Several retailers of note did much better than they expected online last Christmas. The downside of this was that their customer support operations just could not cope. Call centre lines were jammed and one retailer is reported to have put an out-of-office message on its customer enquiries e-mail asking people to ring instead, because their e-mail enquiry would go unanswered.
Whether a retailer runs its service operation in-house or outsources it to a contact centre specialist, the experience that customers expect is getting more demanding. And if any other part of a multichannel operation is a weak link in the chain, it will be the contact centre that’s left to pick up the pieces.
Many retailers have already made investments in customer relationship management software, but knowing who your customers are and being able to view their transaction history is only half the battle. Customers are increasingly demanding that they can communicate with the businesses that serve them on their own terms.
Contact centre solutions vendor Genesys interviewed more than 2,500 consumers across Europe – 300 of which were in the UK – and published research earlier this year about their attitudes towards call centres and customer service. It found that phone and e-mail are considered the most important channels for communicating with companies according to UK customers, although 26 per cent said that they would like the option to conduct a live web chat and 7 per cent said they would like an SMS communication channel.
Retailers are increasingly comfortable pushing out millions of marketing e-mails to customers – but aren’t yet living up to customer expectations when it comes to answering e-mail enquiries from customers. 13 per cent surveyed expect a response to a query within an hour, 18 per cent within four hours and 55 per cent within 24 hours. Evidence shows that retailers aren’t matching this yet.
In its latest index of retail web site performance, eDigital Research found that, in most cases, customer support e-mail response times are getting longer. It says that John Lewis is the only retailer to consistently achieve top league table positions for both its e-mail and telephone customer support.
Yet software has existed for a number of years that allows contact centre staff to multitask, presenting the same agents with phone, e-mail and even webchat enquiries, so that customers are served on a first-come, first served basis.
Other technology suppliers argue that, if there is in-depth and relevant customer information on a retailer’s web site, the volume of customer enquiries should fall anyway. Maplin’s web site allows customers to ask questions about products and records their answers for other customers to view.
This idea has certainly taken hold in the US, where it is much more common for retailers to offer up-to-date advice. For instance, shoe retailer Nine West’s web site uses technology from RightNow that allows customers to ask questions and find answers to questions that other customers have posed previously. The system displays both when the answer was last updated and also allows customers to record how useful they found the answer, so that information can be modified if it is not adequate.
When it comes to answering calls, technology also allows for more flexible call centre resources and can make adding extra capacity far simpler.
Ventura is a contact centre provider that’s wholly owned by Next. It runs call centre operations for Next Directory, as well as other major corporate clients and has 6,500 seats in the UK as well as an offshore facility in India.
Ventura head of IT Andy McKenzie explains that all of the company’s sites are linked via a wide area network that can carry voice and data traffic. Whatever applications the retailer wants to run, Ventura can run in its environment, so its agents will see the same customer information, as though they were working in the retailer’s own operation.
McKenzie explains that, with substantial capacity and flexible technology, it is quite easy for Ventura to deploy extra contact centre capacity as and when it is needed. “It is something that we do for one of our large retail clients regularly to support their large peaks in demand around Sale times. As we have more than 10,000 employees, we can bring in extra staff to meet the short-term peak.”
Technology also allows for different sites to be connected up as a virtual contact centre, with agents in different places able to work, hand over and route calls as though they were all at the same site. “Large clients tend to have their own virtual contact centre solutions, which we integrate our contact centres into,” McKenzie explains.
A few years ago, the hot topic in this area was whether you could get away with cutting costs by outsourcing call centres to India, or some other lower cost offshore destination such as South Africa. Deciding where to site a call centre based purely on cost overlooks the fact that the operation could be a profit centre, as well as a cost centre.
