Let’s assume once and for all that customer service is key for the success of a campaign. And those necessary processes must be established and planned to create and sustain Customer Service, with capacity to adapt to their changes and at an optimum cost.

A lot of the things that are said about Customer Service focus on how the complaint is handled, when in reality it is a hyper complex process that has multiple corners and sometimes, streets with no way out.

• NTF – No TroubleFound– Trouble not found, unable to play.

• One Off, it has been a unique case and it is not explainable.

However, multiple studies try to shed some light on this hole in the income statements of a lot of many companies. This metrics can help to explain the importance of the Customer Service.

*Only 4% of the unsatisfied customers contact. In percentage and generally the companies don’t receive any information of the 96% of their unsatisfied customers. This number is crazy and it shows that there is much more to do in this field, and the hole that can cause on the income statement. There can be several reasons for that to happen/ the reasons can be diverse, between those/ but among others:

 ·         Lack of communication channels

·         Not having necessary resources to listen to them

·         Not having the means to be able to attend them

·         Simply due to the lack of interest from the company

In the days of correctional politics that we are living right now, companies reputation must remain untainted; However, the bad customer service is a reputational leak that can do a lot of damage to the company.

Every 6 complaints received; there are 24 customers with problems and another 6 with serious problems.

Here are three hidden ideas that are of great importance:

 1.         The number of complaints can lead us to deception and therefore to complacency: We may have much bigger problems than we think!

2.         To have an order of magnitude, for each complaint received, the reality is that on average you will have four times more clients with problems, only they will never contact you and you will probably lose the recurrence in the sale.

3.         For each complaint received, you will have another customer with similar problems, but perhaps not as serious, so they may not complain… but they will be an unsatisfied customer.

Following the Zero Flaws Policy, in this sense, is crucial to analyze the occurrences of failure modes in the customers and establish long-term action plans that kill the problems with emergency actions, containment actions and permanent actions.

A lot of customers don’t believe that is worth complaining

In this aspect, three types of profiles are usually found: 

• Those who think that the complaint takes a lot of time and effort, so they just give up.
• Others are probably interested, but don’t know where to start.
• And a third group are the sceptics who doubt they will be treated effectively since they have had very negative past experiences.

And you, which group are you?

The problem of these clients with problems who nevertheless do not complain is that they will most likely not repeat purchases in our business, so the recurrence will fall. Rather we can say that they are much closer to not working with us again.

4. Customers who complain and have a satisfactory customer service experience have a high probability of continuing to do business with us.

Good customer service, which also adds value and does it instantly, not wasting the user’s time,

• Makes him feel important.

• Builds loyalty to the brand, since it reinforces the idea that the user has made a good purchase.

In contrast, customers who complain and have a negative customer service experience are twice as likely to report their negative experience as customers with a good experience to report theirs. And this is a double-edged sword.

 5. Social networks have become speakers of unsatisfied customers.

We have already commented that the vast majority of customers do not complain, and yet they exist.

In the same way, if those who complain do not have an adequate customer service experience, they can resort to social networks to give voice and be a speaker of a situation that they consider unfair. It is in these moments when the clamour becomes exponential.

It is only necessary to take a short walk through social networks to realize that companies can become exposed to public ridicule without any shame in a matter of seconds and a click away. In addition, this battle is almost always won by the user.

6. Metrics you should be able to measure for your business.

Are you able to measure the following KPI’s?

 – The % of clients that are lost per year due to poor service: as a reference, 10-15%: if you are higher, you should consider an immediate Action Plan. If you are below, also, because your goal must be zero.

– The % of customers that are lost throughout the entire sales process – the famous ChurnRate: this metric is not easy to calculate, but it is essential to know where your customers disappear throughout the purchase process

– % of cases in which the problems have their origin in misinterpretation, or simply not reading or not understanding the instructions for use: some companies have taken drastic solutions in this regard, and as a button, IKEA, which does not write its instructions: everything are scenes and symbols, which must have the ability to be equally interpreted regardless of culture or level of studies.

 – % of cases that simply ask for more information: this feedback is really interesting because it allows us to understand the customer, collect information from him and bring together failure modes for future much more robust and powerful versions of our product.

