Achieving Customer Service Success Through Service Resolution Management
Todays volatile market environment requires companies of all sizes to do more with less to work smarter, faster and harder, while remaining agile, responsive and customer-focused. Most organizations recognize that customer satisfaction is essential to retaining customers and staying ahead of the competition. However, enterprise customer service groups are tasked with finding ways to get customers the answers they need more quickly, more accurately and more consistently, while reducing costs. In order to meet these challenges, organizations must turn to service resolution management.
There are three steps of customer service transactions routing, case tracking and service resolution. The SSPA 2003 Support Industry Benchmark Study reported that routing calls was only 5 percent of the cost of providing customer service, 15 percent was the case management portion, and service resolution accounts for 80 percent of the cost of providing customer service. This is due to a number of factors which include disparate information, agent turnover and a lack of repeatable guiding processes. The numbers are eye-opening and are causing organizations to take a closer look at the process around the overall customer service experience. By optimizing the resolution process, a company can dramatically reduce the overall cost of providing service and create happy and loyal customers as a result.
Effective service requires knowledge-driven resolution across the entire service life cycle by contextually integrating knowledge transfer into the resolution process at any point and enabling service organizations to reduce time-to-resolution of customer problems, said Tim Hickernell of Meta Group.
The mature segments of the customer service market are routing and case management. Routing is a well-automated process; most companies already have a routing system in place to properly and efficiently route service calls to the right department or agent within an organization. Obviously, this is a key component to customer support. However, it is only the first step.
The next step is case management, which manages customer contacts or correspondence. Case management tools allow companies to build a record of those contacts and customer history so the enterprise can maintain relevance and begin to build a relationship with the customer. A successful framework of service resolution management is built with a knowledge base of customer data and information. Organizations must build a knowledge base for customer service agents with a holistic view into the customer life cycle. Information in the knowledge base should consist of how many times a particular customer has called, what type of calls they have made in the past, and should also list which products and services the customer has purchased. However, while these tools are an essential part of the customer service process and are absolutely necessary to automate and manage a call center, they are only the beginning of the process around the customer experience. The goal of customer service is to provide answers to the customer. Call routing automation and case management are not the tools that actually accomplish that task.
The third and most vital step in a customer service transaction is service resolution. By definition, service resolution is the multistep process of resolving customer issues or requests. In order to resolve a customer issue/request, customer service agents must go through several steps. Included in the service resolution process are five different stages: discovery, research, collaboration, capture and resolve. An example of each step in the process helps further identify why the resolution process can result in significant costs if not carefully managed. Below outlines an example of a wireless subscriber contacting his vendor about roaming charges.
- Discovery: Understanding the context of the customer issue and the relevant circumstances under which a problem has occurred. In this step the agent must pull up the customers most recent bill, examine the charges and confirm the client was out of his service area during the times in question. This requires interfacing with the billing system and speaking to the customer about his travel while also explaining the service area requirements and restrictions.
- Research: The process of searching for a solution to a customer problem, often continued as offline research and testing if the issue cannot be determined during the first customer contact. If the customer is a profitable one, the carrier will likely want to offer a solution that includes a reduction of costs, or alternative coverage plan, that will better suit his needs. The agent needs to review historical data on the customer, including billing records, length of contract and typical calling patterns. To do so, the agent may need to check multiple databases. Once that is complete, the agent will likely check a number of different plans the carrier offers in order to make the appropriate recommendations.
- Collaboration: Joint communication with known expert resources such as discussion threads, tier-2 support, or formal escalations. Before making a plan change, or offering a discount to the customer, the agent may need to check with a manager for official sign-off. Additionally, the agent may want to connect with peers to discuss the most appropriate solution to offer. This will involve incorporating more customer service representatives and escalation of situations over email or online chat, among many other communication tools.
- Capture: The process of recording the data and knowledge developed during the problem resolution process to be used for analytical purposes. Once the suggested solution is agreed upon, the agent must record the decision in a central database so that fellow agents can access the solution when faced with a similar situation and so that the problem can be analyzed to ensure fewer customers face the issue in the future.
- Resolve: The final stage of the service resolution process is the creation, delivery and, if necessary, installation of the customer solution. The new pricing option then must be presented to the customer, a new contract must be created and new information mailed to the customer. Again, this may involve multiple databases and additional departments within the company.
