How to Ensure Workforce Optimization Delivers the Desired Results

There’s often a difference between customer service expected and customer service delivered. This is true not just for the customer, but also for managers trying to train the workforce to perform according to expectations. As such, true workforce optimization means more than just giving employees a few good tips. Customer service from the call center perspective needs a little more.

Virtual Hold Technology (News - Alert) recently conducted a study on the customer experience and found that poor customer service can have a significant impact on brand perception and customer loyalty. As these two metrics directly affect the bottom line, greater attention to improvement is worth the time and investment.

For a number of companies, customer service means different things. It may mean answering a call within a certain number of seconds or responding to a customer inquiry via email within two hours. But to truly impact the customer experience for the better, the company needs to listen to the voice of the customer. Only then can they truly understand what the customer needs to be completely happy.

This truth can have a significant impact on a company, as 90 percent of customers report that a positive experience will increase their loyalty. At the same time, customers report that they struggle with traditional customer service. Given that a customer’s perceptions of a brand are shaped by the company’s efforts to make them a priority, a failure to focus on the customer experience can mean only short-lived success.

To ensure longevity in the marketplace, companies have to demonstrate a priority placed on the customer experience and it must be practiced and executed on through workforce optimization. Those in the banking industry are starting to get it right. According to Virtual Hold, only 18.1 percent of respondents have had a bad customer service experience with their bank, compared with 54.4 percent with their cable/Internet provider.

Most often, customers react poorly when they aren’t given choices in the situation. Competition among providers can often force the issue, but it takes more than just the ability to pick a provider. Customers also want choices when communicating with a provider, choices such as multiple channels and callback services. In fact, 70 percent report that callback would increase their positive perception of the company.

The reality is in today’s market, companies have to be focused on more than just responding to the customer. They have to pay attention to the ways in which they respond, the speed at which they respond, the options available for the customer and what the customer truly wants out of the relationship. Such progress relies on a workforce optimization approach that properly trains all employees to respond to the voice of the customer. When this approach is taken, it’s hard for the competition keep up.