Call centres must prevent customer churn
By having all the information on a unified interface, call centres can learn to make customer service a priority
Customer churn is one of the greatest challenges for any organisation and none more so than the telecoms industry. The mobile phone market reached saturation point some time ago and the plethora of pricing options, different service plans and new phone models available causes customers to swap suppliers on a regular basis.
The old adage that ‘service sells’ has never been more applicable and good customer service can help telecoms providers hold on to their customers and provide a value added service.
Take, for example, the acquisition of Virgin Mobile UK by cable giant NTL. The Virgin name was favoured for the new company as it offered instant consumer brand appeal, but more importantly because of its renowned excellent customer service. So how can other service providers meet the growing challenge of Virgin’s customer service offering? Answer: Through enhancing their own customer service.
Traditionally, contact centres have often been referred to as ‘cost centres’ and a necessary business-expense. However, if used correctly they can have a significant impact on customer retention and can add real market value and prove to be a successful business tool.
The key to keeping customers happy and ensuring that they stay with your company is to provide them with the information they need, when they need it. This is often easier said than done.
Agents frequently have to access many different databases to find all of the relevant information in order to satisfy a customer enquiry. The answer lies in an integrated desktop that enables agents to access all the information they need through a single screen, including product details and availability as well as customer histories. This means that they do not need to separately navigate the many silos of data that may already exist within your business – freeing up agents’ time to provide truly personalised service.
Vodafone UK, a member of the world’s largest mobile community, faces the problem of customer churn every day and like most service providers, it has a department that is dedicated to retaining customers. The Vodafone customer retention department implemented a unified desktop in order to simplify the processes for its agents. Through the non-invasive integration of their systems and processes, Vodafone’s agents have been able to reduce call time, while still providing high levels of quality customer service – especially in terms of customer ‘saves’. The result is that they can now complete more calls in the space of a day, which translates directly into more customer ‘saves.’