World Class Customer Care

Building and Providing World Class Customer Care
By: Bill Sumerlin Phil Hodsdon
October 12, 1998

For more information: Sales@mmcad.com http://www.mmcad.com (925) 485-4949
© 1996-1997 MMC AD Systems. All Rights Reserved. http://www.mmcad.com

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What is world class customer care?

© 1996-1997 MMC AD Systems. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.mmcad.com

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World Class CustomerCare Attributes
• To determine whether a company is “world class”, the following attributes usually are considered first...
– Is the business successful (e.g., ROA, ROI, net profit, revenue growth, market share)? – Is the mission clearly defined for the business and channels? » Does the mission contain a “customer focus”? » Do the mid and long term objectives include a “customer focus”? – Does thebusiness understand their customers and prospects? » Customers vary around the world... Does the business understand its customers in each region (market share by region)? » Is it easy to convert prospects to customers (market acceptance)? » Are the customers loyal (churn rate)? » Does the business understand the customer’s needs and wants? » How does the business handle changing customer needsand wants?
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© 1996-1997 MMC AD Systems. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.mmcad.com

World Class Customer Care Attributes
Cont’d Cont’d
– What is customer satisfaction for the business? » Are the customer’s satisfied with the availability and accessibility of the business’s products and services? » Do customers find the business easy to talk to and use? » Does the business proactivelyserve the customer or does the customer need to educate the business each time it contacts the business? » Does the customer perceive a real, enhanced value in using the business’s goto market channels (channels = field sales, retail stores, telesales centers, telemarketing centers, E-commerce, mail, broadcast advertising, etc.)?

© 1996-1997 MMC AD Systems. All Rights Reserved.http://www.mmcad.com

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How does “best practices” relate to “world class”?

© 1996-1997 MMC AD Systems. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.mmcad.com

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World Class May Not = Best Practices
• It is possible to provide “world class” customer care and not be recognized for “best practices”.
– Toyota (cars and trucks) in the US is recognized both for its excellent products that have been built with“best practices”, but also for their poor customer service...

• It is possible to be recognized for “best practices”, and quietly not perform well as a business.
– Many call centers are managed to “talk time” and “wrap time”, but not to what is actually said on the telephone to the customer... The former is easy to measure and to administer, while the latter is not.

© 1996-1997 MMC AD Systems.All Rights Reserved.

http://www.mmcad.com

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Best Practices Factors
• Efficient use of time and resource
– For example, many Call Centers attempt to meet the following best practice standards: » Service Level of 80% in 20 seconds » Average Speed of Answer: < 20 seconds » Caller request completion: 95+% in 1 call » Call transfers: < 1 per 50 calls » Customer satisfaction (arbitrarymeasures): > 95%

• Cost effective application of resources
– Cost is determined by expected and real demand » Some World Class service operations operate with minimal staff due to great product reliability (e.g., Whirlpool appliances in the US)

© 1996-1997 MMC AD Systems. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.mmcad.com

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What is a World Class Customer Care Channel?
• There are manydifferent solutions, within the same industry and between different industries... • Business and customers must drive channel solutions; technology solutions must not...
– Leading with technology solutions makes it harder to achieve the best business and customer solutions

• There are not perfect solutions... there are only those solutions which can be improved over the course of time. • One...