Contact Management Magazine Issue 3 2013

News

THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MAGAZINE ISSUE 3

Personality matters:

Behavioural analytics now a reality in contact centres ❯❯Finding your voice in Big Data ❯❯Customer care as a second language ❯❯GTACC 2013 Conference Show Guide Issue 3

contactmanagement.ca | 1

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Issue 3

Data in the Contact Centre

Finding your voice in Big Data

By Tom Goodmanson Big data can be overwhelming. Companies are discovering that the volume of data coming into their organization is exponentially growing and there are many more channels of customer communications that they need to pay attention to than ever before. The contact center alone sits on top of endless amounts of useful data, but is not always able to share that information effectively throughout the enterprise. The key to solving your big data challenge is to add structure and reason to your data, and it all begins with the voice of your customer.

Speech analytics today offers companies a simpler and more modern approach in tackling the contact center’s most complex form of data – the phone call. By incorporating a simple user-experience and clear trending and reporting into speech analytics solutions, businesses can easily locate collective patterns and valuable business insight found in the real, spoken customer conversations happening in the contact center. As businesses tune into these voice conversations, the insight can be leveraged and applied throughout the organization to solve business issues and take advantage of opportunities.

Here’s an example. We have a customer that’s an online retailer struggling with a high volume of cancellations for orders placed through their contact center. The problem posed a significant threat to recurring revenue. They tried to evaluate CRM records, but weren’t finding they were gaining insight early enough for any corrective action to be effective. By adding the element of voice analysis to order-taking conversations, this business is now analyzing thousands of daily calls and extracting what agents and customers are saying to indicate possible defections, including common objections, competitive mentions, cancellation threats and more.

Another great business case is margin protection. Finding the right balance between customer incentives and margin protection can be tricky, but a challenge that speech analytics can help solve. One of our rapidly growing manufacturing customers Issue 3

empowered their agents to present coupons and other special incentives as a remedy for customer issues, yet needed a system of checks and balances so agents had guidance and direction about when such offers were truly required. By applying speech analytics to customer service transactions, this business is now correlating coupon and incentive offers to the root cause of complaints. This allows them to provide clear direction to agents, so they can remain empowered while still protecting margin.

Compliance and risk mitigation is also very popular application. It is priority one in many industries, including forprofit universities where non-compliance infractions pose a risk to federal aid for student loans, not to mention loss of reputation. One such university was attempting to monitor compliance through random manual review, yet only had the capability to listen to less than 1% of the 70,000 daily incoming calls. Today, speech

analytics automatically captures and analyzes 100% of their calls, revealing those which require further attention and helping to focus training as required.

Bid data is only overwhelming if you focus on the technology and not the business problem you are trying to solve.

A good solution is more than just good technology, it needs to be easy to use and it needs to provide clear value. Today, through modern software approaches that simplify data collection and management, businesses have a solution that can more easily turn all of that unstructured data coming into the contact center into meaningful business information that has real impact. Many of our contact centers customers have cracked that code, finding that the simple application of the right product can return phenomenal results to the business.

Tom Goodmanson is President & CEO of Calabrio, Inc. contactmanagement.ca | 3

Banking / Financing

Three years in

Why the new branch retail model of Canadian banks is working

By Lawrence Spicer, RBC The way customers bank has changed significantly with the prevalence of the internet and growth of the smart phone usage and features. Customers are empowered by technology and want options and flexibility on how they bank with their financial institution. But that does not mean the end of the storefront experience. They expect the access and convenience with banking that they get from best in class retailers.

In fact an optimized branch experience is as important as it ever was; the branch continues to be a key destination for Canadians even as their usage of digital channels continues to rapidly grow. What we are witnessing today is banks leveraging new technology to make it interactive and easier for customers to bank with them.

Canadian banks stand apart in this regard, having been recognized internationally for this new and innovative approach to customer service. RBC in fact recently won the Retail Banker International (RBI) award for Innovation in Customer Service and the Best Retail Bank in North America. An integral contributor to this international success was its “Out of the Box” Retail Store concept, an initiative that has dramatically changed the way banks interact with customers, while at the same time, giving them the latest and greatest tools to explore and discover their financial planning options.

