The Contact Center Blog

IRCE 2010 Website is Live

Internet Retailer announced today that the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE) website is now live with complete details of the event.

This years’ Conference & Exhibition will take place June 8 -11, 2010 at McCormick Place West in Chicago.  With 5000+ attendees, 375 exhibiting companies, and 175 speakers, this is definitely an event to attend, and the world’s largest e-commerce event.  Plus, if you register between now and January 15 you will receive a $100 cash rebate (presented to you when you pick up your pass at the show) in addition to the $200 early-bird discount!

Visit http://www.internetretailer.com/IRCE2010/ for more information and to register today!

Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales Up - Are You Supporting These Sales?

The results are in, and online sales from Black Friday and Cyber Monday are up compared to one year ago. 

According to comScore, a company that monitors online consumer behavior, Black Friday experienced an 11% increase in sales to $595 million compared to the same day in 2008.  Meanwhile, Cyber Monday rose 5% from the same day in 2008, reaching $887 million and matching December 9, 2008 for online spend, which is the heaviest in record.

These statistics speak great for a recovering economy, and definitely shed an optimistic light on the upcoming holiday season.  But, before we get ahead of ourselves we need to explore the full scenario and ask ourselves – how are these sales going to be supported into the New  Year?

See, the sale doesn’t end when the credit card is processed online.  After this is complete, retailers must shift focus to the after-sale experience in which the customer uses the product and seeks help setting it up, trouble-shooting, exchanging for an upgrade, or simply making a return.  Each of these can have a further positive or negative impact on the customer’s experience.

Many businesses today rely on repeat customer purchases, and therefore building a good rapport and reputation for beyond-the-sale service amongst customers is critical.  This is where contact center services – done in-house or outsourced – will have a huge benefit to any company.  A 24 hour help line to trouble-shoot on Boxing Day can mean the difference between a happy child, and therefore happy customer, or a disgruntled individual who will go elsewhere for a purchase in the future. 

So, while the numbers stand to be beneficial to retailers right now, will you follow-through and support these sales in 2010?

Managing Customer Feedback

Customer feedback is important. Collecting this information, analyzing and responding where necessary is equally important to ensure the demanding needs of today's consumers are met.

The traditional channels still exist, but add to it the social media networks and we now have a wealth of useful information to help us make strategic decisions. The challenge is making a conscious effort of managing these well. An article in the E-Commerce Times outlines some best practices for companies to  manage customer feedback:

1. Create clear objectives and garner company support. Objectives for the management of customer feedback should be aligned with the company's overall goals.

2. Actively encourage and promote customer feedback. The more feedback companies receive from customers, the more insights they will have about their business.

3. Offer customers multiple feedback channels. People vary greatly in the way they prefer to communicate, so be sure to give your customers several options in communicating with you.

4. Centrally collect, store, manage and analyze customer feedback. By consolidating all feedback and survey data into a single centralized system and using that system across the organization, feedback managers are able to gain valuable insights into what customers need, want and value most, as well as identify important trends and patterns in the data.

5. Use and take action on customer feedback. Many organizations collect customer feedback, but tend to fall short when it comes to actually using and acting on that data..

6. Resolve outstanding customer issues promptly. Nearly all businesses have some customers who complain about something at one point or another. What's most important is how your organization handles those complaints.

7. Close the feedback loop with customers. Inform your customers whenever your company initiates change as a result of their suggestions or feedback, and let them know what changes you made.

8. Create a company culture that is committed to using customer feedback. To maximize awareness, build an employee rewards program around the positive feedback that your company receives from customers.

Not Surprising, but Less Spending Predicted This Holiday Season

Just released, the National Retail Federation's 2009 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey announces a decline in spending for US shoppers this 2009 Holiday Season. According to the report, U.S. consumers plan to spend an average of $682.74 on holiday-related shopping, a 3% drop from last year’s $705.01.

This does not mean less gifts from a quantity perspective, but will definitely be looking for better deals to spend less overall.

MultiChannel Merchant reports, "According to the survey, conducted by BIGresearch, 66% of U.S. Shoppers say the economy will affect their holiday plans this year, with 84% of respondents say they’re adjusting by simply spending less. To ensure that they will spend less, 55% say they'll be shopping for sales more often, 42% will be using more coupons and 34% are putting up last year’s decorations."

Retailers will have to look for ways to gain new customers or repeat customers, not focusing only on discounting. This is the season where the customer experience is key to ensure companies bring in decent numbers for end of year results.