Once the agent is armed with the correct answer, they then need to deliver the solution to the customer. This could involve providing the best solution and offering alternative solutions while also not missing an opportunity to cross-sell or upsell. A service resolution application interfaces with existing case management or call center applications and optimizes the existing process. An effective service resolution application solves the customer issue by understanding the customers request and providing the customer service agent with the right tools, information and guidance.
A complete service resolution process involves several touch points with the customer such as phone, email, chat and self-service. The service agents job is easier when these communication tools are integrated with tools such as search, collaboration, authoring, response and knowledge bases. Workflow on top of each solution further streamlines the process and reduces time spent on service resolution.
Benefits in implementing a service resolution strategy include reduction in call handling time as agents have quick access to the right information, reduced agent training costs and significantly reduced agent turnover. As much or even more importantly as the issue of cost reduction, service resolution has the biggest impact on customer satisfaction and customer retention. Through proper service resolution management, organizations improve the quality of customer service with quick, consistent and accurate answers.
A strong example of service resolution management success can be found in Xerox Corp.
The Company
A leading provider of color and black-and-white digital printers, digital presses, multifunction devices and digital copiers, as well as a broad range of services, solutions and software.
The Challenge
Improve customer service by providing a robust knowledge base application to assist customers and deliver a global customer self-service Web site for use in the Xerox welcome centers and directly by customers through Xerox.com.
The SRM Solution
A knowledge base integrated with email management for self- and assisted-production support.
The Results
Online knowledge base now includes hundreds of products to support more than 30,000 search sessions per day as well as localized content for seven languages and more than 20 countries.
Xerox Corp. is a $15.7 billion technology and services enterprise that helps businesses deploy smart document management strategies and find better ways to work. Its intent is to constantly lead with innovative technologies, products and solutions that customers can depend on to improve business results.
Xerox provides the document industrys broadest portfolio of offerings. Digital systems include color and black-and-white printing and publishing systems, digital presses and book factories, multifunction devices, laser and solid ink network printers, copiers and fax machines. Xeroxs services expertise is unmatched and includes helping businesses develop online document archives, analyzing how employees can most efficiently share documents and knowledge in the office, operating in-house print shops or mailrooms, and building Web-based processes for personalizing direct mail, invoices, brochures and more. Xerox also offers associated software, support and supplies such as toner, paper and ink.
In 2000, the company took a closer look at how it was managing customer issues within its global welcome centers and determined that there had to be a better, more cost-effective way to handle customer requests. At the time, customer inquiries were handled through call centers around the globe by call center representatives working with dated knowledge-base technology.
To further complicate the situation, Xerox manages a global customer base and any consistent solution needed to include localized content for more than 20 countries and at least seven languages. We needed to be multinational, multilingual and serve our customers from a single location using the Internet inside and outside the firewall, said George Barnes, Xerox e-business manager.
Another important goal was to streamline the knowledge base of shared information between the customer portal and welcome center agents. Previous efforts within the company had resulted in several different interfaces and technologies supporting customers and support centers differently by product line, by geography and often only in one language. A single solution architecture was needed to streamline the process and provide a more consistent knowledge source for customers and support agents.
The CRM Solution Combines Ease Of Use And Web Channel Issue Resolution With Full Support For Localization Requirements
Although Xerox had experience with a number of customer relationship management applications, it needed a solution capable of supporting multiple languages within its knowledge base, as well as the capacity to be flexible and easy to use for customers and agents. Knowledgepowered SRM solutions were just the answer Xerox needed.
Under the plan that Xerox initiated, agents and customers would be assisted with a robust knowledge base and automated email functionality.
The email management system provides Xerox customers with world-class assisted service with fast, high volume, intelligent, automated email, Web and instant messaging request management. In addition, the knowledge base enables Xerox customers and representatives the ability to quickly and accurately locate the information they need, resulting in increased customer satisfaction and agent productivity all while reducing queue times and low-value interactions.
The Results: Improved Efficiency And Customer Satisfaction, While Increasing Customer Search Sessions
The deployment of the SRM solutions allows Xerox to provide information on our ever-expanding product lines directly to customers and via our welcome centers. As we launch new products we are able to build out our knowledge base with up-to-date product information in the required languages necessary to support our global customer base, said Barnes. We manage close to 30,000 search sessions per day and that number continues to climb. Without knowledge-powered customer service applications, we would probably not have succeeded in beating our cost savings goals while still delivering the benchmark level of service demanded by our customers.