The creation of RBC’s new Retail Store was to deliver a unique experience suited to the modern day customer that combines technology and personal service. A key component of the planning process was understanding what it is people want from their financial service providers. This was distilled to four core customer needs: convenience, advice, service and 4 | contactmanagement.ca

value for money. These Stores have become inviting retail locations where customers can come to peruse interactive merchandising zones, liaise with staff, attend seminars and provide educational entertainment. In addition, our staff is mobile and can support clients by sharing the latest product selection tools and calculators on tablets.

Our new stores offer a more open, friendly, and engaging environment for customers. Whether purchasing a first home or saving for retirement the store is designed to support our staff interactions by offering tailor made solutions for our clients. RBC Retail Stores offer: • A best-in-class professional retail experience and advice centre designed to meet client needs by creating a personalized banking experience that is informative, friendly and accessible.

• An open, friendly, and engaging atmosphere where clients can ask questions or gather information on their own and get personalized tailor-made advice.

• State of the art interactive technology to help clients easily explore financial questions that

are important to them.

The retail store concept was piloted in 2010 as part of a comprehensive approach to customer innovation that encompassed multiple business lines, products and channels. To date, there are 120 Retail Stores nationally, that were either converted or opened in the new store model. Since launching the stores, the feedback and results have been exceptional. Not only have they led to a significant increase in client experience scores, they have also increased the client’s likelihood to recommend the bank, as well as business volumes and client acquisition. The retail store concept has also beat out retail heavyweights such as Walmart and Sobey’s in Strategy Magazine’s 2012 Shopper Innovation Awards.

Finding innovative and effective means to address customer needs has always been at the heart of the banking industry. ATMs, online and mobile tools have played a tremendous role in revolutionizing the customer service model. Now it’s time for banks to re-introduce the advantages of technological advancement to the in-store experience.

Like many industries whose competitive survival depends on customer acquisition and retention, banks have learned that the service experience cannot be confined to a single channel. More importantly, despite the incredible strides made in automating routine transactions, there will always be a demand -and a need - for the human touch.

As Vice-President, Channel Strategy, Canadian Banking, RBC, Lawrence Spicer heads the national office Channel Strategy team, and is accountable for both branch and ATM networks, consisting of 1250 branches and 4700 ATMS, across the country. Lawrence leads the Canadian Banking Channel Capabilities Transformation, optimizing network distribution capacity and introducing the new Retail Store strategy across the retail bank.

Issue 3

Analytics in the contact centre

Personality matters

Meaningful business impact Mattersight, a leader in enterprise analytics focused on customer-employee interactions, offers analysis showing that a behavioral mismatch between a customer and employee, as opposed to a favorable behavioral connection, has a significant impact on business outcomes across industries, even in highly specialized contact center functions:

Behavioral analytics is now a reality in contact centres

Business Outcome

Impact of Behavioral Connection

By Scott Cook

Sales Conversion Rate

85% to 230%

Customer Retention/Attrition Rate

25% to 50%

Customer Service Cost/ Efficiency

35% to 45%

Student Enrollment Rate (Private Sector Education)

200% to 700%

Debt Cure Rate (Collections Organization/Function)

Over 1400 Basis Points

We all know that the best product or price does not always win, the most convenient solution is not always selected by the buyer. Buyers are people.

People act based upon personality and behavioral factors that occur during business interactions. Personality matters. There is no denying that the people in your contact center can be the difference in a competitive marketplace where consumers have many choices and no shortage of information.

Enlightened enterprises are now establishing processes and deploying technology to effectively leverage personality, communication styles, and behavioral characteristics to improve the customer experience and business outcomes. Mattersight believes that understanding and leveraging the impact of personality and human behavior will be the first truly transformative customer relationship management (CRM) innovation in decades. We believe using personality data will create a dramatic, new level of personalization to enhance customer experience which will, in turn, drive meaningful benefits from a cost, revenue, retention, and customer satisfaction perspective.