With Thanksgiving weekend only 5 weeks away, Retailers must act now to get what they can out of their customer's tight budgets this year.

Finding and Fostering Contact Center Agent Stars

With sales plateauing and margins shrinking, online retailers must optimize the use of their contact center, whether in-house or outsourced. One way to do this is to make sure that your agent staff is the best it can be.  At the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition in Boson this past June, Greg Fettes from 24-7 INtouch and client Leslie Agerland from ShopNBC.com discussed how to select, identify, and motivate agent stars to ensure program goals are being met. Here are some of the main tips from their presentation that are somewhat simple in nature, and yet sometimes the first to be overlooked.

Establish a Culture of Excellence - Expect excellence throughout your organization. Lay out clear goals and tie them into your overall contact center culture. Empower your employees to add value at all levels, and accountability will come naturally.

Communicate & Share Information - Communicate what is happening within your company.  Communicate program goals and where each person is doing well or needs improvement. Allow for networking to build a close culture.

Be Flexible - Contact centers have a bad reputation for being rigid in scheduling. Flexibility will result in higher retention and increased productivity in the long run.

Recognize. Recognize. Recognize - Everyone likes a pat on the back for a job well done. This is especially true for the typical younger demographic that works in the contact center. Remember to be creative – it’s not only about money! Have other incentives and perks that tie into your program goals.

Use Mentors to Build Teams - Your own employees are usually the best knowledge experts to help develop lower performing agents. Foster a mentorship atmosphere to develop tomorrow’s leaders and maintain your culture of excellence.

Don’t Forget to Have Fun - Improve morale by providing recreational facilities and break areas where employees at all levels of the company can socialize.  Invite top-performing agents to company functions such as awards dinners and by reward them with perks.

Incorporate these tips into your recognition and reward strategy. The value-added ROI will be a more motivated workforce, enhanced brand, empowered agent group and higher retention of your top subject matter experts.

2 Online Customer Service Tips for Retail Holiday Season | ACCM

As discussed in the blog post "180 Days Until Christmas", here are the first two tips from Barry Lamm (LivePeson) and Greg Fettes (24-7 INtouch).

180 Days Until Christmas! Are You Ready?

Calling all retailers! Are you ready for this holiday season? Is your online customer service strategy geared up for one of the biggest sales seasons of the year?

Last week at the ACCM show in New Orleans, Greg Fettes, president & CEO of contact center services provider 24-7 INtouch, and Barry Lamm, director of account management and training for live chat software provider LivePerson discussed the importance of a true customer service strategy, that is planned well in advance for the 2009 holiday season.

In 2008, the New York Times reporting that "Online shopping is gaining at a time when simply filing up a gas tank to head to the mall can seem like a spending spree." This quote highlights the importance of a successful sales season for retailers in 2009, to help pull them through these tough economic times.

Multi-Channel Merchant Magazine reported on the presentation and summed up the following Holiday Customer Service Tips from Fettes' and Lamm's presentation.

Use customer service to drive ROI. You spend thousands of dollars to drive traffic to your Website. Quality customer service through multiple channels is proven to increase sales conversions and enhance the customer experience.

It’s not over on Dec. 25. Don’t forget about the post-holiday sales rush! Gift card purchases are on the rise, giving you an opportunity to exceed your first-quarter sales targets. For returns and exchanges, a seamless process will create high brand loyalty and repeat businesses.

Get more out of what you got. With fewer consumers spending, average order value is an important metric for ROI and reduced cost per contact. Use technology analytics and reporting to identify visitors who are most likely to buy and focus on upsells and cross-sells to increase the average order value.

Know your options. Don’t sacrifice sales and service because your headcount budget is frozen. Consider short-term contract work for your after-hours coverage or seasonal overflow contacts.

Lead, don’t follow. Competition is growing each year, and 2009 will be a fight to win consumer dollars. When it comes to service, lead—don’t follow your competition. Make the investment to provide a great experience and leave a lasting positive impression with your customers.

Will Internet Savvy Web 2.0'ers Lead to the Demise of the Traditional Call Center Model?

Recently, I have read that Twitter of all things is apparently the cause of significant call center layoffs. It was stated that more people than ever are taking advantage of corporate Twitter sites to ask customer service questions, which means less traditional phone call inquiries (you can read the article here ).

