ASSESSING YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE COMPETITIVE EDGE AND WHAT INTELEGY CAN HELP YOU DO ABOUT IT

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 What CEO doesn’t claim to be dedicated to excellent customer service? Who wouldn’t say service is their competitive edge? 

Although customer service is not a physical product, it can be taken apart, examined, tested, and re-engineered  to go faster, last longer, cost-less, or perform new tricks.  It’s multi-dimensional, comprised of different facets from attitude to infrastructure, all of which must be addressed in the quest for excellence.  Too often corporate managers view customer service from the wrong perspective - looking  at it  from the inside,  filtered through organization charts, budgets and corporate  politics.  To really know how good your customer service is, change views - take an outside look from the customer’s perspective or better yet, but world class customers service can be expensive unless you turn the overwhelming amount of customer inquiries into revenue generating customer relationships. 

When creating customer service programs that deliver clear competitive advantage, few things are more crucial to an organization than an effective call center.  These customer service hubs are a business’s first line of contact, and often their only live communication with existing and future customers.  Done well, your call center can be your most valuable asset in gaining customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention.

So, how can you best measure customer service performance?  How sharp (or dull) is your competitive edge?  Where should improvement efforts and resources be focused?  The following self-examination uses a variety of indicators that will help you determine whether your customer service center is, or isn’t, competitive.

How Sharp is Your Customer Service “Edge”? 
 Directions:  Score how well  your company performs for each question.  For some questions you may choose to give yourself a partial score (i.e. 3 out of possible 5 points).  

Customer Satisfaction—  

Score

1 If you measure it at regular intervals, score 5 points  
2 If senior executive and management compensation is tied to it, add 10 points  
  Average Customer Lifetime value—  
3 If you know what it is, score 5 points 
4 If it is trending upward, add 5 points  
  Company’s Service Philosophy    
5 If a focused, consistent customer care message is featured prominently in all corporate materials, from speeches to annual reports to lobby posters, add 3 points  
6 If you consider and measure your service center as a profit centers, add 5 points  
7 If senior executives have never set foot in your customer service center or monitored a customer call, deduct 5 points 
8 If your company downsized other departments, but customer service remained relatively untouched, add 7 points  
  Competitive Positioning    
9 If in highly competitive sales situations your competitors position themselves on price, not on  service, score 5 points. 
10 If your customers have stopped shopping around/going to bid because they know you’ll “take care of them,” add 3 points.  
11If you have recently won a big contract where your service reputation was the deciding factor, add 5 points. 
  Customer Intelligence  
12 If you have a single database for all customer records, score 3 points. 
13If your database contains information on the customer’s product usage, satisfaction, or other information beyond purchase history, add 5 points.  
14 If you do something with that customer information (i.e. product development, marketing, or finance actually use it), add 7 points. 
Customer Service Channels  
15 If you have one 800# (vs. many) for your company/division, score 3 points.  
16 If your service organization carries a sales quota, add 5 points.  
17 If you have no idea what your grade of service is, or have never called your own customer service center, deduct 5 points.  
18 If over 90% of inquiries can be handled without transferring the caller multiple times, add 5 points.  If you don’t know, deduct 5 points.  
19 If your customer service center conducts pro-active service calls, add 3 points.  
Customer Service Technology  
20 If you use and have integrated internal and outsourced service response, add 3 points.  
21 If your customer service technology is connected to order processing, inventory, and billing systems to provide real time information, add 5 points.  
22 If your customer database information is automatically available to the TeleServices Rep when they answer a call (CTI), add 3 points.  
23 If your 800# technology allows automated self-service, but also easily lets callers transfer to a live Representative, add 3 points.  
Customer Service Processes  
24 If you offer 24 hour/7 day service by live personnel, add 3 points.  
25 If your processes are “mapped” or documented, add 3 points.  
26 If the TeleServices Rep receives process training and there is a quality assurance program to check for the consistency of process adherence, add 3 points.  
27 If you respond to both complex and high value transaction the same as simple, low value transactions, deduct 3 points. 
28 If your customer service is measured by customer retention, satisfaction and revenue generated as well as productivity and budget adherence, add 7 points.  
Customer Service Personnel  
29 If a Customer Service Representative is a respected, valued position with a career path and earns a living wage, add 5 points.  
30 If you have reduced your cost of service by reducing the human touch, deduct 3 points.  
31 If the company has invested in/provides TeleServices skills training for Rep’s (vs. product knowledge only) and it’s more than 3 hours long, add 3 points.  
32If Customer Service Representatives must complete a skills and knowledge certification process as part of their training, add 3 points. 
33If Customer Service Rep’s are monitored daily and development logs are maintained on each one, add 3 points. 
34If the company has invested in TeleServices Supervisor and management training (vs. just promoting a Rep to Supervisor and letting them figure it out), add 3 points. 
35If turnover in your customer service center is approaching triple digits, deduct 5 points. 
 
Total Score

Scoring: 

121 to 135 — Sharp enough to split an atom.  You give a new definition to “World Class” and are probably the hands-down market leader in your niche.

101 to 120— A Ginsu knife, carving up the competition.  It’s likely that service is a defining attribute of your business.

91 to 100— A worn, hand-me-down knife.  If your product is superior to your competitor’s, you’re got some time to get your act together… get serious before your competitors do.

70 to 90 — Dull.  If you’re reading this article, hopefully there is a top-down initiative in place.  Call in the cavalry, now!

70 or less — A rusted relic.  Break up your service department, sell it for scrap, and find a good outsourcing partner fast.

Solutions  

Chances are you scored very well in some areas, poorly in others.  Now that you know what your strengths and weaknesses are, the next challenge is doing something about them. In this era of techno-hype, its easy to go for a “quick fix” - newer, faster, bigger technology.  But, technology is rarely the core problem. In fact, most customer service problems are people and process related - even in the most technically advanced call centers.  Without the right customer-focused attitude, processes and people, better technology delivers the same old mess — just faster and more powerfully! 

So, how should you go about honing your competitive edge? The first step is developing a customer service plan that addresses all four critical components: 

  • Philosophy & Vision — A clear, crisp customer service message backed by company-wide accountability for customer satisfaction.
  • Process — Engineering, documentation, training and communication of customer. service/call center processes and the mechanisms for integration with core business operations (i.e. sales, production, support).
  • Personnel — Requisite skill sets, attracting and retaining talented staff and management, training, proper compensation, development and respected career paths.
  • Infrastructure & Technology — Fast, flexible, automated, integrated, and user friendly, designed to accommodate the people and processes … not the other way around.

 

To successfully bring about real improvement  you must have top-level support.  The planning and implementation process will require a concerted effort across all departments, led by an executive champion able to keep hold of the vision and effect change.  



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