Behavioral analytics is now a reality Today, the technology, linguistics analysis, and application of psychological models are all now advanced enough to make behavioral analytics in the enterprise a mainstream reality. One such example is the commercialization of communication and psychological models for behavioral analytics. It is possible to determine a caller’s personality and communication style, emotional state, level of engagement or distress, and other behavioral characteristics from the way they interact with a contact center agent. We can also now analyze how our employees perform with customers based upon those behavioral characteristics. Most importantly, these new insights are also now actionable.

Here’s how it works. Each person has different behavioral characteristics that, in essence, define an individual’s “human operating system.” These differences in personality drive the differences in how we interact with others.

Starting with the research of world renowned psychologist, Dr. Taibi Kahler, evidence strongly supports the premise that recurring patterns of language come from a common set of personality parts. Kahler’s work was used in the 1970’s by NASA for astronaut selection. NASA could not afford personal interaction issues negatively impacting a mission and potentially endangering lives. Similarly, if we can understand the personality and communication style of each customer, we can more effectively communicate with them and increase the likelihood of a positive business outcome in our own enterprise.

By listening to a number of customer service calls about a common problem - for example, calls about account statement changes - you can easily identify a number of the common personality styles and how they are manifested in different language patterns. Common examples might include: • “this account information is so confusing to…I just don’t understand it.”

• “this is the third time I have called about this issue; this is so frustrating.”

• “man, all this paperwork is such a hassle.”

• “what kind of a company would keep making the same mistakes on their statements?”

Each of these language “choices” comes from a different personality style, but they evidence a common level of customer dissatisfaction regarding account statement information. Further, these statements give meaningful insights into each customer’s individual “human operating system” which can be leveraged to more effectively communicate.

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Personality in the enterprise contact center Innovative companies with some of the most successful customer experience programs have already begun to capture, analyze, and act upon personality, communication styles and other behavioral characteristics. A government healthcare benefits manager that has repeatedly been recognized by JD Powers for exceptional customer service has been using behavioral analytics for years and has seen consistent improvements year after year. They analyze customer-employee interactions to identify member personality types and communication preference, as well as employee strengths dealing with different caller types.

They route callers to the best available agent for handling the personality type for each specific caller. As a result, they: • Reduced average talk time (ATT) for calls by 16% • Improved beneficiary satisfaction levels and improved first contact resolution (FCR) • Met service levels during a very challenging period when new government mandates were being implemented • Developed a business case demonstrating 651% ROI and break even within 4 months for deployment at all 6 call center hubs Each individual customer has different expectations and behaviors. Similarly, each individual employee has different strengths and weaknesses handling different types of calls. As a result, the success of a given customer interaction is often determined by which employee handles that interaction and how well their competencies and behavioral characteristics align with each specific customer’s needs.

Mattersight is the leader in enterprise analytics for and customer-employee interactions. For more information, please visit www.mattersight.com/PBR or contact us at info@mattersight.com or call 312-454-3585.

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Column

Keeping the peace The secret to dealing with irate clients

I

was furious. I felt like throwing my phone against the wall. Four hours earlier, I had called my Internet Service Provider to add a feature to my account. I felt happy during my initial call since this new feature sounded exciting.

Then the problems started. The company sent a confirmation email with the wrong address for the installation. I had to call back to the Customer Service department to correct the error. The first Agent I spoke with could not even identify the problem. So, he transferred me to another department.

The second Agent asked more questions and then transferred me to their supervisor. The supervisor asked many of the same questions again before fixing the problem.

However, the supervisor’s actions caused a new problem. The installation address was correct, but there was a new service charge that was not on the original email. I had to call again and ask to speak to a Manager, to have that problem fixed. Amazingly, not one person apologized for the problem or acknowledged this bad experience.

In my seminars, I train Agents and Managers on how to handle irate callers. I know the right way this interaction should have been handled. My Internet Service Provider dealt properly with the facts of my complaint. However, they never addressed my frustration at having to call back three 6 | contactmanagement.ca

times. As a result, I felt very disappointed.

