1to1 - Spring 2009 - (Page 43) omentum connect with a leasing office from their phone. “Customers have evolved in the way they communicate with companies and the way they share information with friends and family,” says Brock MacLean, For Rent’s vice president of national sales and development. “We’re finding that as we become more flexible in how consumers can access our information, our customers become more comfortable with options other than picking up the phone.” MacLean says the number of phone leads that come in through its website has declined, but he says an uptick in email and mobile leads may explain the drop. The mobile initiative began in May 2008, and so far the average listing on forrent.com generates five to 10 mobile interactions per month. MacLean says that once the company launches a new website that more prominently displays the mobile option, he expects that to increase. “We started 25 years ago with a magazine ad that just listed a few words and a phone number for each listing,” he says. “In the end, driving results through as many channels as we can improves our value and makes it easier for our customers to find what they’re looking for.” > Jeremy Nedelka Real-Time Prompts Supplement Agent Coaching Agents who receive guidance in real time deliver a better customer experience. It comes as no surprise that an informed, empowered contact center agent is a great asset to a company’s customer relationship strategy. By resolving customers’ issues quickly and effectively these agents help to build customer satisfaction and reduce costs. The challenge, however, is making time for the training— agents need to be informed and empowered. As a result, there’s a growing trend to guide contact center agents through interactions using real-time “It’s not about finding who’s bad or not scripting tools and information resources performing well, but instead it’s a tool that can support coaching activities. to help you do a better job.” Companies are also using coaching alerts for managers so they can address problems quickly. “Anywhere from 30 to 70 percent of all customer/company interactions are [via the] call center,” says Natalie Petouhoff, senior analyst, customer feedback, at Forrester Research. “Most agents really do want to do a great job; they don’t get up in the morning wondering how they can sabotage the customer experience. But some call centers don’t do enough training.” With real-time prompts that aid coaching, Petouhoff says, companies can help lessen some costs by reducing training time and agent attrition rates, as well as trim the costs associated with long hold times and follow-up calls. Real-time guidance like scripting is very effective for process issues, like a change of address, Petouhoff says. “For instance, an agent might neglect to ask the caller to verify his previous address, which is a way of preventing fraud in these situations,” she says. “If a dialog box pops up and reminds them to verify, it takes a lot of the guesswork out. It can be a pretty cool way to give [agents] a nudge.” Real-time scripting can also boost sales efforts in the contact center, she adds. “You can set up cues in the system according to what you want the agent to ask in terms of upselling or cross-selling.” Real-time solutions available today offer various functionality. Some help agents through a call in a way that ensures consistent handling of specific customer interactions or deliver quick trouble-shooting capabilities through a series of questions that direct agents to appropriate knowledge-base answers. “The trick is to empower agents with the right tools,” Petouhoff says. “Knowledge management is really key; agents and customers both can benefit from getting the right information in real time.” A real-time knowledge base helps calls run smoother and keeps customers satisfied because agents have access to the information they need at any given time. Playboy.com, for example, has seen a 30 percent reduction in average handle time and CUSTOMER SERVICE China Next for m-commerce? Motorola recently opened an mcommerce laboratory in Beijing in conjunction with the China International Electronic Commerce Center, overseen by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce. The move is seen as the first step to developing advanced purchasing options via mobile devices in the country. The lab will bring together experts from the business, political, and academic worlds to work on standardizing mcommerce systems. There are more than 500 million mobile devices in China. Spring 2009 43 http://www.forrent.com http://www.1to1media.com/view.aspx?itemid=29293 http://www.Playboy.com
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