“Exceptional Business Cases” – on 13 October the 14th Call Center Convention took place
Visitors enjoyed fascinating presentations by speakers from Europe, Africa and Arabic countries.
The title of this year’s 14th Call Center Convention at Studio 44 in Vienna “Exceptional Business Cases: Thinking and acting outside the box – developing and applying new Business Models” provided the perfect backdrop for presenting a series of innovative customer care and business concepts. 150 guests from all over Europe were delighted by the eight international speakers and the expertise they demonstrated.
The highlight of the event was the keynote speech by Robert Collymore, Safaricom CEO, who enjoyed considerable interest among both participants and the international press.
As part of the evening programme, the CCC Special Award was once again presented to an outstanding individual from the customer care sector. This year CCC Communications Manager,
Maria Hoffrichter-Zanetti presented the award to Meltem Karateke, president of IMI Conferences, Turkey.
The evening drew to a close with the opportunity for both speakers and guests to enjoy the networking event.
“Expect more” – Exceptional Customer Service in a Multicultural Society
As first speaker, Chief Commercial Officer of Abu Dhabi Finance, Henry Bacha was introduced by host Vincent Vanden Bossche, president of the European ECCCO organisation and Managing Director of Call Communications.
In his presentation “Abu Dhabi Finance – The Rise of a Client Service Champion in the U.A.E.”, Henry Bacha spoke about successfully constructing a unique customer service concept in a multicultural and transient society like the United Arab Emirates. In the U.A.E. 90 % of the total population comes from 150 different countries. Of the seven emirates, Abu Dhabi is by far the largest.
Abu Dhabi Finance (ADF) entered the market in 2008 as a mortgage provider with the aim of supporting the development of the real estate sector. The sector remains in the early stages and many buildings are still under construction. Due to the legal situation at the time, which dictated that only citizens of the United Arab Emirates could own property, the number of residents with their own property was extremely low at the time at which Abu Dhabi Finance entered the market. In light of the fact that 90% of customers at the time were dissatisfied with their financial services provider, the company decided to bring the focus back to providing attentive customer service.
The first step taken by ADF was to carry out a comprehensive cultural study combined with a customer survey, collecting data on the current status, needs and wishes of their target groups.
Abu Dhabi Finance turned its focus entirely towards customer service and integrated this key element into all of its processes. All customers receive individual support, and the company has adopted forms of address and an approach to customers which go beyond the basics. This is what lies behind the concept “Expect more”.
So-called “Client Ambassadors” are the company’s means of communicating with its customers and they report directly to C-level management. In accordance with this model, call centers are called “Gateways” and provide a direct interface to the customers.
“At ADF service means not only providing customer support, it is also about building relationships, trust and loyalty. With our customer service strategy and a market share of 35% it has taken only two years for us to become the most successful mortgage lender in Abu Dhabi“, says Henry Bacha.
All customer contact should be transformed into a positive experience for the customer
Nicolas Lenoir, Director Europe Operation for Carglass Specials, France gave a presentation entitled “Using the Voice of the Customer to Drive Innovation and Profitability”.
Each year the company Carglass provides 10.7 million customers worldwide with repairs and replacements through its Autoglas service and employs 25,000 people in 35 countries. Customers can contact Carglass in one of three ways: by phone, Internet or in person at of the company’s numerous branches.
The reasons for which customers come to Carglass are not usually something to shout about. Statistics suggest that an individual is faced with damage to their car windows every seven years and seeks the support of Carglass. It is therefore all the more important to transform all customer contact into a positive experience.
In order to achieve this aim, Carglass has introduced a whole range of innovative measures into its customer care programme: One such example is measuring the abandon rate during AND after IVR. This means that even calls abandoned in the early stages are counted. With the help of Net Promoter Scores, Carglass divides its customers into critics and antagonists, passives and promoters. This demonstrates that the NPS decreases in relation to the service time required. Speed is therefore essential to Carglass.
Tests have experimented with entirely dispensing with IVRs and connecting the caller directly to an available call center agent. Carglass is increasingly investing in employee recruitment and training so that staff are equipped to answer all potential queries. Homework agents have also proven successful as part of Carglass customer service provision. A mixed model sees employees working from home part of the time and in the contact center for the remainder of the time in order to maintain contact to their team. Because business volumes are strongly influenced by the weather, it is hard to make exact predictions. Flexibility – which is provided mainly through “part-timers” – is therefore very important.
Integration of Efficient Multi-channel Communication
The next presentation was entitled “Challenge Multichannel – Impulses for service success” and was given by Frank Reimesch, Head of Customer Care at Media-Saturn in Germany.
He presented the multimedia customer service tool used by both of the successful company names Saturn and Media Markt. Founded 50 years ago in Germany as Saturn, today Media-Saturn is the European market leader for electronics with 70,000 employees and 870 stores in 16 countries.
“The multi-channel service provided by Media-Saturn is based on providing a consistent customer experience in every instance of customer contact, whether this is in one of our stores or online. In order to integrate all points of contact, there are, for example, online terminals in all of our stores providing access to the company’s website.
