As a regular reader of Money Management (and a service management scholar), I was astonished by the report on comments by Rob Saultz at the Next Direct 99 Conference (Money Management, April 1, page 8).
The title of the article intrigued me. I am from a school of thought that has still to be convinced that we have made all IT platforms “customer friendly”, particularly in the areas of interactive voice response (IVR) and call (service?) centres.
Undisputedly, there has been a rush to IVR technology to replace branch networks and in some ways, it is working well for both the organisation and the customer. Equally we must also accept that the Internet has the potential to offer better service to customers than any IVR system, especially as we move into alternatives to PCs as the source of access (with the advent of TV screen technology and video phones).
However, the rest of the article has little relevance to its title and in fact seemed more like a justification for cost cutting rather than a point score for service management. I would argue that although call centres may be selling customers, research shows that retention is not yet one of their strong points. They also elude the potential for related sales and referrals which are two other critical factors in business success.
The focus seems to be on supporting the constant obsession with cost reduction.
This would be fine if similar or better service standards to face-to-face were being achieved by all call centres. It would serve well to spend some of those large savings on developing employee capability and productivity which are proven to increase customer satisfaction and logically create loyalty (retention); another great profit earner.
The buying preferences of customers in today’s marketing equation are no longer totally dependant on the nature of the product but more on the nature of the experience they have during the buying cycle. Assuming this is correct and proven, then to focus on making the experience effective as well as friendly will automatically impact costs and profits per customer.
Let’s ask ourselves, if a customer was reading the reported comments would the article reflect the title and the real life experiences they are having with IVRs?
<I>Max Franchitto
Principal
MGF Consulting