Most contact centres are managed as a resource to deal with incoming requests, according to Genesys’ research. But customers are happy for businesses to be more proactive in building relationships and are happy to have suppliers communicate with them. 78 per cent of UK consumers surveyed said that they would like to hear about additional products and services – creating cross- and upselling opportunities. Some retailers have recognised this and are now beginning to use their customer service agents for more proactive outbound calling.
Specsavers has implemented Epiphany CRM software from Infor at its call centre in Nottingham.
Specsavers IT accounts manager Chris Corbin explains: “Every time a customer places an order for contact lenses on the web site, we call them to verify that the prescription is correct before dispatching the lenses. That sometimes means checking with an optician at another company. It is not only about customer service, it is also a duty of care.”
“Before, call centre staff recorded information on spreadsheets and by hand. Now the system is more integrated. We can now do customer searches and pull up historical records very quickly,” Corbin adds. “Using Epiphany, staff can now pull up buying records and have a multichannel view – it seems to create a much more personal relationship with customers.”
The Specsavers call centre also handles inbound queries and the CRM system assists with this too. Corbin says: “In addition, customers can call the centre for dispatch dates and other queries. Previously, our ability to record the customer interaction was limited. We therefore looked for a solution that would improve the customer experience and the Infor system came out top in our analysis.”
He adds that the call centre is now becoming a focal point for customer service, freeing up resources in stores “Customers are now calling our contact centre with queries rather than calling stores direct, which takes a lot of pressure off store staff,” he says.
Another to recognise this is JJB Sports TV shopping division, which sells products via two home shopping channels and a web site. It purchased a contact centre solution from Amcat earlier this year, both to assist with inbound queries and to support its longer-term goal of initiating outbound marketing campaigns. The software allows it to create profiles of existing customers who are likely to be receptive to special offers and promotions and then create outbound calling lists for specific campaigns.
Still think that customer service outside of stores is no big deal? Well think again. In the Genesys survey 53 per cent of consumers said that they have stopped doing business with a company in the past solely because of a poor call centre experience.
Most contact centres are managed as a resource to deal with incoming requests, according to Genesys’ research. But customers are happy for businesses to be more proactive in building relationships and are happy to have suppliers communicate with them. 78 per cent of UK consumers surveyed said that they would like to hear about additional products and services – creating cross- and upselling opportunities. Some retailers have recognised this and are now beginning to use their customer service agents for more proactive outbound calling.
Specsavers has implemented Epiphany CRM software from Infor at its call centre in Nottingham.
Specsavers IT accounts manager Chris Corbin explains: “Every time a customer places an order for contact lenses on the web site, we call them to verify that the prescription is correct before dispatching the lenses. That sometimes means checking with an optician at another company. It is not only about customer service, it is also a duty of care.”
“Before, call centre staff recorded information on spreadsheets and by hand. Now the system is more integrated. We can now do customer searches and pull up historical records very quickly,” Corbin adds. “Using Epiphany, staff can now pull up buying records and have a multichannel view – it seems to create a much more personal relationship with customers.”
The Specsavers call centre also handles inbound queries and the CRM system assists with this too. Corbin says: “In addition, customers can call the centre for dispatch dates and other queries. Previously, our ability to record the customer interaction was limited. We therefore looked for a solution that would improve the customer experience and the Infor system came out top in our analysis.”
He adds that the call centre is now becoming a focal point for customer service, freeing up resources in stores “Customers are now calling our contact centre with queries rather than calling stores direct, which takes a lot of pressure off store staff,” he says.
Another to recognise this is JJB Sports TV shopping division, which sells products via two home shopping channels and a web site. It purchased a contact centre solution from Amcat earlier this year, both to assist with inbound queries and to support its longer-term goal of initiating outbound marketing campaigns. The software allows it to create profiles of existing customers who are likely to be receptive to special offers and promotions and then create outbound calling lists for specific campaigns.
Still think that customer service outside of stores is no big deal? Well think again. In the Genesys survey 53 per cent of consumers said that they have stopped doing business with a company in the past solely because of a poor call centre experience.
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