I may even cancel my account with this company and find a new provider.

In their book, “Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most”, authors Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton and Sheila Heen identify three levels of conversation: facts, feelings and ego.

How does this idea apply to customer service? Most contact centres train their Agents to focus on facts. Agents begin the call by asking for the client’s name, account number, model number, etc. They ask factual questions regarding products or services.

This approach is fine when customers simply want to change a service or update their address. However, a fact based approach will fail to calm upset callers.

Irate callers want someone to listen, empathize and make them feel important.

A screaming customer will not listen to your Agent’s solution - even if your employee is right - until the client’s feelings and ego are addressed. That is the secret to dealing with irate callers: focus on feelings and ego first.

Once the caller has calmed down, you can uncover the facts and solve their problem.

Here are seven tips you can share with your Agents to help them deal more effectively with your caller’s feelings and ego: 1. Do not interrupt the caller: They will simply start their rant over again,

lengthening the call and further damaging the relationship. Instead, let the customer vent.

2. Make the conversation between two people, rather than a customer and a corporate entity. Train your Agents to use “I” rather than “We” when speaking to a customer. For example: “I want to help you with this issue” rather than “We will look into that and someone will get back to you.”

3. Use your caller’s name, so they feel they are not just an account number.

4. Acknowledge your customer’s upset feelings by using empathy statements such as, “I’m sorry you went through that.”

5. Soothe your customer’s ego by treating them with respect. Allow them to have some level of control over the conversation by asking them non-threatening questions such as, “To help solve this problem, do you mind if I ask a few questions?”

6. Demonstrate a willingness to help by adding, “I want to help you with that situation” or “I can fix that for you right now.” If you need to transfer your caller to another department, do a warm transfer by introducing your client to the new person and recapping the key points of your client’s problem.

7. Never blame the customer, even if the problem really is their fault. Focus on fixing the problem, rather than fixing the blame. Instead of saying, “You shouldn’t have pressed “Control, Alt, Delete’’ on your computer, say, “Next time that happens, click the “Escape key” to minimize the screen.”

As a contact centre Team Leader or Manager, share these tips with your Agents at your next team meeting. Discuss each point and ask your Agents for examples of when to apply these techniques. To build upon these tips, ask your Agents for their own favourite techniques for calming irate callers.

Mike Aoki is the President of Reflective Keynotes Inc. (www.reflectivekeynotes.com ), a Canadian training company that helps contact centres improve their sales, customer service and management results. A call centre expert, Mike has been interviewed by the Customer Experience Show and the Globe and Mail. He also serves on the Advisory Council of GTACC (the Greater Toronto Area Contact Centre association www.gtacc.ca ) and will be Master of Ceremonies for their 2013 Annual Conference.

Issue 3

GTACC 2013 CONFERENCE

Take it to the NEXT level!

November 8, 2013 • Brampton, ON

Issue 3

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>> Welcome Letter

Welcome to GTACC 2013!!

>> keynotes

Michael “Pinball” Clemons

We have a great day planned for you, with a little something for each of you. Thank you for joining us as we strive to give you a day of great personal development, practical knowledge, sharing of best practices, super networking and lots of FUN! This is our 4th Annual Conference and I am thrilled that each year we are able to grow and continue to serve the greater community.

We have been blessed to have great conferences and that is due in part to our very supportive sponsors. I would like to thank our GTACC 2013 Sponsors: Altivon, Infinite Media, Advantage Communications, BrantTel, Contact Management, five9, Group Elite, HGS, Nuvoxx, RBC, Socialicity, Scotiabank, Telax, Teleopti, and Teleperformance.

We also have fantastic speakers that are all willing to share their wisdom for the greater good of the contact centre community. GTACC would like to extend our deepest gratitude to Anthony Haines, Aran Hamilton, Bryan Pearson, D. John Jackson, Dean Turchiaro, Evelyn Chan, Frank Tersigni, Gina Mulic, Gregg Tilston, Rob Paterson, Marco Sciarra, and Sundeep Gokhale.

