computer

Dear Mr. Tehrani,

I have just read your article in C@LL CENTER Solutions™ "Don't You Already Have This Information?" How true! I think we have all experienced a similar situation.
VideoGate has found a way to link voice, data and video together at the same time. This method could be used in call centers to provide better customer service.

Best Regards,
Linda Cowan
New Business Development & Strategic Alliances
VideoGate
www.videogate.com

Six companies provided products that help end the customer service nightmares Rich Tehrani described in this column. For more information, see October C@LL CENTER Solutions™'s High Priority.