Michael Maoz, Vice President and Gartner Distinguished Analyst, author of the report, writes, “The CRM customer engagement center (CEC) refers to a logical set of technologies and business applications that are engineered to provide customer service and support, regardless of the interaction (or engagement) channel. The goal of the CEC is not only to provide service to customers as they move among communication channels – including social media – while retaining the customers’ context, but also to deliver the appropriate business rule to determine the next best action, information or process with which to engage customers.”

Says Maoz in the report, “The blend of social media engagement with CRM software is evolving the contact center into the customer engagement center. Gartner’s 2013 CRM customer engagement center Magic Quadrant looks at vendors that respond to the challenge of ‘any channel’ customer service engagement.”

“We are incredibly pleased to be positioned in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for the CRM Customer Engagement Center,” says Duke Chung, Co-founder of Parature. “We believe our inclusion affirms our company’s commitment to providing a true multi-channel customer service solution, which includes the burgeoning customer service channels of social media and mobile.

“We also believe this recognition ensures that Parature’s strong and continued investments in quality, security, analytics and customer-focused care and innovation are well placed.”

To access a complimentary copy of the Magic Quadrant for the CRM Customer Engagement Center, click here.

• 63% of consumers point to service as the most important factor in their choice of a brand.
• 44% have higher customer service expectations than they had a year ago.
• 65% report that one of their top service frustrations is unfriendly or impolite agents.
• 70% say they are likely to switch brands if they deal with agents who are unable to answer their questions.
• 62% have actually switched brands in the past year due to poor customer service.

Just like in personal relationships, keeping a customer relationship going for years takes a lot of work. And the cost of losing customers can take a heavy toll: The cost of poor customer service is estimated at £12 billion annually in the UK, and according to a report by Genesys, poor customer service costs U.S. businesses an estimated $85 billion per year in abandoned purchases or defections.

Customers never want to break up with a brand they like or have been with a long time, but sometimes they feel they’re the only ones investing in the relationship. Here are four reasons your customers will eventually decide to dump you for another brand:

1. You’re Never Available. When customers want to talk, it’s important to be available. Many brands try to syphon service requests and comments through one or two convenient or cost-effective channels, and make it nearly impossible to find another way to get in touch. According to a recent Ovum study of 8,000 consumers from across the globe, the overwhelming majority (74%) use at least three channels when interacting with an enterprise for customer related issues. When customers have a problem or just want to talk, whether that’s at 10pm or on Facebook, your brand needs to be there for support.

2. You Don’t Listen. It’s frustrating when a brand keeps asking through pop-ups and email surveys for a customer’s opinion, feedback and ideas on what it can do better, but never takes action on those things (Read 6 Simple Tips for Collecting Customer Feedback). Even more disappointing is when a customer takes the time to publicly tell a brand thank you, great job, alert them to a problem or voices a concern on their social media properties, yet is never acknowledged. J.C. Penney is an example of a company that learned this the hard way that you should always listen and respond to what your customers are saying, finally issuing a multi-channel advertising campaign to publically thank their customers.

3. You Act Like You’re Better than Them. There has never been a sadder story this year of a brand dismissing one of its biggest fans than the recent PR setback for Nutella. A super fan and longtime customer went above and beyond in showing her love for the brand by organizing a worldwide holiday in honor of Nutella, complete with a social media campaign. What did the brand do to say thanks for her superfan loyalty? It sent her a Cease and Desist letter from parent company Ferrero, which started a social customer backlash against the brand. Talk about a bad breakup.

4.  You Don’t Know Anything About Them. Personalization of customer service and the customer experience is becoming a key differentiator for brands. Take for example, Amazon, which remembers what you bought, when you bought it, and suggests other items you might like based on the little things you’ve revealed about yourself through past interactions.