So much thanks must go to the Advisory Council for they humbly serve behind the scenes doing whatever is asked of them and all on a volunteer basis. Thank you to Afshan Kinder, Evelyn Page, Graham Kingma, Jeff Doran, June Naranowicz, Katherine Thompson, Kevin Hornidge, Mike Aoki, Nygel Weishar, Pat Perdue and Wayne Morris.

Thank you for being part of GTACC 2013!

I hope you have a great day and are able to connect, learn and grow while taking things to the NEXT level!

Sangeeta Bhatnagar Chair – GTACC

Thanks to our sponsors!

8 | contactmanagement.ca

Few people exemplify the qualities of personal excellence, teamwork, community leadership, and overcoming the odds better than CFL legend Michael “Pinball” Clemons. With boundless energy, Pinball’s talks centre on the potential for each of us to achieve anything we set our minds to.

Unabashedly emotional and impactful, he shows audiences how to put heart into everything they do.

Pinball joined the National Football League in 1987, and the Toronto Argonauts (and the CFL) in 1989. He was nicknamed “Pinball” because of his running style: his diminutive size and extraordinary balance allowed him to “bounce” between defensive players, drawing comparisons to a pinball machine. In 1990, he was honoured with the CFL’s “most outstanding player” award, after setting the single-season record for all-purpose yards. He played his last game as an Argonaut in 2000, before becoming head coach of the team.

In 2007, Pinball stepped down as head coach to become the Chief Executive Officer; in 2009, he was appointed to Vice-Chair of the team. That same year, he founded the Michael “Pinball” Clemons Foundation, which is dedicated to helping disadvantaged youth. He is also currently working with Marc and Craig Kielburger, founders of Free the Children, in an initiative to build schools and clean water systems in Africa.

D. John Jackson

Vice President of Global Customer Services Strategy, Planning, Engineering, Innovation & Customer Identity at FedEx. “The Right Now World….How Will You Lead” Key points of discussion: ❯❯ Understanding changes in technology and the changing marketplace ❯❯ Realizing the importance of innovation ❯❯ Exploring the competitive landscape ❯❯ Creating a thriving environment to unleash creativity and innovation ❯❯ Leadership in the changing marketplace D. John Jackson serves as Vice President of Global Customer Services Strategy, Planning, Engineering, Innovation & Customer Identity responsible for Global customer services strategic/tactical planning at FedEx. His role entails implementing corporate strategies that focus on customer satisfaction across the FedEx enterprise and leveraging technological breakthroughs occurring in the marketplace to improve customer experience. FedEx serves more than 220 countries and territories, including every address in the United States. More than 300,000 FedEx team members worldwide handle over seven million shipments for customers each business day.

As a visionary leader in a global environment, Jackson has provided direction on initiatives resulting in more than $170 million in incremental international business revenue.

Additionally, under his leadership, global systems designed to improve customer experience and shipping processes have been successfully implemented. With more than 27 years of engineering and international business experience, he is frequently called upon to share his expertise with FedEx operating groups and customers, as well as external business, educational and community organizations. Jackson is a distinguished lecturer and motivational speaker on a broad range of topics from the Global Economy to Leadership and Teamwork.

Jackson’s leadership accomplishments and strong business acumen have also earned him numerous awards and honors, including five (5) FedEx Five Star Awards -- the Corporation’s most prestigious recognition for superior performance; and a listing in Dollars and Sense magazine as one of the “Best and Brightest in Corporate America.”

Issue 3

>> program schedule 8:00 - 8:50 AM

Registration Open ◗◗ Networking and meeting up with friends ◗◗ Continental Breakfast ◗◗ Visit GTACC Café and meet our Event Sponsors

8:50 - 9:15 AM Event Kick-Off

◗◗ Opening Remarks - Event Kick-off Sangeeta Bhatnagar & Mike Aoki

9:15 - 10:15 AM

Morning Keynote Keynote: Michael “Pinball”

Clemons Few people exemplify the qualities of personal excellence, teamwork, community leadership, and overcoming the odds better than CFL legend Michael “Pinball” Clemons. With boundless energy, Pinball’s talks centre on the potential for each of us to achieve anything we set our minds to. Unabashedly emotional and impactful, he shows audiences how to put heart into everything they do.

