A Get-Together for the Customer Service World in Vienna

International branch congress with crisis-proof strategies for economic recovery

On 8 October, Competence Call Center AG extended what was already its 12th invitation to the Call Center Convention in Vienna. 180 participants accepted the invitation and, on a brilliant autumn day, enjoyed exciting motivational talks, practice-oriented case studies and a controversial podium discussion on the future of the economy and its subsequent impact on customer service in CEE.

“A crisis harbors the opportunity to change something,” is the conclusion drawn by CCC Expansions Manager Carita Vallinkoski in her welcome speech. With a great deal of passion and commitment, the speakers presented their strategies to combat the crisis, along with innovative recipes for economic recovery.

Follow the customer

With a snapshot from the USA, Olav Strawe-Higuchi, customer service pioneer and CEO of Fortify Communications from Santa Clara, California, opened the congress with the highly topical issue of “Social Media”. 2 out of 3 Internet users are already utilizing social media such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter as a way of sharing their ideas and opinions. It is a great opportunity, but also a challenge for companies that are not yet accustomed to working with communication tools. Strawe illustrated with case studies from the companies Dell, Zappos and Starbucks, and presented how each company can build up its own social media network in five steps.

Gerry Cools, Sales Strategy & Development Manager from Belgacom, presented the relevance of having the right balance of the four axes of employee, customer, costs and earnings. “The Chinese character for crisis means risk – on the one hand, and opportunity – on the other,” explained the customer service expert. In his talk “Finding the right balance”, he showed ways in which to use these opportunities and to try new things out. In so doing, Cools focused on cost reductions through preventative measures, as well as operational excellence. He also believes that sales are the answer to current and future requirements, and that they can make an enormous contribution to customer satisfaction. He advised against only driving down costs in times of crisis, but rather recommended servicing all 4 axes.

Let the customer to have their say

What the home shopping industry understands by the term customer service was presented by Vicky Giourga, Vice President Customer Service at HSE24, in her exciting motivational speech. During times of crisis, Germany’s second-largest home shopping channel makes massive investments in customers. In its mission statement, HSE24 anchored the fact that the focus is on the customer, which was in turn hammered out by the employees. “All processes and concepts are developed from the customer’s perspective and must fulfill our customer requirements,” said the charismatic manager. Customer-orientation is company business and must be implemented in the strategy and in each process step. Active complaint management and service strategies, tailor-made to suit the target group, have meant that HSE24 has even grown in the crisis year of 2008.

Love the customer

Equally rousing was the speech by Bob Dunn, General Manager Customer Experience at Telefónica O2 in UK. As the largest mobile phone company in the UK, Bob Dunn’s teams process one million calls per week, whereby Dunn targets everything toward the customer – a fact that has brought him the best notes in the branch. O2 doesn’t compile any business plans, but rather “customer plans”, there is no process optimization, but rather “customer journeys”. At the same time, Dunn considers the significance of speech to be very important. “The way in which we speak with - and about - our customers is what makes the difference,” says Dunn. It is his mission to turn customers into fans. Customers give money, fans give their hearts,” Dunn explains. His goal is to connect people with things that mean something to them. In a language rich in imagery, the Scotsman presented how the company retains existing customers and activates new customers with his strategies, even in times of crisis.

Offer the customer new possibilities

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” said Gökhan Alakuş, Senior Vice President Contact Centre of the Turkish Deniz Bank, citing the famous physicist Albert Einstein. This is why the service expert has chosen a path that is new for the banking world: The contact center is the heart of the organization. All other teams - such as HR, Investment, Insurance etc. - are built up around the contact center unit. With the application of new technologies, the company has been able to achieve small changes with a very great impact. The processes have been restructured from the perspective of the customer. This has resulted in positive customer experiences, while simultaneously sinking costs. “The goal of making things easy for the customer has enabled us to differentiate ourselves from the competition,” says Alakuş.

Believe the customer

In an impressive motivational speech, Judith Rott, Director Customer Service at TUI Germany, presented how TUI deals with complaints and, thanks to a fully developed and active complaint management, how the quality standards are continually being optimized. TUI is not just the market leader with a brand awareness level of 89%, TUI is also the innovation leader in the issues of guarantee, safety and trust. “It is our goal to be better than our competitor at every level,” said Rott. TUI has discovered that the rebooking ratio of guests who lodge a complaint is 6% higher and therewith contributes to an excellent handling of complaints in terms of loyalty and rebuilding the customers’ trust. In this connection, TUI follows a very innovative complaint management philosophy and supports this with the service promise of the money-back guarantee. This has had a great impact both internally (cooperation division and travel supervision) as well as on the part of the customer (trust). By way of an example, TUI presents the guest satisfaction in the form of quality scores in its catalogues. Hotels with poor ratings are booked less frequently, which - in turn - results in an increase in quality to avoid decreasing booking rates. At the same time, the service providers are motivated. “Travel is a very emotional product“, says Rott, whose courageous and innovative handling of complaints met with great approval with the guests at the Call Center Convention.

Listen to the customer

A closing highlight of the 12th Call Center Convention was the talk by Tonio Meier, Director Customer Service at Orange Communications, Switzerland. The dynamic service expert advocated a change in attitude concerning sales. “Service center employees do not have the sales gene in their DNA,” says Meier. He was able to establish the sales thematic in his service team by means of a bonus-light program. For the service professional it is important that employees and managers listen to all customer areas and make direct contact with them in the contact center or in the shops. “How else should a process manager develop customer-oriented processes, if not by speaking with the customer?” asked Meier, throwing the question out into the audience. Quality and loyalty, new paths of customer interaction, a basic sales attitude and the balance between the price and quality of the customer services are the success factors at the forefront. “However, most important of all are the employees – without satisfied employees it is also not possible to service the customers in a satisfactory way,” says Meier with conviction. Individual career planning and further development plans strengthen the satisfaction and loyalty of the team members.

Among the guests of the 12th Call Center Convention were:

Sabine Bauman, Allianz Elementar Versicherungs AG, Österreich; Martin Streinz, Payback GmbH, Germany; Petra Fichtinger, bwin Interactive Entertainment AG, Austria; Caroline Green, Ryanair Ltd., Ireland; Drahormira Kostalova, T-Mobile Czech Republic, a.s., Czech Republic; Juraj Melišík, VOLKSBANK Slovensko, a.s., Slovakia; Thomas Müller, QVC Deutschland GmbH, Germany; Ing. Thomas Polacek, Dell s.r.o., Slovakia; Mag. Sebastian Fisar, Nokia Austria GmbH; Austria; Branislav Sandtner, Citibank (Slovakia) a.s., Slovakia; Banu Cebe and Özge Tekalp, Fortis Bank A.S., Turkey; Marius Uceanu, UPC Romania, Romania; Zsolt Szakály, UPC Hungary Ltd., Hungary