Brands need to use what they know about their customers to improve service. They need to be able to remember the last time they talked with customers, what they talked about, what customer service channels they prefer, and little things that create a WOW experience. A new survey sponsored by Aspect Software notes that when contacting customer service, 64% of responding consumers say they do not feel like they are treated like valued customers, and 65% cite their frustration at having to repeat their account information, their service history and their current problem at various customer service touchpoints.

Take the four points above into consideration when working to build long-term customer relationships.

According to Forbes, Millennials “take technology for granted. They live through social media. They want the world their way, and they want it now.”

Yet for being so social and connected online, many Millennials seek to avoid face-to-face or telephone conversations at all costs, creating an evolutionary game-changer for customer service. Texting, social media and other online communication have all given this talk-without-really-talking generation the ability to communicate on their own terms: at their convenience, without having to make eye contact, without judgment, and with some degree of anonymity. They are also able to control the conversation, determining the length, the direction, and if and when they will respond (and via what channel).

Says psychologist Sherry Turkle, author of Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less From Each Other, of this collective behavioral change, “we are together, but each of us in in our own bubble, furiously connected to keyboards and tiny touch screens.”  And if you’ve watched not just Millennials, but other younger generations together at dinner, at an event or in a meeting, any face-to-face conversation is usually held in competition with another happening on a mobile device (or several).

According to Forbes, Millennials switch their attention between media platforms ( laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc.) 27 times per hour on average. And as for customer service, multi-channel, multi-tasking, need-for-speed service is the norm:

• On average, 18 to 30-year-olds use 6.3 customer service channels (NICE Survey).
• 42% of 18 to 34-year-olds expect customer support on social media within 12 hours of a complaint or comment (Nielsen).
• When looking for product service or support, 71% of 16 to 24-year- olds and 65% of 25 to 34-year-olds search for a solution online first (2012 Sitel Study).
• A quarter to a third (25% to 32%) of Millennials report using the following alternative channels frequently: live chat or virtual assistant on websites, text messaging (SMS), smartphone applications, service kiosks, social networks and online communities (NICE Systems Survey).

Customer Service: The Next Generation

While Millennials may never dial your organization’s customer service number during their lifetime, they will surely Google, tweet, post and text your organization for service, and if you don’t answer, they’ll call you out on a public scale.  While your organization may offer multi-channel customer service, is it multi enough for Millennials? In addition to phone, email and online support portal, consider expanded coverage including:

• Live chat
• Social
• Mobile
• and Video

These channels allow Millennials to get service while multi-tasking on their multi-devices, communicate at their convenience, and control their comfort level when it comes to the increasingly lost art of conversation. Says Turkle in a New York Times article of the way technology is shaping us, and in turn, the way we are shaping our interactions with friends, family, followers and brands: “I’ve learned that the little devices most of us carry around are so powerful that they change not only what we do, but also who we are.

“Technology-enabled, we are able to be with one another, and also elsewhere, connected to wherever we want to be. We want to customize our lives. We want to move in and out of where we are because the thing we value most is control over where we focus our attention. We have gotten used to the idea of being in a tribe of one, loyal to our own party,” talking but yet not talking.

More Customer Care Content You May Be Interested In:

• Providing Customer Service on Twitter Builds Brand Character

• INFOGRAPHIC: Connecting with Mobile Customers

• 12 Considerations for Connecting with Millennial Customers

Said Lizzie Taylor, a CSR for a UK pharmaceutical group, “It certainly has come natural to me.  I’ve always felt as though this was my only real skill. I’ve never needed training on how to deal with difficult customers, how to feel and come across as empathetic, friendly and yet professional.

“However, we’ve all come across those, that sometimes despite feeling like they want to be in customer services, are unsympathetic and unable to place themselves in the customer’s position, and end up several weeks or months later, copying and parroting those who have this natural sense of service.”

Empathy, considerate listening, patience, a true desire to help others – are these attributes that only come natural to a select few? If you’ve ever suffered through a customer service experience where the CSR was just going through the motions and reading from the script on their screen, the answer is yes. Blogger David Newton, however, says we’re all born with these desired “people person” traits. The difference is, some individuals have had these traits emphasized as positives and nurtured during childhood – and continue to outwardly display them – while in others, these personable traits have been stifled. (Read David Newton’s Can Empathy be Taught?)

