The Customer Service Survey
VocaLabs' weblog providing news and commentary on the challenges of providing good customer service.
Bad Habits Die Hard
Monday - January 09, 2006 04:41 PM in
Just about the time I start on a rant about there being nothing new in the call center sphere that hasn't been written about, presented ad-nauseam or consulted over time and again, I get kicked with a dose of reality. Happened again today. I read most of the trade press and available White Papers plus get the innumerable invitations to some seminar/webinar or trade show promising to fill me with new insights about the importance of focusing on customer centric issues. On review, they're all variations on the same theme: Traditional call center measurements that focus on operations rather than serving the caller are misdirected. Design around a positive customer experience first and good service will result has been said so often that I just assume most everyone gets it by now.
But I was wrong. A major business enterprise has hired a consultant and charged him with fixing an IVR in which too great a percentage of callers are opting out to a live attendant. The consultant is asking us for help in measuring the success of changes, but not once in the several conversations was it brought up that the goal was to better serve the caller. No, the goal is to increase IVR containment. Never mind that a frustrated caller who hangs up is usually considered a contained call and that few systems have the capability of telling what percent of calls are second or third attempts. Never mind that the caller knows going in whether the issue can be resolved within the IVR or needs human assistance. Never mind that touch toning in long strings of account numbers takes the caller longer than just talking to a real person.
I have every confidence the consultant will receive many thousands of dollars coming up with "something" that will better keep callers inside the IVR. And I have every confidence that customer satisfaction will not improve much, and that within a year or two when the next manager sees lackluster performance and containment scores sliding down again the cycle will repeat.
Posted by Rick Rappe'
I have every confidence the consultant will receive many thousands of dollars coming up with "something" that will better keep callers inside the IVR. And I have every confidence that customer satisfaction will not improve much, and that within a year or two when the next manager sees lackluster performance and containment scores sliding down again the cycle will repeat.
Posted by Rick Rappe'
Posted at 04:41 PM by | | | |