Making Cents Out of Contact Center Customer Service | Business 2 ...

There is a lot of talk today about the value of great customer service. That said, customer service ? such as the contact center ? is thought of as a cost to the business. ?But is it possible to augment service with revenue?

Balancing Service and Revenue

Most contact center professionals would shy away from any implied revenue that a contact center can offer. However, store sales associates balance service and revenue and have successfully been balancing these dual objectives for decades. ?Why is a contact center so different? ?The quick answer is that most contact centers are designed to assist customers after goods and services have been delivered and have no way to reach out to online customers during the buying process. So what happens when a customer has questions during the buying process and needs human assistance? Generally speaking, nothing. However with retail sales approaching 1 trillion dollars, companies must do better to integrate online customer service with the contact center.

Placing a Premium on Service

It?s a proven fact that customers will pay a premium for goods and services when customer service is superior. In today?s world of product commoditization and rapid feature duplication among competitors, most companies differentiate by promoting their superior service.

But are they truly offering a superior and differentiated service? ?How many web sites offer the proper applications to reach sales associates quickly with little or no effort? And when you do reach an associate, how often is that associate already aware of your needs or intentions?? How often can the online conversation turn into a live conversation? The answer is not very often.

Today companies need to integrate Sales, Marketing, Service and Support into a connected service strategy if they want to compete for the 1 trillion dollars in online revenue. ?Customers want a single conversation with their brands. They want the brand to be aware of their needs and intentions, and they want the option to have live assistance.? The good news is that the technology to offer this seamless level of customer service is already here.

How 1% Can Make a Huge Difference

Now, let?s talk about how 1% can make ?cents.? ?While we know the contact center metrics (EWT, AHT, ATT, etc.) that have driven customer service operations for decades, what are the metrics that e-commerce business managers are thinking about?

• Average shopping cart conversation rate. Currently 65.23%.
• Average value of an order. Currently $116.58.
• Average online conversation rate. Currently 2.13%.

Now, how does 1% translate in terms of cost savings to a contact center? Let?s look at a contact center that manages 100 million calls a year.? While this example is overly simple and mileage will vary, consider this scenario in terms of a 1% decrease in agent calls a year with an average call cost of $2 per call.? This company would save a company about $2 million dollars per year. However, what if the blended goal of the contact center was to convert online sales activity with available contact center agents? Improving online performance by just by a percent or two could drive hundreds of millions in new revenue. For instance a retailer doing $4 billion a year in sales could drive an additional $40 million in sales, just by leveraging service experts that already exist in the contact center.

Impact on Shopping Carts

Most e-commerce applications are constantly challenged with full shopping carts filled with goods and services, but these are abandoned during the purchase process.? In fact, almost 60% of shopping carts are abandoned. ?Why? ?Customers typically have unresolved concerns during the buying process.? And, since there is rarely an option to speak with a sales associate, money is left on the table.

So what is the value of a 1% increase in shopping cart sales conversations?? Targeted correctly with analytics and business rules, Web Engagement using Chat and Voice could dramatically reduce shopping cart abandonment and help drive a healthy ROI with top line revenue. Balanced correctly in a contact center, idle agents could become selling machines and e-commerce business leaders have a new opportunity to differentiate with superior customer service.

The future of customer engagement is here. Customers want value and service without gaps and without hassle. Making cents out of customer service may just be a click away.

Find out more about Genesys Web Engagement.

Source: http://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/making-cents-out-of-contact-center-customer-service-0367550

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