The Perfect Combination: Sweet, Yet Salty

Markus Schweda, head of customer service for a German appliance manufacturer, notes that the best CSRs are not just naturally kind; they are also able to swallow large daily doses of negativity while still keeping a smile on their face, an admirable and truly underappreciated trait.

“A service guy should be able to live with continuous negative feedback, respectively,” says Schweda. “He / she should be very stress resistant, especially for psychological stress. Customers contacting service are very seldom telling you how great your product or service is, or handing over some sweets and flowers…

“They contact you to get some action, and to tell you how disappointed they are. Receiving day by day such negative feedback is a challenge in itself, and thus, the person in charge needs to be balanced in many aspects to compensate for the customer’s frustration and to make the best out of the situation.”

Born vs. Trained for Customer Service

So if individuals aren’t born for customer service, if empathy and care just isn’t there, can it be taught? Customer service trainer and speaker Teresa Allen says both yes and no. “I constantly consult clients to make sure they notice their impression of a potential service employee in the first 30 seconds of the interview, because that is how long it will take (at most) for a customer to form a first impression. So there has to be some natural ability to connect with people.

“Once you get beyond that hurdle, however, training absolutely can enhance the performance of the employee by instilling skills of how to respond and react in various circumstances/transactions,” says Allen. “This aspect is learned, not innate.”

But in the end, can even the best-trained CSRs deliver consistent, positive customer care? “If the natural attitude of calming and empathy towards customers isn’t there, then you will make a very bad agent,” says Alain Minsart, a Brussels-based CSR, “and you will become just that what you hate the most when you yourself are calling towards a service desk.

“Anyone of us hates it when we get someone on the phone that isn’t involved, incompetent and not understanding of our problem as a client. So if you as an agent don’t have the natural ability to be comprehensive, understanding, empathetic and logically thinking and solution minded (all talents that come natural and that can be perfected through training, but not from nothing), then being a customer service agent sadly enough, isn’t the job for you.”

To follow or add to the continuing conversation on LinkedIn, visit this discussion in the Customer Experience Solutions group.

More Customer Care Content You May Be Interested In:

• Practice Random Acts of Customer Service Kindness

• Customer Service is No Longer a Script; It’s a Conversation

• The Customer Service X Factor

• 6 Steps to Defuse (and Retain) the Upset Customer

In long or short form, video presents a viable alternative to reading, writing and searching through manuals, instructions and lengthy online content. There’s a magic to the medium that makes even the most mundane subjects bearable – and sometimes, even interesting, helpful and entertaining.

Video is not a stand-alone customer service channel by any means, but it can be successfully used in conjunction with other online mediums or delivery vehicles including:

• Social Media: When Warby Parker launched in 2010 with a policy that it would respond to every customer question and comment no matter what channel it came from, they made it work, even with Twitter’s limited word count.For  answers that just won’t fit within the 140 character limit, Warby Parker’s customer service team records a video response, uploads it to YouTube and tweets the link to the customer. And the reviews for this response have been stellar. Not only is the customer who posed the question impressed, but so are the other customers who have (or Google) the same question and are taken to the CSR response on YouTube. (Read more on InternetRetailer.com.)
• Mobile/Text: The URLs from video clips or YouTube can easily be shared with smartphone customers via a text message, a cost effective method delivered in short form.
• Knowledgebase: Including video customer service and support content in a corporate knowledgebase, whether it’s the same messaging and information being provided in written form, or supplemental tips and content, is always a good idea. Video provides variety to break up lengthy content and make hard-to-understand topics or instructions more digestible, and written content serves as an SEO tool to bring customers who prefer video on site.

