NETTING IT OUT

In March through May of this year, Patricia Seybold Group surveyed 194 business and technology managers. The survey’s mission was to identify the business and technology drivers behind customer service. The survey findings revealed the following:

* Two-thirds of respondents are in companies with strategies and visions that include explicit goals for the effectiveness of customer service and support.

* Two-thirds of respondents have projects to improve customer service, driven by the following technologies:

- Portals and search among 85 percent of responses

- Content management and online documentation among 84 percent of responses

- Customer profile management, customer data centralization, and synchronization among 80 percent of responses

* The top infrastructure project for the next two years is portals (46 percent).

* The top data and content projects for the next two years are customer profile management and content management, each cited by 44 percent of respondents.

* The top goal for improving the customer service experience (cited by 55 percent of respondents) is to give staff a 360-degree view of the customer--but that goal is a distant one for most respondents. Only 21 percent can provide a consistent view of the customer on every channel, only 21 percent provide consistent customer views in every customer service application, only 27 percent track customer preferences and permissions, and only 22 percent have a single system of record (a canonical source) for customer information.

* The biggest issue in delivering effective customer service is a consistent cross-channel customer experience: Only 11 percent claimed that the experience across channels was very consistent, while 32 percent said that there are different data systems and processes for each channel. Sixty-one percent of our respondents want to improve accuracy, timeliness, and consistency of information.

These conclusions are not terribly surprising. But the survey results validate what we have observed for some time: Customers in all industries want self-service support from all types of suppliers. Giving customers the ability to help themselves will yield more satisfied customers and more profitable customer relationships. Technologies that enable effective customer self-service through a consistent cross-channel customer experience are well understood, well proven, and widely used.

SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS

The highlights from the survey are grouped in the same five sections used to present the survey. The sections are:

* Section 1: Current Customer Service Strategy, Channels, and Customer Experience
* Section 2: Current Customer Service Capabilities and Systems
* Section 3: Customer Service Information and Content
* Section 4: Customer Service Goals and Plans
* Section 5: Demographics

The survey results are presented in detail in Appendix A.

CURRENT CUSTOMER SERVICE STRATEGY, CHANNELS, AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Key Finding: Respondents Aim to Increase Customer Satisfaction and Decrease Costs to Serve

Respondents were very clear--and pragmatic--about their goals for the next two years for improving customer service, as follows:

* Increase customer satisfaction: 79 percent
* Reduce costs to serve customers: 73 percent
* Increase revenues: 66 percent

These goals may seem to conflict. After all, how can one increase satisfaction and cut costs at the same time? We know the answer, and we have seen its realization in many companies. Deliver an excellent customer self-service experience, an experience consistent with your assisted-service experience. When customers come to the call center, their experiences will be more effective (thus increasing satisfaction) and more efficient (thereby reducing costs to serve).

For the responding companies, customer service is all about the Web and the call center. More than half of them would like to reduce costs to serve by improving call deflection, encouraging and enabling their customers to help themselves to service. We have seen a strong interest in call deflection over the past twelve months. We have also encouraged call center executives to track the number of answers delivered--and problems solved--via the Web site. Every one of those self-service events represents savings to the company, and those savings can be used to justify ...