ICMI's Customer Management Insight - September 2007 - (Page 48) EXPERT’S ANGLE M Case Study: Packaged Foods Company Optimizes Consumer Response The CRS integrates email, consumer demographics, and a where-to-buy item finder for this packaged foods company's contact center. Representatives reply to consumers who acquire its products from groceries and a Web store of specialty items. To optimize costs, the company outsources the center. Trained reps draw on pre-approved texts to compose their personalized replies to callers. A customer’s communication mode and issue determine whether the agent replies by email, fax, letter, or phone. Refund, discount, premium or rebate coupons may be included or attached. Sensitive issues escalate to specialists, should legal or insurance remedies apply. The Web-based consumer relationship system is independent of company systems whose performance might degrade from the burden of other activity. “We are extremely happy with the online service, reports one manager, who notes it pays for ” itself by relieving IT resources to attend to other needs. “The item locator returns its value daily by satisfying caller demand for instantly finding items at nearby stores. The item locator draws on current ” item availability from over 38,000 grocery stores, mass merchandisers, and convenience-store pharmacy chains. The CRS’ reporting enables quality assurance to use consumer insights in performance reviews. Consumer verbatim reports enable marketing to interpret unfiltered reactions to product features, packaging, and promotions. Item detail and summary inquiry reports give management the issue-level actionable VOC intelligence they need to guide their enterprise. of pain can lead to product improvements and competitive advantage. > Higher margins from reduced problem levels because price sensitivity is highly correlated with problem experience. The chart on page 47 shows consumer sensitivity to price compared to recent problem experience. Less sensitivity to price means better service can yield higher margins. Customers say, “You are expensive, but you are worth it because I seldom have problems. ” > Reduced regulatory and risk costs from an effective VOC. A highly visible, accessible service system draws complaints to the company and away from regulators and lawyers. > Adopting an actionable VOC process enables companies to make their service process a word-of-mouth management process. Every icmi’s insight interaction produces good or bad word-of-mouth, which, if good enough, eliminates need for expensive marketing. such as 3M, Companies American Express, Bath and Body Works, Canadian Tire, Chick-fil-A, Daimler Chrysler, Honda, Neiman Marcus, Sargento Foods, Toyota, USAA, and Yokohama Tire have created VOC processes that operate at the granular level, integrating multiple sources of data. Their VOC processes solicit customer feedback and respond to reported issues. They capture and report levels of problems and their impact on satisfaction and loyalty. Their contact centers estimate revenue and cost of not acting on the issues, creating economic imperatives for action. FOUR BARRIERS TO DEVELOPING AN EFFECTIVE VOC PROCESS nies, giving them competitive edges and reducing costs, why are so many tolerating ineffective systems? We have identified four major pitfalls and/or excuses > Fear of soliciting customer input because it results in more calls to handle, ignoring the fact that each customer well-handled is more revenue retained. > Failure to efficiently collect and systematically log current input from all touch points and internal stakeholders. > Poor systems that are barriers to logging, analysis, integration, and reporting of input, tracking trends, and determining if issues are fixed. > Failing to convert the data into revenue implications and effectively communicate them to management. PROACTIVELY MAXIMIZE CUSTOMER CONNECTION With so many great stories of how VOC processes can benefit compa- The solution is to develop a strate| SEPTEMBER 2007 www.icmi.com 48 http://www.icmi.com
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