 The Importance of High Quality Services Provided to Customers by Customer Contact Centres Dr Adrian Ioannou CYS External Associate October 2010

Contents 1Introduction 2Definitions 3Customer Satisfaction 4Coaching 5Criticisms on Customer Contact Centres 6Conclusion

PricewaterhouseCoopers Today’s successful companies are the ones who continuously keep their finger on the pulse of what their Customers think, no where this is more true than in the Customer Contact Centre. In Customer Contact Centres the quality of Customer interaction has traditionally been measured using quantitative measures of call answering and subjective checks on the quality of the interaction. Introduction Slide 3 October 2010Seminar for SMEs Using Standards in a Service Oriented Economy

PricewaterhouseCoopers Definitions Customer Contact Centre A contact center (also referred to as a customer interaction center or e-contact center) is a central point in an enterprise from which all customer contacts are managed. The contact center typically includes one or more online call centers but may include other types of customer contact as well, including newsletters, postal mail catalogs, Web site inquiries and chats, and the collection of information from customers during in-store purchasing.. A contact center is generally part of an enterprise's overall customer relationship management (CRM). Slide 4 October 2010Seminar for SMEs Using Standards in a Service Oriented Economy

PricewaterhouseCoopers Quality The totality of features and characteristics either stated or implied of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy a given need. Definitions Slide 5 October 2010Seminar for SMEs Using Standards in a Service Oriented Economy

PricewaterhouseCoopers Getting better Information “If you don’t measure it, you cannot manage it” Definitions Slide 6 October 2010Seminar for SMEs Using Standards in a Service Oriented Economy

PricewaterhouseCoopers A Customer’s satisfaction with a Contact Centre interaction needs to be obtained in a way that is: Objective- actual customer opinions Immediate- opinions obtained immediately after interaction Continuous- in monitoring of satisfaction needs Significant- statistically significant and representative data Measurable- data to be analysed trend changes highlighted Actionable- information availability to be quickly presented Visible- the process has to be visible to your customers. Customer satisfaction Slide 7 October 2010Seminar for SMEs Using Standards in a Service Oriented Economy

PricewaterhouseCoopers An important aspect closely related to a Contact Centre is Coaching. Effective call quality Coaching is in fact more important than just merely evaluating customer interactions. It is the process of effectively providing feedback to the service representatives on both the performing as well as the improvement areas pertaining to the particular evaluated call. The concept of Coaching in contact centre is similar to coaching in sports, whereby the Coach is responsible to provide guidance, share knowledge and experiences, motivate, train and set improvement goals or targets for the service representatives.. The ultimate objective is to convert the service representatives to high performers. Coaching Slide 8 October 2010Seminar for SMEs Using Standards in a Service Oriented Economy

PricewaterhouseCoopers These follow a number of common themes from callers: [18] [18] Operators working from a script Non-expert operators (call screening) Incompetent or untrained operators incapable of processing customers' requests effectively [19] [19] Overseas location, with language and accent problems Touch tone menu systems and automated queuing systems Excessive waiting times to be connected to an operator Complaints that departments of companies do not engage in communication with one another Deceit over location of call centre Requiring the caller to repeat the same information multiple times. Criticisms on Customer Contact Centres Slide 9 October 2010Seminar for SMEs Using Standards in a Service Oriented Economy

PricewaterhouseCoopers In today’s customer-driven market, we all expect the services to get better, quicker, and more effective. And it is for the call centres to reach the level of the expectations, but not at the cost of their employees. The management has to realize that their organization cannot make the customers happy as long as their employees remain unhappy. And the sooner the management wakes up to the importance of this symbiotic relationship, the better it is. Those companies who won’t, will be losing out on their business and profits in a matter of time. Conclusion Slide 10 October 2010Seminar for SMEs Using Standards in a Service Oriented Economy

 Thank you © 2010 PricewaterhouseCoopers. All rights reserved. “PricewaterhouseCoopers” refers to the network of member firms of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, each of which is a separate and independent legal entity.