The Customer Service Survey
VocaLabs' weblog providing news and commentary on the challenges of providing good customer service.
The Wow Factor
Tuesday - September 20, 2005 03:53 PM in
When we're at a trade show or giving a demo for a prospective client, there's usually one point in our demonstration where the client's eyebrows go up, and we sometimes even get a verbal "wow." I've already gotten the "wow" a couple times today here at ACCE.
That point is where we show how we can match an individual call recording with the survey response from the same person.
Like sticky notes, the value of this capability isn't always obvious until you get a chance to use it. In many companies, call recordings and customer surveys are done by two completely separate groups, so there isn't even anyone thinking about the big picture. Many people don't even realize that this is possible.
One reason this matching is so powerful is because most customer service calls--even in a badly-performing call center--basically go pretty well. So if you're just listening to lots of recordings, you have to go through a lot of OK calls before you find one which is really interesting. Interesting in the sense of "that was a really bad call, let's see what we can do to keep that from happening again." Having survey data available lets you quickly cut through the uninteresting stuff, since the customers themselves will tell you where you've got problems.
Another important point is being able to do a reality-check on negative reports. For example, sometimes an agent may just be doing her job by telling a caller "no." If that caller becomes upset, he may misrepresent what happened on the call (i.e. "The agent was very rude and swore at me.") in order to get the agent in trouble. Being able to review that particular call recording instantly uncovers the truth.
With just survey data or just call recordings it is very hard to go from high-level survey results or individual recordings to specific things to change in order to improve customer service. But when you can make the connection between the two, identifying action items becomes easy and natural.
And that's why we get the "wow."
Posted by Peter Leppik
Like sticky notes, the value of this capability isn't always obvious until you get a chance to use it. In many companies, call recordings and customer surveys are done by two completely separate groups, so there isn't even anyone thinking about the big picture. Many people don't even realize that this is possible.
One reason this matching is so powerful is because most customer service calls--even in a badly-performing call center--basically go pretty well. So if you're just listening to lots of recordings, you have to go through a lot of OK calls before you find one which is really interesting. Interesting in the sense of "that was a really bad call, let's see what we can do to keep that from happening again." Having survey data available lets you quickly cut through the uninteresting stuff, since the customers themselves will tell you where you've got problems.
Another important point is being able to do a reality-check on negative reports. For example, sometimes an agent may just be doing her job by telling a caller "no." If that caller becomes upset, he may misrepresent what happened on the call (i.e. "The agent was very rude and swore at me.") in order to get the agent in trouble. Being able to review that particular call recording instantly uncovers the truth.
With just survey data or just call recordings it is very hard to go from high-level survey results or individual recordings to specific things to change in order to improve customer service. But when you can make the connection between the two, identifying action items becomes easy and natural.
And that's why we get the "wow."
Posted by Peter Leppik
Posted at 03:53 PM by | | | |