◗◗ Play Bingo by visiting with all our vendors to have your name entered in the draw for an IPAD!

10:55 - 11:55 AM

Full Group Session

Keynote: D. John Jackson, FedEx - The Right Now World….How Will You Lead ◗◗ Understanding changes in technology and the changing marketplace ◗◗ Realizing the importance of innovation ◗◗ Exploring the competitive landscape ◗◗ Creating a thriving environment to unleash creativity and innovation ◗◗ Leadership in the changing marketplace

12:00 - 1:00 PM

Luncheon Buffet ◗◗ Enjoy a wonderful lunch, network with other professionals and visit GTACC Café ◗◗ Don’t forget to get your Bingo card stamped by our gracious sponsors!

1:00 - 1:50 PM

10:20 - 10:50 AM

BREAKOUTS Session 1:

◗◗ Networking and connecting with friends ◗◗ Visit GTACC Café for a coffee and a chance to chat with our Sponsors

A: Social Media: The Next Level! Gina Mulic of Rogers Communications, Evelyn Chan of ING Direct, and Gregg Tilston of Flight Centre Limited B: Mobile Commerce and the

Wellness Coffee Break

Issue 3

Customer Experience, with Aran Hamilton, Vantage Analytics.. Three trends about to impact your industry: ◗◗ Digital ID and authentication ◗◗ Omni channel / mobile retail (getting one view of the customer) ◗◗ Mass data mining and predictive analytics for the SMB C: WFM Strategies - Common challenges - exceptional solutions! Dean Turchiaro, Scotiabank International and Marco Sciarra, Bell Canada

1:55 - 2:45 PM Session 2:

A: Employment Law and Social Media Sundeep Gokhale, Sherrard Kuzz LLP Privacy and Surveillance: Understanding An Employer’s Rights and Obligations. ◗◗ Is there is a “Right” to Privacy ◗◗ Employee Monitoring and Surveillance ◗◗ Addressing IT and Social Media Related Misconduct ◗◗ Looking to the Future... fingerprints, retinal scans, ‘clouds’ and beyond B: Delivering Superior Customer Experience through a Next Generation Contact Centre - Frank Tersigni, Altivon Biography Customer experience is certainly the term of the moment. But it can be incredibly difficult and elusive to create, monitor, and master. This session will provide specific

details on how a next generation contact centre with the appropriate characteristics can be deployed with the ultimate customer experience as the objective.

Particular attention will be paid to new contact center applications which can significantly and positively impact the customer experience.

2:50 - 3:10 PM

Wellness Coffee Break ◗◗ Networking ◗◗ Visit GTACC Café for a coffee and a chance to chat with our vendors!

3:15 - 4:15 PM

Presidents Panel Discussion: ◗◗ The President’s Panel - Visionary Leaders Taking Teams to the Next Level ! ◗◗ Anthony Haines - President and CEO, Toronto Hydro Corporation ◗◗ Bryan Pearson - President and CEO, LoyaltyOne Inc. ◗◗ Rob Paterson, President & CEO Alterna Savings ◗◗ Gregg Tilston, Flight Centre

4:20 - 4:45 PM Final Wrap Up

◗◗ Announcements, Prizes and.....Vendor Bingo Draw!! ◗◗ GTACC Gives Back!

contactmanagement.ca | 9

Analytics in the Contact Centre

Do you really know your customer data?

Behind-the-scenes look: how organizations fail to leverage customer data from the IVR to improve customer experience

By Justin Lemrow

N

owadays organizations are inundated with customer data. The debate on how to best leverage this data is a hot topic. Most companies have gotten smart about using data from their web channel and call center agents, but these alone don’t provide a full picture. If the goal is to understand the customer’s experience with the brand, businesses that don’t include data from all service channels cannot accurately assess the experience. If enterprises aren’t collecting the right data from the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) channel they are missing a huge piece of the puzzle, and one that strongly influences the true customer experience. The IVR is almost always the first interaction that consumers have when they call for customer service; the IVR is like the “front door” to the phone channel – so there is clearly opportunity to mine significant customer data from it.

