Essential Managers Guide to Extraordinary Customer Service

What your customers think about your company is often a result of their experience when they contact you.

Whether or not they remain customers is often a result of the quality of service you provide. Through Extraordinary Customer Service,

THE CUSTOMER'S PERSPECTIVE

Customers expect more today from customer service than ever before. Businesses must ask themselves some telling questions to ensure they're providing the best possible service to their customers. How many menus must a customer navigate? Are agents empowered to completely serve a customer? How does your customer service compare to your competitors?

Customers are raising the bar for customer service, and so must you. To know if your customer is a satisfied customer you must continually evaluate the total customer experience.

THE CUSTOMER SERVICE OPPORTUNITY

Are you utilizing your contact center as a means to cement your company's branding and to build customer loyalty? Leading organizations see the opportunity in providing extraordinary customer service.

Despite years of attention and investment, there may still be a gap between customer expectations and the reality of the service being provided. Understanding the drivers of the gap is critical and closing the gap can avoid the impact of poor service, and create the upside of extraordinary service.

CUSTOMER SERVICE CHANGES CUSTOMER OPINIONS

Savvy organizations view every customer contact center not as a cost center but as a profit center. They adopt industry best practices and invest in their contact center technology and staff. The immediate result is the ability to provide better service and more satisfied customers and the long-term result is a stronger brand image.

Noted customer experience expert Seth Godin in his paper, "Is Your Contact Center a Powerful Brand Experience?" says that more than 90 percent of customers change their opinion of a company based on the manner in which the company deals with them on the phone. An exceptional contact center experience, however, can change an ambivalent or negative perception into a positive one-and win a customer for life. Customers who are delighted with the experience they get from your business become repeat customers, purchase more over time and recommend your company to their peers.

EXTRAORDINARY CUSTOMER SERVICE: THE SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Differentiated customer service optimizes infrastructure, applications, business processes, and people to provide a customer service experience that sets a business apart from its competitors. At the core of market differentiation for any business is the ability to deliver superior customer service through intelligent communications.

Central to Intelligent Communications is a strong technology foundation built on IP. Taking advantage of Voice over IP (VoIP) technology, a virtual contact center that is highly scalable can deliver extraordinary customer service across multiple locations and multiple time zones. Perhaps the biggest opportunity Intelligent Communications provides is the competitive advantage gained by enhanced customer service. Speech-enabled routing provides enhanced self-service and personalized content; routine, but complex interactions can be moved from more expensive agent resources to cost-effective, self-service channels. New, innovative solutions using SIP services can support universal routing of voice, video, email, and other media; voice portal technology can deliver personalized speech applications; and inbound/outbound reporting and analysis can maximize agent productivity and customer satisfaction in real time.

THE PATH TO INTELLIGENT CUSTOMER SERVICE

There is a definite path in the evolution of customer service. Companies are moving from simply answering the phone to providing totally integrated, fully transparent solutions, using a combination of techniques, and technologies for Intelligent Communications. Looking ahead, capabilities like communications embedded in business processes will intelligently automate and manage the human collaboration needed to conduct business. This is an essential element in the entire enterprise being at the service of the customer-the enterprise-wide customer experience.

Avaya delivers Intelligent Communications solutions that help companies transform their businesses to achieve marketplace advantage. More than one million businesses worldwide, including more than 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500®, use Avaya solutions for IP Telephony, Unified Communications, Contact Centers and CommunicationsEnabled Business Processes. Avaya Global Services provides comprehensive service and support for companies, small to large.