So What’s Holding Brands Back from Video Customer Service?
Many brands believe video for customer service needs to be at the same production level as video produced for marketing and advertising, but that’s just not the case. Sometimes, the more authentic and human a customer service video is, the better connection it makes.

A face-to-face connection is often a differentiator in video customer service, and whether or not it’s beautifully produced, if it’s entertaining in addition to being informative, it typically hits a customer service home run. (Watch Virgin Mobile of Australia’s customer service video).

5 Best Practices for Video Customer Service

For brands considering or experimenting with the use of video for customer service, here are 5 common best practices:

1. Watch Your Time: Videos should only be a few minutes long. Wistia found that the completion rate for a 30-second video is close to 90 percent, but it drops to just a little over 50 percent if a video is two minutes long.

2. Put Your Best Information Forward: For customer service especially, put the solution as close to the start of the video as possible. Break up large videos into smaller segments with written descriptions of the content provided for each to make the desired information or answers easier to find.

3. Keep It Simple: If your CSRs are producing video content, ensure they have a dedicated production area, or if they are producing video segments from their workspaces, make sure the background is not distracting with personal items, that there is no foot traffic behind the CSRs and that background noise is minimized.

4. Encourage Sharing: Share video customer service solutions for frequently-asked-questions on social media, through your corporate knowledgebase, via online communities, on YouTube and as a CSR-facing resource. Experiment with allowing power-users, brand advocates and long-time customers to provide their own customer service/solution videos.

5. Know What Works: Monitor progress to see what is being watched, when, where and what parts of video work. Use analytics to see if and when the video is abandoned or what CSRs are most successful in providing video customer service. Allow customers to vote or provide feedback on the quality and effectiveness of the video solution provided.

In many forms and fashions including web chat, online knowledgebases, customer service kiosks and more, video will play a continued and greater role in customer service and enhancing the customer experience. Especially for providing solutions or instructions that are hard to explain, or to increase first contact resolution via customer service channels such as social and mobile, written content may not always be the best answer, but a video is worth a thousand words.

More Customer Care Content You May Be Interested In:

• How to Wow Customers in 30 Minutes or Less
• Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner: It’s Time for Social Customer Service to Shine
• Customers Want Real People, Not Robots on Social Media

Parature is being recognized by CUSTOMER magazine for its industry-leading multi-channel customer engagement solution being used by more than 3,000 customers across the globe. Parature’s cloud-based platform enables customer support teams from mid-market and enterprise organizations to engage simply and effectively with customers and prospects through the Web, email, chat, mobile and social networks to provide the best possible customer experience and support. Parature customers enjoy a host of business and cost benefits including improved customer satisfaction and loyalty, rapid or first contact resolution via all major interaction channels, and streamlined self-service resolution.

“We are honored to be recognized by TMC and CUSTOMER magazine,” said Duke Chung, Parature’s Co-founder and CMO. “At Parature, we strive for excellence not only in product, but also in delivering top-notch service to our own customers. It is very nice to be recognized for our solution and the measurable benefits our customers enjoy.”

“The 14th Annual CRM Excellence Awards has recognized Parature for being a true CRM partner to its customers and clients,” said Rich Tehrani, TMC’s CEO and Group Editor-in-Chief. “Parature has demonstrated to the editors of CUSTOMER magazine that its platform improved the processes of their clients’ businesses by streamlining and facilitating the flow of information.”

Based on hard data, the CRM Excellence Awards rely on facts and statistics demonstrating the improvements that the winner’s product has made in a client’s business. Winners were chosen on the basis of their product or service’s ability to help extend and expand the customer relationship to become all encompassing, covering the entire enterprise and the entire lifetime of the customer.

The 2013 CRM Excellence Award winners can be found in the May issue of CUSTOMER magazine.

E for Empathy, Emotions and Empowerment

Just like with its product and packaging design and development, nothing is taken for granted when it comes to the Apple customer experience. Every touchpoint is meticulously engineered based on tried and true customer service traits, including empathy. Apple geniuses are trained to read customers’ verbal and non-verbal emotional cues and to put themselves in the customer’s shoes, empathizing with their questions or issues (not to be confused with sympathizing or feeling sorry for the customer, or in any way apologizing for Apple’s technology).