Overall, it is all about establishing a strategy to:

• Do it perfectly to not bother the customer; that means that we will be doing it right. All that is not going into that direction will be a Poor Quality Cost. For example, a system that ensures that the customer has the information that needs is much better than another that provides this necessary information only when the customer complaints.

• If it has to complain, put out a red carpet: we are a Customer Centric company and we recognize how difficult it is to get a customer. In addition, we value the contributions you can make to improve our product.

Conclusions

Gaining the ability to quantify with numbers and truthfully what the client wants to say, what the symptom has been, differentiate the symptom from the problem and carry out an exhaustive analysis of it are not trivial activities and require a robust process and dedicated staff, dedicated and with problem solving skills.

It is essential to know where we are in terms of guarantees, the main contributors to them, and to understand the rationale of why they happen. If we are able to quantify them and this number is also truthful, we will be able to really gain traction and advance in our intention to be more competitive and gain market share.

Let’s never forget that it is much more difficult to get a customer than to keep one. And that in times of recession, good customer service can be a lifesaver against competitors who base their strategy basically on price.

There are long-term benefits too: in many industries, new product ideas are developed and refined by customers: this needs a very close relationship between both parties to reap benefits in both directions.

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Natural Languaje Processment or NLP is one of the greatest advances of the Artificial Intelligence and a key tool inside a contact center. We tell you more.

The concept of PLN encompasses codifying, understanding, interpreting and knowing how to use the language of the human being. Machines that listen to us and understand us, that go through language barriers, which extract information from our conversations, spoken or written, to improve the customer experience. This is how a contact center uses NLP.

¿What is NLP?

In simple terms, Natural Language Processment, or NLP, is a form of Artificial Intelligence that allows a digital application to understand the human being language, either way spoken or written.

NLP applications use the computers to translate languages, convert voice to text and text to voice and to create conversational agents similar to humans, the famous chatbot, to help the employees, customers and partners of an organization to deal with problems, questions and concerns.

NLP uses two main methods to process speech: syntactic analysis and semantic analysis. Syntactic analysis applies rules about sentence structure (syntax) to derive part of the meaning of what is said. Natural Language Processing complements this with semantic analysis, which attempts to extract the true meaning of words. Algorithms translate spoken words into a format that the computer can use.

Although many improvements have been made, the PLN is still not perfect. For example, it has the difficulty to detect some conversational nuances such as sarcasm. We already know that a “yes, of course” sometimes means the opposite. Also, speech habits such as a thick accent, slang, muttering, or stuttering can mess it up.

Maybe this natural processing thing may sound like science fiction to you, but you don’t need to go far to find it. Surely you have ever talked to Siri; Alexa has told you a joke o have asked Google about the weather. They are all examples of NLP.

The evolution of contact center

When was the last time you called a company on the phone? Today’s consumers have a range of channels to communicate with companies. For example, an email, a message, social networks or a chat. Each user chooses the option that is most comfortable for him.

In addition to being omnichannel, today’s contact centers are data-driven. Companies have a large amount of digital data about their customers and, with Artificial Intelligence and Big Data, they can process this data and use it to respond, in the most accurate and relevant way possible, to incoming inquiries and complaints made by customers to their contact center.

In the hands of a contact center company, the data base has ceased to be an element with which to establish commercial actions/trade and has become a tool to make life easier to the workers and customers.

AlI in the contact center

If you have ever exchanged SMS with a customer service bot or have chatted with one, you have already experienced the Artificial Intelligence of a campaign in action. Artificial Intelligence is in constant evolution, These are some of the services that Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning tools can offer in a contact center:

Personalized Agent designation / Custom Agent Appointment

Artificial Intelligence playing matchmaker. And don’t worry; we don’t talk about Tinder in contact center times, but almost. AI ensures that calls go directly to the most appropriate agent for each of them, based on data about the customer’s query, the experience of each agent, the complexity of the call, etc.

