HOW YOUR CONTACT CENTER CAN HELP BUILD YOUR BRAND

When your customers contact you to order a product, ask a service question, request technical assistance or review a bill, are you delivering on your brand's promise?

The 2005 Aspect Contact Center Satisfaction Index™, the first independent study of its kind, surveyed 1,000 randomly selected consumers and 150 contact center decision makers in North America to find out if what consumers want from their contact center interactions matches what companies think they are delivering.

The gap that the Aspect Index revealed between consumer expectations versus consumer experience earned contact centers a D+ on their report card, which doesn't bode well for their brands.

You know that even if your company has established a great brand presence in the marketplace via promotional materials, advertising and public relations, its customers can still be disappointed when they actually make contact.

And, if that happens, the best marketing in the world may not save their accounts.

Getting customers to knock on the door is an important part of the battle. But getting them to knock again and again and again will go a lot further toward winning the war.

Like the ripple effect from a pebble thrown in a pond, one great experience can translate into repeat business from an impressed consumer as well as new business from that consumer's friends and colleagues.

But the pebble can also land with a thud on the pond bank.

The Aspect Index revealed that only 70 percent of surveyed consumers believed the service they received was consistent with the image the company presented. A contact center's actions obviously speak louder than its company's words of customer commitment.

Your company's brand can be at risk if customers find themselves:

1. Lost in a maze of automated self-service options without an easy way to reach a person
2. Trapped in on-hold purgatory with no indication of wait time,
3. Transferred multiple times or asked repeatedly for information already provided
4. Assigned to a poorly trained or inadequately skilled agent who is not empathetic to their needs

Aggravated customers will relive their frustration every time your company's name is mentioned or they come across a visual representation of the brand. That is a negative association you certainly want to avoid, but how?

INSTILL A PHILOSOPHY THAT 'RINGS' TRUE

From day one, contact center agents should have a strong sense of the power they wield. They are not only the "face" customers see; they are the backbone that supports them. Agents need to see how their knowledge, attitude and adherence to schedule have a measurable, demonstrable, daily impact on the business.

These jobs are too often defined by the routine of answering one call after another, responding to one e-mail after another or participating in one Web chat after another. The image of assembly line workers waiting for the whistle to blow comes to mind. It is true that they are building something, but not cars or computers or cable boxes. They are building relationships.

Every routine customer contact represents a unique opportunity — the chance to impress, to listen, to empathize, to sell, to serve ... to build a brand that customers respect, admire and want to do business with continuously.

If this perspective dominates a contact center's culture from interviewing and hiring through training and coaching and working, the positive impact will be measurable.

TAKE YOUR TECHNOLOGY'S TEMPERATURE

How do you know if your technology is running hot or cold? Compare what it is delivering with what your customers want.

Sometimes technology has impressive capabilities that will not actually have a significantly positive effect on your customers' satisfaction levels. You have to first find out what matters to your customers in order to know what should matter to you, your company and your brand.

A survey could be just what the doctor ordered. After all, to make a correct diagnosis, physicians avoid making assumptions and let their patients do the talking. For example, consider asking your customers some of these questions:

1. How important is first-call resolution to you on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being "extremely important" and 1 being "not important"?
2. How important is easy access to live assistance as needed on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being "extremely important" and 1 being "not important"?
3. What interactions would you like to be able to complete without having to speak with a live agent?
4. How long are you willing to wait for live assistance before abandoning your contact? 20 seconds, 30 seconds, 60 seconds, 90 seconds? 2 minutes? 3 to 5 minutes?
5. How important is it for an agent to have quick access to your account history on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being "extremely important" and 1 being "not important"?
6. How likely is it that an agent's professionalism and knowledge will be a deciding factor in whether you continue to do business with the company on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being "will definitely have an impact," and 1 being "will not have an impact"?
7. How important is it that you experience the same quality of service when you contact the company via phone, e-mail or Web chat on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being "extremely important" and 1 being "not important"?
8. If you need to speak with a live agent, would you prefer to remain on hold until one becomes available or have the ability to schedule a time for an agent to call you back?
9. How valuable is learning how long you will have to wait before a live agent becomes available on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being "very valuable" and 1 being "not valuable"?
10. How likely is a bad service experience to lead you to take your business elsewhere on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being "very likely" and 1 being "not likely"?

Your customers' feedback can be invaluable in helping you decide how and which contact center technologies can best support your branding initiative.

TRAIN THE TROOPS

You have adopted the philosophy and the technology that is right for your brand. Now, how your staff applies them in the real world, in real time, every time is what can make a noticeable difference to your customers and your bottom line.

When new-hire orientation ends, training should continue. The more your staff knows about the ins and outs of the entire operation and how their actions have an impact on brand perception, the more involved and committed they are likely to become.

Education should be an ongoing priority, not an afterthought.

For example, assume you have installed technology designed to meet the specific needs your customers have identified, but the return on investment you expected has not materialized. Look closely at whether your staff knows how to use the technology optimally.

Have they been fully trained by skilled, knowledgeable people? Can they translate "textbook" material for effective use in the dynamic environment of an actual contact center? Are they up to date on the features and functionality of the latest upgrade?

You may hesitate to pull staff away from the pressing responsibilities of their daily jobs to focus on training, but the long-term results will be worth it.

BE BRAND-CONSCIOUS

When customers associate a logo, slogan or jingle with your brand, you want them to have an emotional response — a feeling of personal connection that elicits a desire to do business with the company again and again.

How much more personal can you get than one-to-one contact?

The contact center is a strategic channel for associating your company with service excellence in support of its brand. If you and your staff are brand-conscious, your customers will make the connection too.