CRM - December 2008 - (Page 49)

SCOUTING REPORT REAL-TIME SURVEYING In a business world that is compelled to make decisions at ever-increasing speeds, the ability to perform realtime surveying is a key strategic advantage. Real-time surveying/feedback solutions change the enterprisecustomer dynamic. The benefits of real-time information are numerous, including improvements in service quality and customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention. Real-time surveying in the contact center provides an opportunity for enterprises to respond to issues raised by customers as they happen. It enables an organization to take immediate actions to prevent problems or fix problems before they can have a negative impact. Many of the surveying/feedback vendors process and make customer data available in real time, though their definitions of real time may differ. Feedback may be posted to the database as customers complete surveys, but it is not always available for immediate viewing, reporting, and analysis. True real-time surveying solutions supply results immediately (or within 15 seconds); near-real-time applications deliver feedback for viewing and reporting within a somewhat longer time frame (but still within five to 15 minutes). RESPONSE RATES One of the biggest challenges in the contact center surveying/feedback and analytics market today is the increasing rate at which companies are reaching out to customers with survey requests. The Internet makes communication with customers cheap and easy, and low-cost solutions enable almost anyone (or any department in a company) to create and issue a survey. As a result, customers are finding themselves bombarded with requests for feedback, creating frustration and “survey fatigue.” Most solutions in the market today offer some method for enterprises to define sampling rules and deployment criteria. One way to increase response rates is to utilize these capabilities to limit the number of surveys each individual customer is asked to complete. Other tips include personalizing invitations, limiting the number of questions, sending reminder emails, and sharing survey results with survey participants. The most important aspect, however, is an enterprise surveying/feedback strategy that manages all customer survey requests. TAKING ACTION BASED ON FEEDBACK The biggest mistake enterprises make with surveying is not taking action based on the feedback customers provide. Most of the offerings today capture feedback in real time and perform analysis in near-real time, reporting on events within minutes or hours after a customer interaction. The benefit of real-time surveying is that it allows managers to take action while a call is still in progress. Real-time solutions offer alarms and alerts to www.destinationCRM.com THE BIGGEST MISTAKE ENTERPRISES MAKE WITH SURVEYING IS NOT TAKING ACTION BASED ON THE FEEDBACK CUSTOMERS PROVIDE. supervisors and agents during actual calls, and one vendor offers coaching to agents on customer service issues or sales opportunities as an interaction is being conducted. Real-time surveying facilitates a closed-loop process, as can be seen in Figure 1. Unfortunately, few enterprises use these real-time capabilities, and few let their customers know what they are planning to do in response to the collected feedback. An exciting new role is emerging at some organizations—the customer advocate (or champion). The responsibility of the advocate is to ensure that customer feedback is used to drive change throughout the enterprise. Customer advocates are charged with developing processes, assigning tasks, and following up with customers to let them know how valuable their feedback has been and what the company is doing in response. THE FUTURE Enterprise and contact center surveying/feedback and analytics has a bright future. The market is seeing an upswing in interest and implementations due to the strategic and tactical benefits of these applications. Exciting new feedback opportunities are also on the horizon. Most promising are some of the Web 2.0 and social software applications. These include wikis, blogs, customer-review sites, community forums, social networks, content feeds, content rating, and reputation management. Enterprise feedback management is the future of contact center surveying, as it enables survey results to be shared with all relevant departments throughout the company. EFM extends surveying to address customers, employees, partners, and investors. It is a means of incorporating feedback, whether solicited or unsolicited, from all sources and channels, into business operations. EFM also provides a centralized method for collecting, managing, and using feedback, and allows organizations to engage customers and other constituents on multiple fronts. Now that enterprises are finally showing interest, we expect to see most of the contact center surveying vendors extend their solutions to address the greater enterprise. For more information about contact center surveying/feedback and analytics solutions, see DMG Consulting’s 2008 Contact Center Surveying/Feedback and Analytics Report at www.dmgconsult.com. Donna Fluss (donna.fluss@dmgconsult.com) is founder and president of DMG Consulting LLC, a leading provider of contact center and analytics research, market analysis, and consulting. Beth Eisenfeld (beth.eisenfeld@dmgconsult.com) is a senior consultant at the firm. 49 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | DECEMBER 2008 http://www.dmgconsult.com http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - December 2008

CRM - December 2008 Contents Front Office Feedback Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point The Rave Is Over CRM on Twitter Financial Frenzy Will Customer Experience Survive in a ‘Soft’ Economy? Holiday Humbug Empowered Consumers Are Ready to Flip the Switch Required Reading Transparency Spiff Up Your Site! They Aim to Please Mixing In a Little Sugar Sweetens the Deal A Newsletter Employs New Tactics A Site Stops Feeling Overtaxed Make ’Em Laugh—Personally Secret of My Success Re:Tooling Scouting Report Pint of View

CRM - December 2008

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