Context is key

So simple yet so complicated, as knowing if the customer is angry before picking up the phone. Artificial Intelligence can analyze or detect the context of the contact center interaction using information such as historical data about the customer involved. That way, the agent knows how, when and why he acted the last time he had an interaction with the company.

How NLP speaks with the customers

Even though it is safe to say that you have already figured it out, NLP isn’t just about a chatbot o a conversational assistant. It really is any technology connected to the human being language, being this in a speaken voice or written text.

NLP can email from spam, categorize documents documents based on their text content, summarize relevant highlights from longer documents, automatically transcribe recorded voice conversations, convert written text to speech, and extract relevant clauses from a legal contract. Even transcribe, in real time, a conversation between agent and client.

In this way, PLN is useful in a contact center to decipher the meaning of what a customer says or writes, so that the best response can be provided as quickly as possible.

Sentiment analysis, the last barrier

Sentiment analysis and its importance in marketing. Imagine the importance of its correct application in a contact center. We are talking about getting the AI ​​to analyze the tone of voice and even the cadence of the language to detect the status of the caller.

The goal is to understand the customer’s emotions and the meaning of their words. The lack of the speech of a person who calls, Whether they pause, raise their voice, sound excited, bored or frustrated, can help the agent deal with that person more efficiently, to sell and to solve their problem , if there was any. It’s not just a matter of personal satisfaction, angry customers cost money. Studies suggest that calls involving anger or even cursing from the customer take 8 minutes longer to resolve. In addition to the bad experience for the agent, if time is money, the swear words are very expensive for contact centers.

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On the March 8th of 1857 the first women workers went down the New York City streets under the motto “bread & roses” to fight for their professional rights. Since then, every year in this date, it’s a commemoration of the role of the women in the society and their fight for the equality and independence. In this sense, the role of the women in the call center has supposed the start of the change for the collective.

Going back in time, although the work of women in the contact center reached its peak in the 1920s with the so-called “cable girls”, its origin takes back a long time ago, with the arrival of the telephone and the hiring of the first telemarketer.

Emma Nutt was the first telemarketer; pioneer in the sector, she already stood out in front of their masculine co-workers, due to her feminine qualities to confront the phone relationship with the customers. Just a few days since she started her work, her sister followed her steps in her professional career.

And since then, the presence of the women in the sector has done nothing but grow. In 2020, according to the study about the situation of the contact center created by The CEX Association, 71% of the people which are part of it are women. The reason for this predominance of women in the contact center would return us to the reasons for the success of the first telemarketer.

The qualities of a woman to have a satisfying experience

The increase of the feminization of this sector were already been noticed with Nutt, who stood out because of her soft voice tone, polite and patient. The empathy and sensibility when dealing with the delicate incidences are some of the strong points to offer a satisfactory customer experience adapted to every customer. With the arrival of the technology, the feminine profiles have proven a major capacity of adaptation and team work. All of that has favoured the presence of the woman in this job position, since the beginnings until this day.

Nowadays, in addition to the flexibility that this profession provides, the responsibility and the commitment to a job well done has promoted a bigger professional development for women in the customer experience sector. Although the presence of women in senior management positions is less common, there are many women who manage and coordinate contact centers on a daily basis.

  The leadership of the women in the contact center

As from the consumer’s point of view, connecting with a brand is crucial to establish the fidelization/loalty with the client, the leadership of the women in the sector of the contact center and experience of the customer stimulates a more daintiness in the customer service.

In addition, as the study made by Inbox Research proves, women provide a more strategic vision when working based on results, as well as having a bigger capacity to understand the requirements of teams. This study also highlights that companies that focus on a better way on the customer through these aspects are 60% more profitable than their competition.

In Spain, nowadays, there are many femenine profiles leading several contact centers. However, there is still a long way to go to achieve the visibility and recognition of the work carried out by the women in this sector.

www.mstholding.com

There are many companies that have a sales strategy in the various digital channels, however, there are few that have a digital strategy based on customer service. We are referring to having a customer service strategy for our users, with “real time” customer service, establishing the parameters for response times, a model in which we as companies can communicate with our customers on our own behalf, send notifications about new developments in our products and services, among a host of possibilities.