In customer conversations, Apple’s geniuses are encouraged to employ the three Fs: “Feel, Felt, Found.” For example, if the customer talks about price issues, the Genius might reply: “I can see how you’d feel this way. I felt the price was a little high, but found it’s a real value because of all the build-in software and capabilities.”

Employees are also told what words not to say, as some words seem to have a more negative connotation than others. For example, the words “incompatible,” “crash” and “problem” are part of Apple’s do not use list.

And like another customer service leader, Virgin America, Apple Store employees are also empowered with the ability and directive to do what’s right for the customer. “We guide every interaction,” “We strive to inspire,” “We enrich their lives,” “We take personal initiative to make it right,” says Apple’s employee training manual. And the guide to the optimal customer experience also follows a letter rule….

A.P.P.L.E.

A warm welcome, thoughtful listening, providing a solution in a timely manner and an engaging parting sentiment are all part of Apple’s effective end-to-end customer engagement which is summed up in the letters of Apple’s name:

• Approach customers with a personalized, warm welcome.
• Probe politely to understand the customer’s needs (ask closed and open-ended questions).
• Present a solution for the customer to take home today.
• Listen for and resolve any issues or concerns.
• End with a fond farewell and an invitation to return.

The simple genius of Apple’s customer service and the customer experience comes down to a consistent guide with consumer psychology and common behaviors at its core.  For employees, the excellence they need to deliver is easily memorable, spelled out to the letter using Es, Fs and A.P.P.L.E.

More Customer Care Content You May Be Interested In:

• FCR: Hitting a Home Run for Your Customer Service Team
• Practice Random Acts of Customer Service Kindness
• Your Customers are Channel Surfers: Don’t Turn Them Off

Many organizations either aren’t measuring social customer service yet, are manually recording interactions and outcomes in spreadsheets, or are siloing social customer service and data because they haven’t yet incorporated social support with the same workflow and analytics used for other channels.

The organizations that have begun using and measuring social media as a customer service channel are garnering impressive results, however. For instance, as highlighted at the recent Gartner Customer 360 Summit, McAfee has witnessed an 85%+ improvement in call deflection though social customer service, while Mint.com enjoyed a 70% reduction in support tickets in a period of just 90 days.

Call and Response
Both providing and measuring social customer service can be daunting, especially for enterprise organizations and big brands. Take for example, Walmart, whose brand name is mentioned more than 23,000 times a day on Twitter alone, according to The Most Tweeted Brands website. If Walmart had to respond to every mention, they’d be publishing 17+ responses a minute. And if Disney responded to tweets every second of the day, they still wouldn’t be able to keep up with the more than 105,000 daily mentions of their brand name on Twitter.

Emerging as Social Customer Service Leader
Beyond the basic thanks for a positive brand mention, customer service questions and complaints involve much more time and effort.  And the expectations for a reply are great. In terms of response expectations, a Social Habit survey notes that 32% of consumers expect a response within 30 minutes of their inquiry; 42% within an hour. Brands rising to the occasion are seeing big returns on customer satisfaction and brand advocacy.  According to NM Incite, 71% of consumers who experience a quick and effective brand response on social media are likely to recommend that brand to others, compared to just 19% of customers who do not receive a response.

So once a brand emerges from its protective cocoon to become responsive on social media, what customer service and communication metrics should be tracked upon launch? During a recent presentation at the Gartner Customer 360 Summit, Jenny Sussin, principal research analyst at Gartner, highlighted nine to start:

• Time to first response     
• Average handling time (overall and by agent)
• Number and percent of serviceable posts (actual customer/consumer inquiries)
• Percent of inquiries managed by channel (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• Cost savings on call deflection
• Changes in sentiment
• Changes in customer satisfaction
• Net promoter score (NPS)
• And flush rate (posts that are no longer relevant or serviceable).