The Media-Saturn outsourcing customer service concept centres on a uniform service packet which encompasses the five different ways in which to contact our customer service team” explained Frank Reimesch.
Media-Saturn sees huge potential for future growth in the areas of telephone orders, social media, cross-selling and up-selling, call-back services and retention management.
Live Chat as an Innovative Support and Sales Tool
The next speaker was Gabriela Faltermeier, Director Web/Sales & Marketing at Sky Germany.
Sky currently has more than 2.7 million subscriptions and stands out on the market thanks to its innovative approach – whether this be its range of products or its customer service. Since April 2010, Sky has been offering Live Chat as an innovative customer service tool for potential customers and new customers.
“Our aims are to reduce the number of cancellations, increase the order values and customer satisfaction as well as encouraging direct customer feedback. Live Chat is the perfect tool for this: it is instant, fast and free and requires absolutely no media disruption. The person making the enquiry receives the information they need on the spot”, said Gabriela Faltermeier.
Users who remain on particular pages of the Sky website for a certain amount of time are identified as Hot Leads and are offered the possibility to use Live Chat. Trained agents are able to conduct between two and four chats at any one time.
Immediately after the chat communication, the user is invited to complete a customer satisfaction survey. At present, about 50% of those asked choose to participate.
One and a half years after the introduction of Live Chat results have shown that 39 percent of users would have left the website without an answer to their query, had they not used Live Chat. All of the aims set out have therefore been achieved. Live Chat should soon also be available to existing customers.
Increasing the Employee’s Individual Responsibility
Speaker Jacques Piot, Customer Care Director at Mutuelle Prévadiès, a French health insurance provider, used his presentation to underline the importance of encouraging call center staff.
The company currently employs more than 4,000 staff and is showing a rapid rate of growth.
Customers are offered a multifunctional website with a variety of different ways to contact the company. The company strategy is focused on its staff and their training as well as providing them with excellent working conditions. Each instance of customer contact receives individual attention. Standards and regulations are a thing of the past.
“We have learned from experience that when agents follow scripts to the letter, then this does not achieve positive results. We like to give our agents as much responsibility and independence as possible in order to build individual customer relationships. The focus is on quality. Having to wait a few minutes is acceptable, provided that the caller receives a high quality service while they are speaking to the agent. And an increase in quality does not result in continually rising costs”, said Jacques Piot.
A positive working environment, encouraging teamwork and regular quality assessments all contribute to helping staff achieve the high expectations set for them.
Viewing Customer Complaints as an Opportunity
Haktan Kilic, Vice President of Customer Care at Türk Telekom made a case for “Proportunities” in his presentation called “Customer Problems or Customer Opportunities? (Let’s make it Proportunities!)”. Türk Telekom is one of the largest telecommunications and technology providers and the most valuable brand in Turkey. On average, the company’s customer service department is in contact with every resident in Turkey on a two-monthly basis.
Haktan Kilic believes that it is impossible to entirely rule out customer complaints. For this reason it is essential to have an effective complaints management procedure. How a company handles customer complaints can decide whether customers remain loyal to the company or take their business elsewhere.
Dissatisfied customers tell at least 25 people about their negative experiences with the company and satisfied customers rarely give feedback, usually only when they are asked to do so. Loyal customers, however, share their positive experiences with many other people.
The secret lies in building trust over a long period of time. Haktan Kilic advises that the time to start concentrating on the customer is not when they make a complaint, but rather to cultivate relationships from the outset.
Identify the Company’s Expertise
Dr. Nicola J. Millard, Customer Experience Futurologist at BT Global Services gave a lively presentation entitled: “The Cloud, the Crowd and the Autonomous Customer”.
Dr. Nicola Millard’s core statement is: “Customers and their behaviour change” and the “autonomous customer” is presenting companies with new challenges.
Customers use different methods to find information and to contact companies, whether using a smartphone, apps, websites, telephone or a multitude of other methods.
Millard presented the results of a comprehensive study, which was carried out in the USA and the UK. According to the results, 83 percent of those surveyed said that they read reviews of products and services online in order to be able to judge their quality. 51 percent said that they trust the content of consumer forums more than the information presented on a company’s website.
“More often than not, companies are excluded from communication about them. They are often the last to be asked. The consumer gets their information from Google or uses the opinions of family and friends to help decide whether a product is right for them or not”, says Nicola Millard on the subject of the “autonomous customer”.
So what impact does customer service have? According to Millard, customers want to receive consistent information via all communication channels, whether that be on the homepage, over the phone or face to face. Simple questions can often be answered using a self-service solution such as forums or blogs. What remains are the complex queries which are directed to the contact centre.
And here Millard gives us food for thought: “The experts who have the expertise required to answer these questions may be located throughout the company, not exclusively in the contact centre.”
Impressions of the 14th Call Center Convention >>
| Marianne Rutrecht |
