The Customer Service Survey
Getting the Little Stuff Right
Mon - May 22, 2006 02:28 PM in
I think it is an immutable law of nature that in any organization it's easier to do big projects than it is to get the little stuff right. Everyone wants to be involved in the big sexy CRM project, but nobody wants to spend time making sure phone sales reps have ready access to marketing literature.
I've seen some of the most sophisticated call centers do some head-slappingly stupid things. The marketing department failing to tell the call center and warehouse about upcoming promotions is almost a cliche.
I've also heard about things like commissioned sales agents not being given direct extensions (forcing them to hand out personal cell phone numbers if a customer wants to keep working with the same salesperson), and software companies which switch to product activation schemes without budgeting for the additional support time required.
IVR systems which don't allow a caller to "back up" are distressingly common, as are "single phone number" schemes which force customers to go through an agent on the other side of the planet in order to talk to someone at a branch location two blocks away.
And don't forget the reorganizations and mergers which leave customers confused about who to call for service--or worse, without anyonein the company who is trained and authorized to service their accounts.
Many of these kinds of problems are cheap and easy to fix if someone at a high enough level discovers the issue and takes an interest in correcting it. The root causes are usually apathy, confusion, organizational indifference, risk aversion, and the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. And often the problems are well known (to those in the trenches), or can be easily discovered just by taking a fresh look at how things do or don't work.
Unfortunately, making lots of small changes to correct organizational stupidity isn't usually seen as the best way to advance a career. The thinking goes that you want to be on the big project with the big budget in order to be on the path to glory.
That's too bad. It's usually best to make sure you're doing the little stuff right before spending time and money on giant expensive projects.
Posted by Peter Leppik
I've also heard about things like commissioned sales agents not being given direct extensions (forcing them to hand out personal cell phone numbers if a customer wants to keep working with the same salesperson), and software companies which switch to product activation schemes without budgeting for the additional support time required.
IVR systems which don't allow a caller to "back up" are distressingly common, as are "single phone number" schemes which force customers to go through an agent on the other side of the planet in order to talk to someone at a branch location two blocks away.
And don't forget the reorganizations and mergers which leave customers confused about who to call for service--or worse, without anyonein the company who is trained and authorized to service their accounts.
Many of these kinds of problems are cheap and easy to fix if someone at a high enough level discovers the issue and takes an interest in correcting it. The root causes are usually apathy, confusion, organizational indifference, risk aversion, and the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. And often the problems are well known (to those in the trenches), or can be easily discovered just by taking a fresh look at how things do or don't work.
Unfortunately, making lots of small changes to correct organizational stupidity isn't usually seen as the best way to advance a career. The thinking goes that you want to be on the big project with the big budget in order to be on the path to glory.
That's too bad. It's usually best to make sure you're doing the little stuff right before spending time and money on giant expensive projects.
Posted by Peter Leppik
Posted at 02:28 PM | | | | |