CRM - January 2009 - (Page 31)

THE FEEDBACK FUNNEL analytics will grow by at least 50 percent [over the next year], which is unbelievably impressive during a recessionary period.” Why such optimism? Being able to take open-ended responses that customers are freely giving to agents while on the phone is one of the more-objective pieces of customer feedback a company will ever receive, she says. “You’re clearly using the [VOC], and that is going to be probably the most representative view of what the customer has,” Fluss points out. Employee—Not Just Executive—Sponsorship U FEEDBACK 2.0 There’s one vital piece to the feedback puzzle that many companies are still missing, even as customers are diving in: social media. Whether through blogs, chats, forums, social networks, or wikis, consumers are turning to these Web 2.0 technologies to get their point across. “Most contact centers are still sticky enterprises in that they are concentrating on the primary phone and email channels, and maybe instant messaging,” Fluss notes. “As I talk to enterprises, the social networks are just not being addressed… at least on a formal basis.” Vectra Bank Colorado is one of the exceptions, McIntire says, with two teams that surf the Internet for mentions of the company. While there are countless blogs and news outlets to scrutinize, McIntire says they stick to the key chat boards for their industry, such as Yahoo! Finance and Bankrate.com.“There’s a lot of misinformation out there, and I know our investor relations manager has engaged with some of these authors to correct whatever [incorrect] facts they’re spouting,” she says. “Certainly if there was a better way of managing all of the different blogs, we would [do so]. For now, we’re just keeping our eye on the bigger ones.” One company making strides in adopting social media into its customer strategies: Comcast, a Philadelphia-based provider of cable, entertainment, and communications products and services, is fielding customer inquiries through Twitter, a Web 2.0 “microblogging” service that allows users to instantly update their status in messages (called “tweets”) of 140 characters www.destinationCRM.com ndoubtedly, one of the keys in trying to implement an enterprise feedback management (EFM) strategy is executive buy-in, particularly from the C-level suite. To date, properly articulating a sound business case has been a challenge, says Jim Rembach, senior vice president of consulting firm Customer Relationship Metrics. “You can’t sit there and say that chief executive officers aren’t buying in— they are,” Rembach points out. “The problem now is how you communicate that. How do you get them to understand [that] the issue that you’re trying to execute upon needs more credible customer data, [as opposed to] winging it?” For Erica McIntire, senior vice president and director of marketing communications for Denver-based financial services firm Vectra Bank Colorado, executive buy-in is essential. However, the employees themselves—the individuals who would be using EFM every day—sometimes fall through the cracks, and it’s imperative to make sure they’re involved in the process from the beginning. “You really need to have a grassroots effort and ensure every worker in the organization is supportive of this [EFM initiative],” she explains. “The information could land on anyone’s desk, so it has to work from both ends there.” For McIntire, this wasn’t difficult. She recalls employees coming to her, complaining of customer feedback received sometimes months after the fact, so much so that the problem was either already resolved or, worse, the consumer left the bank by the time an employee was able to act upon the information. “That kind of feedback from our employee base—that groundswell—is the support you need to say, ‘We need to figure this out and get a better system.’” or less via computer or mobile device. Frank Eliason, director of digital care for Comcast email, has his own Twitter account called “ComcastCares” to swap tweets with customers who have Comcastrelated concerns or questions. “We try to assist them right then and there,” he says. “Web 2.0 is the best place for feedback. The customer service world is generally very data-driven, but [social media] really translates into the customer story.” (See “Transparency,” our December 2008 cover story, for more about Comcast’s move toward openness.) Alban believes that other companies haven’t started to formally address Web 2.0 because of generational issues. “They need to begin where customer trends are taking them, and go with the flow,” he says.“The more they start to understand what these blogs and different online channels are about—and how they can actually start to use them to their benefit—then I think they will actually have a competitive differentiation.” LOOKING AHEAD It’s clear that companies will continue to seek out customer feedback. The real question involves how these organizations will pull together the strategies to foster an environment that welcomes data from every channel, and distributes insights throughout the enterprise. Jim Rembach, senior vice president at consultancy Customer Relationship Metrics, warns that, just as with any CRM effort, the only way to avoid potential failures in EFM is to not look at technology as a panacea.“You put in what you get out, right?” he says. “If you put in correctly, your programs can be directly linked to increases in revenue and profitability. It can also be [correlated] to a decrease in operational costs, while improving the ability to have more customers. All of these are absolutely possible, but…it takes a lot of monitoring and rigor.” Contact Editorial Assistant Christopher Musico at cmusico@destinationCRM.com. 31 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2009 http://www.Bankrate.com http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crmmedia/crm1208/index.php?startid=24 http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crmmedia/crm1208/index.php?startid=24 http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - January 2009

CRM - January 2009 Contents Front Office Feedback Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point The Shots Heard ’Round the World 30,000-Foot Views Of the Cloud Stuffing the Ballot Box— With Complaints The Marketing Line for ’09 CRM on Twitter Technology Helps Insurance Weather the Storm Required Reading The Google-ization of CRM The Feedback Funnel Email: What’s Inside? Shake Your Moneymakers Lead Sweet Lead Incentives at the Speed of Lightpath Sales Contentment for Content Management A Worthwhile Excursion Into Call Recording Secret of My Success Re:Tooling Connect Pint of View

CRM - January 2009

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