And what is this I am hearing about 'super users'? -people that enjoy products so much that they surf the web and online corporate communities, jumping at the chance to help their fellow users by answering customer service questions. From a recent tmcnet.com article:

Since last summer, Verizon has transferred much of the responsibility in certain divisions that require high levels of customer service to volunteers - people who have a passion for the wireless, Internet and TV technologies that Verizon peddles, and who like to feel useful. Sound strange? It is. But it's also true. They're called "super-users," and they work through online forums that are gradually developing into self-sustaining databases where customers can go to answer all their questions.

Does this all mean that the end of the traditional customer service call center is near?

I don’t think so.

Don’t get me wrong, there are great self-service companies out there like Bazaarvoiceand Lithium, and they have a place in this ecosystem, but I think people are forgetting to examine the other side of the spectrum and companies like Zappos.com- the reigning King of the customer service experience.

How does one explain Zappos.com’s success in this new self-help world? For gosh sakes they don't even set limits for how long their agents can talk to callers, and I believe the longest service call they ever had was over 5 hours.....

My current thought is that there is a middle ground, and that appropriate and tempered call deflection is the key to success.

What I mean by this is:

Companies should take advantage of these new technologies, incorporating items like robust self-help sections to their websites, and they should also use communication channels like Twitter, live chat and email (which are usually more cost effective than voice support to deploy because of concurrency). But as is the case with Zappos, there is no replacement for the service that can be achieved through voice support. The experience is unparalleled, and for more complicated support issues it is the only viable channel that can be used to adequately understand and address a customers needs.

Although a lot of startups are finding the initial cost savings of self-service tools appealing, as these companies mature, if they hope to develop a long term and re-occurring customer base they are going to have to invest in multi-channel customer service which is anchored by traditional phone support. Simply put, customer’s expectations are higher than ever, and consumers expect a multitude of contact options so they can interact in the way they feel most comfortable with a company.

To conclude, I think self-service is here to stay, and I think it works amazingly well for simple customer services issues. In these challenging economic times, the technologies discussed will also help businesses to reduce their overall customer service expenditures. With that being said, call deflection can only be taken so far. For companies that care about their brand and their overall customer experience, there will always be a need and a role for the kind and caring customer service representative who is available to speak with consumers by phone.                         

-Tim Peters

Top500Guide.com - Top US Retailers Website

InternetRetailer.com has launched it's Top500Guide.com® website which is tagged as "The only source of information on the largest e-retailers in the U.S. and Canada and provides multiple years’ worth of sales, performance, product, and vendor data for the largest sites in e-retailing." The Top 500 ranks the largest e-retailers in the U.S. and Canada based on annual online sales

To access the site and data, you must register and be a subscribed user. Yearly rates start at $195 which includes a print copy and online access, with price breaks for the more users that sign up.

Internet Retailer came out with the Top 500 Guide product in 2004 and has been a valuable source of e-retailer ranking information and has become an established publication, sometimes called "the bible of the retail industry". Internet Retailer has a full-time staff of four  that gathers data year-round for the Top 500 and calls on extensive sources to ensure the authority and accuracy of the information.

In addition to online sales, the Top 500 Guide® includes data for each retailer on number of unique visitors to the site, total visits, conversion rates, number of SKUs online, site performance, e-mail marketing programs, search engine marketing programs, browser satisfaction and vendors that provide services to each retailer. It includes names of executives and URLs that each retailer uses. Extensive tables in the Top 500 Guide® show how retailers compare to their peers by type of retailer (chain, catalog, web-only, manufacturer) and merchandise category. It also includes tables of fastest growing in percentage terms, most growth in dollars, the proportion of web sales to total sales for the Top 100 and more.

To learn more visit http://www.top500guide.com/.

Web 3.0 - The Way Of The Future For Online Customer Engagement?

I spoke with Darius Lahoutifard today, the CEO of Altadyn. His company makes 3DXPlorer, an application that lets companies deploy ‘out of the box’ virtual worlds. 3DXPlorer  can be used for such things as virtual meetings, but what interested me the most is how the technology can be applied to online customer engagement. From the Altadyn/3DXPlorer  website:

Web 3.0 = web3D

Web 3.0, the third generation of the Web built upon tools like the 3DXplorer platform, enables corporations to finally bridge this gap, leveraging immersive 3D to directly engage prospects and customers in a personal and entertaining environment. Rather than relying on limited tools to track anonymous web visitors, for the first time, Web 3.0 and 3DXplorer make immersive 3D available to every company. Web 3.0 extends the web to a personal, interactive environment, where individuals, both end-users and consumers and corporate representatives, can express themselves in a manner similar to the way they do in everyday life when conducting a face-to-face meeting, attending a seminar or walking into a store.

You can demo the 3DXPlorer technology here.