The adoption of digital channels represents the immediate future in Customer Service, for greater customer satisfaction.

After the start-up and implementation of customer service models, based on a digital strategy, we already have conclusive data in relation to the increase in the customer satisfaction index, as well as the return on investment in these channels. A digital strategy is justified by more than a 25% increase – in satisfaction rates – and a reduction of around 30% in the costs associated with care services.

The irruption of these Channels has meant an additional challenge to the mere fact of the implementation of new communication channels, more than ever our Customer Service Agents assume a key role in an environment in which the human factor and technology allow us to work in a 24/7, omnichannel model and in which we can personalise the “Customer Experience” to the maximum, without any doubts we are coining together a new term; Responsive Contact Centre.

From our Digital transformation unit @C3digital, I invite you to take a closer look at our Experience and Solutions in the face of this new challenge.

Javier Noguero | javier.noguero@mstholding.com
Strategy and Business Development Director
NNU / C3 Digital

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To celebrate the International Day of Education, we show you in 6 steps how to set up an eLearning system.

January 24th is International Education Day. Therefore, we want to help you to implement an eLearning training system to train your employees with our Cloud platform. In 6 steps you will be teaching your employees.

All changes need special attention. If you want to implement an eLearning system to train your Call Centre employees, you will have to introduce the changes following a few steps to ensure the success of the project. eAlicia have their own eLearning system and we can help you to set up your own.

Traditionally, classroom training has been considered the most effective. However, companies are incorporating training alternatives that allow them to be constantly retrained. They need to simplify the logistics of delivering training to different cities and countries, with different needs and levels of knowledge.

A feasible solution is to implement an e-learning system and combine it with face-to-face training. However, it can be difficult to introduce a new training system without a good introduction and proper management of the change.

It is essential to have a platform where you can upload your courses and your employees can access them from anywhere to take the exams or study the syllabus. At eAlicia we provide you with this platform where you can benefit from the many advantages it offers. Control the evaluation of your employees in real time, compare data and draw your own conclusions.

In order to implement an eLearning training system, we recommend you to take into account these 6 aspects:

1. Identify internal promoters.

There will probably be employees in your company who love new technologies. First of all, look for those who have used an e-learning system before, who are eager to add value or who are always motivated.

2. Involvement in the project.

Secondly, offer and motivate them to participate in the e-learning development and implementation project. You can involve them at different stages of the project. Some can be involved in the definition of the project, others in the choice of suppliers and the last ones in the planning of the communication. They can also be involved in the pilot tests.

3. Functionalities of internal promoters.

• Convey an attitude of constant learning and openness.
• Proactively intervene in part or all of the project. This involves attending meetings, preparing and developing ideas. But all of them should be eager to collaborate in promoting and talking about the project when the time comes.
• Be aware of the different groups of influence in the company. Identify other potential internal promoters of the project and potential detractors.
• Collaborate in the pilot tests for the implementation of e-learning, providing feedback on aspects to be improved and proposals for solutions.
• Actively participate in the communication process, training of other colleagues and expansion of the project to other areas, companies or countries.

4.Project development.

Internal project promoters love to be involved in the genesis of projects. Being able to define the objectives, scope, resources needed, distribution of tasks and deadlines will help them to know what they are participating in and what their objective is.

5. Communication and implementation.

Once the project has been tested with the group of volunteers and promoters, the communication part becomes one of the most important. It can include both formal and informal actions. I.e. sending an email informing about the project and the people involved in the pilot can be a sign of recognition.

Talking informally over lunch about the virtues and advantages of the project can help to change the perspective of other colleagues. Training or mentoring actions for other colleagues can be included. They can also participate in collecting feedback and improvements. Moreover, they can lead small discussion groups to apply the e-learning project to other areas of the company.

6. Evaluation and improvement.

Finally, monitoring the project is very important to ensure that it continues to progress and does not stagnate. The updating of content, the participation of the entire community of students or workers, and the measurement of results are the pillars of a successful e-learning project.

It is essential to have a platform where you can upload the courses and where your employees can access them from anywhere to take the exams or study the syllabus. At eAlicia we provide it and you will be able to enjoy the many advantages of this tool. Control the evaluation of your employees in real time, compare data and draw your own conclusions.

