Comments on: Customer Service Still Matters – Even More Than Ever on the Web http://www.fastforwardblog.com/2008/11/13/customer-service-still-matters-even-more-than-ever-on-the-web/ Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:38:51 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Customer Service http://www.fastforwardblog.com/2008/11/13/customer-service-still-matters-even-more-than-ever-on-the-web/comment-page-1/#comment-215270 Customer Service Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:20:14 +0000 http://www.fastforwardblog.com/?p=1208#comment-215270 Like any tree the root system produces the fruit. Likewise customer service is the lifeblood of business fruitage. Like any tree the root system produces the fruit. Likewise customer service is the lifeblood of business fruitage.

]]> By: Mike http://www.fastforwardblog.com/2008/11/13/customer-service-still-matters-even-more-than-ever-on-the-web/comment-page-1/#comment-190783 Mike Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:54:40 +0000 http://www.fastforwardblog.com/?p=1208#comment-190783 This is a very revealing insight into the importance of great customer service to Sales. Particularly as more companies move more of their business on-line, providing exceptional customer service via the web will become a vital ingredient to success. The problem of course is that as business grows, support needs to scale to meet service demand. Otherwise satisfaction declines and the statistics here tell the rest of the story. Until recently, companies turned to customer self service as a way to address increased service demand by deflecting contact with service agents. In terms of the Web, customer service portals were viewed primarily as a low-cost interaction channel. But, today's customers get impatient with navigating call centers and poking around company websites looking for help, so they do what millions of other people do each day to research their problems -- they fire up Google, key in their search terms and in many cases find what they are looking for because somebody just like them already ran across their issue and posted their findings on the Web -- in a forum, blog, wiki or other web page. The result -- companies have lost control of the service relationship, if they ever had control to begin with. My company (Helpstream) recognized this trend several years ago and developed a way for companies to: 1) participate in this phenomenon, and 2) enable customers to serve each other. This is a very interesting approach because it can have a profound impact on the customer experience as well as agent productivity. On our own service portal we've seen around a 37% self service resolve rate and around 50% of the content in our knowledge base comes directly from our customers. We've also found that so far about 17% of issues are resolved by customers helping other customers, and we expect these numbers to increase substantially over time. It's been a long time since innovations in customer service have produced these levels of benefits and have helped create happy customers at the same time. This is a very revealing insight into the importance of great customer service to Sales. Particularly as more companies move more of their business on-line, providing exceptional customer service via the web will become a vital ingredient to success. The problem of course is that as business grows, support needs to scale to meet service demand. Otherwise satisfaction declines and the statistics here tell the rest of the story.

Until recently, companies turned to customer self service as a way to address increased service demand by deflecting contact with service agents. In terms of the Web, customer service portals were viewed primarily as a low-cost interaction channel. But, today’s customers get impatient with navigating call centers and poking around company websites looking for help, so they do what millions of other people do each day to research their problems — they fire up Google, key in their search terms and in many cases find what they are looking for because somebody just like them already ran across their issue and posted their findings on the Web — in a forum, blog, wiki or other web page. The result — companies have lost control of the service relationship, if they ever had control to begin with.

My company (Helpstream) recognized this trend several years ago and developed a way for companies to: 1) participate in this phenomenon, and 2) enable customers to serve each other. This is a very interesting approach because it can have a profound impact on the customer experience as well as agent productivity. On our own service portal we’ve seen around a 37% self service resolve rate and around 50% of the content in our knowledge base comes directly from our customers. We’ve also found that so far about 17% of issues are resolved by customers helping other customers, and we expect these numbers to increase substantially over time.

It’s been a long time since innovations in customer service have produced these levels of benefits and have helped create happy customers at the same time.

]]> By: Ann Michaels & Associates, Ltd http://www.fastforwardblog.com/2008/11/13/customer-service-still-matters-even-more-than-ever-on-the-web/comment-page-1/#comment-190554 Ann Michaels & Associates, Ltd Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:02:37 +0000 http://www.fastforwardblog.com/?p=1208#comment-190554 This is a great post with some outstanding statistics!! At our firm, we have developed a new product called SafetyNet to monitor all the online feedback that customers write about our clients. If the online buzz is significant enough about a particular store location we will send in mystery shoppers to conduct a customer service audit. I feel personally that this is only going to grow larger in the coming years. More and more companies will need to implement some type of customer satisfaction measurement in order to compete in today's market. As a consumer, I have abandoned numerous shopping carts in my time because of poor website performance. It can be very frustrating!! Thanks! Kathy This is a great post with some outstanding statistics!! At our firm, we have developed a new product called SafetyNet to monitor all the online feedback that customers write about our clients. If the online buzz is significant enough about a particular store location we will send in mystery shoppers to conduct a customer service audit.
I feel personally that this is only going to grow larger in the coming years. More and more companies will need to implement some type of customer satisfaction measurement in order to compete in today’s market. As a consumer, I have abandoned numerous shopping carts in my time because of poor website performance. It can be very frustrating!!

Thanks!
Kathy

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