Do you really know your IVR customer data?

Ask yourself these questions: • Do you know the top five goals your customer wants to accomplish in the IVR? • What success metrics do you define in the IVR? Can you apply the conversion or accomplishment metric from your website to provide channel comparisons?

• How quickly does your fastest customer navigate your IVR? The slowest?

• What points cause the most difficulty in your self-service channel, and when do customers opt out to the live-agent channel?

• What analytics are you using to ensure your IVR is performing at its peak?

• Do you leverage the web interaction data in your IVR? Visa versa? With call center agents?

As a leading provider of customer selfservice solutions, our organization (Contact Solutions) has experience helping large businesses across myriad industries to optimize their IVR systems and glean the most useful data from them. What we’ve found is that 10 | contactmanagement.ca

many enterprises make basic mistakes that seriously impact the value of their data. First and foremost, many organizations don’t take a fully representative sample of customer data.

For example, one client was using a customer scoring system by analyzing data from the website and the live-agent interactions in the call center. However, the company was not including data from the IVR in its analysis of its customers, effectively ignoring one of the most important – and frequently used (more than 50% of all customer interactions) – customer segments where first impressions with the brand are made. The result: the client damaged the validity of its data and therefore missed an opportunity to make a positive impact on the business and instead made a service change that was largely ineffective.

Also, we regularly see businesses failing to use collected data to improve the customer experience. Companies must not only track customer data across channels, but utilize it immediately and with fluidity in order to best serve clientele – otherwise known as the practice of service continuity. These actions can sometimes be quite simple, but can have an enormous impact on customer satisfaction.

For example, when consumers call customer service and are required to enter an account number or phone number in the IVR, they shouldn’t be required to repeat that information if transferred to a live agent. Similarly, if consumers are using an online service channel and then choose to call customer service for additional help, the phone channel should be linked to the online channel in order to pick up where the customer left off and expedite the service process.

Enterprises also frequently miss the opportunity to tailor the IVR experience based on past customer behavior. For example, imagine a customer who frequently calls the IVR for service surrounding the same task or problem. Each new instance that this customer calls he should be offered a shortcut

to accomplish that goal, since there is a high likelihood that is what he is calling about. By implementing personalized touches like this in the IVR, companies can reduce customers’ time and effort and thus reduce customer service costs by hopefully allowing more customers to be serviced effectively in the IVR without needing to transfer to live agents.

However, with so many avenues to leverage data to improve customer experience, many organizations get overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin or how to translate it into business results. When the prospect of big data is intimidating, sometimes it is better to start small – and what better place to begin than analyzing customer interactions that are already happening in the customer service frontlines, the IVR? We suggest the following four actions to take today: IVR customer interaction data represents the voice of your consumer and should be considered as valuable as receiving daily focus group results.

So to begin, make sure to mine the right data; track the Who, When, Where, Frequency and Length of customer service interactions, and compare them with benchmarks – both industry and other channels.

Consider, are you managing your IVR by art and intuition or by using datadriven customer insights?

Next, ensure that data entered in the IVR is immediately visible in the call center and other service channels, and vice versa. There is no use in having valuable customer data if it can’t be effectively leveraged to improve customer experience on the spot.

Once the right IVR data is in place and being mined on a regular basis, be sure to share the findings with your marketing, sales, account management and even executivelevel departments to drive business decisions. This data is critical to the continuous improvement of your customer experience and has direct influence on revenue.

Don’t forget the big picture. IVR is a good place to start, but establish a plan to incorporate and compare customer data from all service channels to best complement an overall brand strategy. Customer perception data from surveys is also valuable, especially when combined with actionable information from all customer service channels.

Justin Lemrow is the Director of the Continuous Improvement Practice at Contact Solutions.

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CONSIDER REUSING L AST YEAR’S WORK

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