Do you want to set up your own eLearning system?

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The digital transformation of companies during the pandemic has been a great step

Throughout this bizarre year, many businesses have made the decision to implement their digital transformation or technological innovation plan to maintain their relationship with their customers in less than 6 months.

From C3 Digital we support businesses to rethink and reactivate their digital transformation and innovation plan to face the complexities that may appear in 2021.

According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, artificial intelligence acts as a catalyst for research and innovation for public administration, companies, social agents; making generation, storage and Big data an economic sector in itself in the new digital and technological development scene. This is having a strong transformative impact in multiple sectors of activity: environment, energy, logistics, industry, transport, mobility and logistics; among others.

Companies that work with artificial intelligence have seen accelerated both the development and use in their businesses. For this reason, it is understood that there is greater accessibility to the computing power, the frames and the algorithms necessary to apply it.

With everything we have learned from business this year, the growth of AI ensures customer knowledge, efficiency, and saves of the operational costs. The pandemic has also forced businesses to keep a close eye on their budgets. Some have resorted to RPA (Robotic Process Automation) and IPA (Intelligent Process Automation) to perform tasks in order to release employees to do other, more complex things.

Digital transformation, RPA

This has been a great focus of RPAs as we move towards higher levels of intelligent automation that links traditional robots used for process automation with intelligent processes powered by the cloud, Machine Learning and AI. Little by little the IOT (Internet of things) is gaining prevalence in business and we starting to see a confluence between IOT and AI. Now you can monitor, interact with the devices and store data with automatic processes.

We have been waiting for the benefits of 5G for years, but it wasn’t until remote working, video conferencing, and digital collaboration became central parts of our lives that it became a real benefit.

Another important input is customer data platforms (CDP). These help to collect data from all available sources, organize it, tag it and make it usable for anyone who needs to access it. Several technology companies are creating powerful CDPs to solve the challenge of obtaining the coveted 360 customer view.

Undoubtedly AI & Big data will continue to be a key trend in 2021. And more so when it comes to choose technologies to rethink business strategies and priorities. The pandemic has become businesses into being extremely analytical, predicting information in less than 3 months, learning from systems autonomously, and streamlining internal processes.

From C3 Digital we support companies to rethink and reactivate their digital transformation and innovation plan to face the complexities that may appear in 2021.

Do you really know the differences between multichannel and omnichannel? What communication strategy with the client would be the most convenient?

Rosa Cabanillas, Senior Consultant at C3, will discuss in the following article a clarifying topic about two terms that we hear frequently: multichannel and omnichannel.

Through our training, we hope to establish their differences. You may also find another interesting article on training: Has the end of face-to-face training come?

On the one hand, both words are based on similar concepts. Whereas in a literal multichannel translation it would be, “Multi” comes from the Latin multus (much, abundant); “Omni”, from omnis (all, all kinds of). “Omnichannel” refers, therefore, to the internal and interconnected use of all channels. On the other hand, the real difference between both concepts does not lie in the number of channels, but in the management strategy used to use the channels in relationships between clients and companies. And, therefore, the words chosen provide to mere differentiations in details.

Differences between multichannel and omnichannel

If we wanted to summarize it quickly, we could say that omnichannel is a management strategy in which all the channels between which the company and its client interact (possible or current) are presented to the client in a homogeneous and seamless way. That is, without differences in treatment or results between one or the other, and they are managed in a global and unified way, with a far vision removed from the classic treatment. While multi-channelling remains more on a technological level: the capability to include several channels (no matter the number, they can be two, three, or they can be all existing) in the relationship and interaction with the customer. In this case, we are talking about training and enabling these channels, but we are not talking about any type of strategy related to them.

We can also consider the separate definitions of both terms.

Multichannel

It deals with all the management and customer relationship tools that allow interaction with customers through incoming or outgoing contacts through any of the communication channels established by the company with customers. It offers a variety of channels and they can use one channel in a single interaction. If they change the channel, the context and the story are lost.