Not only do these metrics help improve customer service and validate social media as a support channel, but they’re vital to almost every department within an organization including sales, marketing, product development and achieving a 360-degree view of the customer.

Whether your organization is still inching along in the initial stages of social customer service or has emerged as an impressive butterfly flourishing in the social spring, start early with the measurement of your organization’s social customer service efforts to ensure long-term growth and success.

More Customer Care Content You May Be Interested In:

• How to Wow Customers in 30 Minutes or Less
• Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner: It’s Time for Social Customer Service to Shine
• Customers Want Real People, Not Robots on Social Media

]]> http://www.parature.com/9socialcustomerservicemetrics/feed/ 0 http://www.parature.com/parature-practices-lunch-learn-features-crm-analyst-paul-greenberg/ http://www.parature.com/parature-practices-lunch-learn-features-crm-analyst-paul-greenberg/#comments Wed, 01 May 2013 01:34:55 +0000 Tricia Morris http://www.parature.com/?p=11308 Read More]]> Companies perceived to be out of touch with their customers in this hyper-connected, I want it my way, I want it now world, quickly fall out of favor with the public. And though they typically have no choice in their service provider, government constituents are still at heart, customers. They desire good service and are more likely to be engaged and show appreciation when they receive it.

With social media in place as a mega-phone-like sounding board for complaints and poor service horror stories, there’s an increasing demand by the public for change. Coupled with Executive Order 13571, federal agencies are becoming the leaders to streamline service delivery and improve the multi-channel constituent experience.

Government agencies do have something going for them that pioneering customer-focused businesses didn’t. In launching constituent relationship management initiatives, government has the benefit of years of industry successes, failures and lessons to draw on.

Join Parature, along with noted CRM analyst and best-selling author Paul Greenberg on May 8^th in Washington, DC, for a discussion on customer service and engagement best practices and trends affecting all industries – including the federal government. From citizens to consumers to business partners, supporting end users in today’s world requires a competitive level of multi-channel engagement and Paul will discuss what companies, organizations and government agencies should be paying attention to to create customer service success.

Paul Greenberg is the author of the best-selling CRM at the Speed of Light: Social CRM Strategy, Tools, and Techniques for Engaging Your Customers. Now in its fourth edition, the title is published in nine languages and been called “the bible of the CRM industry” and has been used by more than 70 universities as a primary text.

Paul has traveled the world speaking on cutting edge CRM and topics geared to the contemporary social customer. He has been called “the Dean of CRM” and “the Godfather of CRM” by analysts and organizations throughout the industry. In fact, at the end of 2007, he was the #1 non-vendor influencer, by InsideCRM in their annual “25 Most Influential CRM People” announcement. He was also named one of the most influential CRM leaders in 2008 by CRM Magazine and was elected to magazine’s CRM Hall of Fame in 2010 – the first non-vendor related thought leader in its history.

Paul is the Executive Vice President of the CRM Association, and is currently the Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management CRM Centre of Excellence. He has been a Board of Advisors member of the Baylor University MBA Program for CRM majors, and the co-chairman of Rutgers University’s CRM Research Center.

He is also a core member of the Board of Advisors for the Center for American Progress, the leading policy think tank in Washington D.C, and authors the popular blog, “Social CRM: The Conversation” for high profile CBS-owned technology media property, ZDNET.

To learn more about Parature’s May 8^th Lunch and Learn event featuring insights from CRM analyst Paul Greenberg, click here.

Parature’s new Unparalleled Guide eBook series is designed to deliver expert advice and insights into the customer service trends and processes that matter most to businesses and organizations serving a large or quickly-growing customer base.

So let’s get down to customer-centric business. In Parature’s first Unparalleled Guide, we’ll cover the benefits, drawbacks, best practices and interesting stats related to nine of today’s most-watched customer service channels and how your organization can successfully tune into them all.

Click here to download this free eBook.