These tools began to gain strength at the beginning of 2000 to incorporate the voice, email, fax and SMS management. Over the years, all those communication channels that customers use in their daily communications between friends and family have been incorporated. The goal is to be closer and to empathize better. Today, we can establish multichannel communications with voice, email, fax, sms, chat, web, mobile apps, video calls, shared browsing, social networks, WhatsApp… In addition, more channels will be added over time.

Omnichannel

It is a term used to refer to a client management strategy. It Offers a choice of channels, and customers can use more than one in multiple interactions, preserving the history and context of the original inquiry at the same time. Relevant information follows the customer through channels and interactions.

This strategy addresses the entire life cycle of the customer’s relationship with the supplier company. A coherent, consistent and seamless communication and interaction is established through the different channels that the client wants to use to interact with the company. Mainly in physical stores (Retail), Internet, Mobile or the Contact Center. In order to achieve this omnichannel customer management, it is necessary to coordinate all the areas that interact, directly or indirectly with the customer.

Among the most used examples to illustrate the concept of omnichannel are usually innovations in the field of retail, where a customer, regardless of the channel used, receives a unified treatment. That customer who buys a product online, picks it up in a physical store, but later discovers that he needs a different size. Thanks to its mobile application, you can determine in which store near you have that size, go to it and make the change. During the whole process there have been no obstacles or different information.

We add the Multimodal term

It offers a variety of channels. Customers can use more than one in the same interaction. For example: an agent can send an email or SMS to a customer while talking on the phone.

Definitely, the most difference between multichannel and omnichannel is that while the first rarely allows us to jump between channels, in omnichannel the channel is transparent.

At the business level, omnichannel service is one that allows the use of different channels, both sequentially or simultaneously. Besides, they are fully integrated with the attention process and are aimed at ensuring a satisfactory customer experience.

It is almost obvious that to achieve the second, that is to offer omnichannel customer service, you have to go through the first, and, however, problems arise when an appropriate strategy is not implemented after the acquisition of the technology. Technology partners have great products that they integrate a large number of communication channels, allowing to join the information from all of them to be combined in an appropriate way. There are still a large number of companies that do not take advantage of these capabilities once acquired. Until the Business department includes the monitoring and improvement of the customer experience in the service processes within its strategy, it will not begin to take advantage of omnichannel technology.

One of the most common mistakes when implementing an omnichannel strategy is to confuse the need to attack all service processes from all available channels.

Successful omnichannel experience

Finally, and going back to the service processes in general, it is important to define the factors that define a successful omnichannel strategy:

1. Customers have used the different channels according to the degree of penetration of the use.
2. Customers have been able to put a process on hold on one channel and continue it without repeating the previous story from another channel.
3. Customer satisfaction levels regarding the service received are clearly positive.

 

Multichannel and Omnichannel Conclusions

It is interesting to see how those companies that have focused on omnichannel service processes also have simultaneously focused on managing customer knowledge and their experience with the company. Definitely, everything is a part of the same journey, which is none other than incorporating customer management and knowledge as part of the core of the company.

Above all, we hope to have clarified the difference between the referred terms multichannel and omnichannel.

We introduce you the decalogue for your customer service from MST Holding. Times are coming when commercial activity increases and many customers call customer service to resolve incidents, buy products or answer their questions.

For this reason, we want to ask you some questions that you can share with Alberto Exposito who will help you for free until December 31^st.

Decalogue for your customer service

• Do I have my equipment sized correctly?
• Is my service really efficient?
• Do I know how to manage my equipment remotely without affecting service?
• Am I getting the most benefit of my tools and CRM?
• Do I have the best professionals for my activity?
• How does it affect and deal with my periods of seasonality? Am I really flexible?
• Do I know how I could reduce my number of inbounds?
• Do I know how omnichannel and digitization can impact my business?
• Am I measuring what happens in my service and how my clients perceive it?
• How does my customer service affect the business numerically?

If you have them all resolved; you should ask yourself: how is your humility going?

Otherwise: Would you let me advise you for free?

Do you want to know us more? Contact us for free and without obligation at alberto.exposito@mstholding.com

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