Preparation is the Key to Successful Change

Author:  Lynne Levy, Senior Business Process Product Manager, Aspect

If your contact center conducts business in the United States, take note.  A notable amendment to the FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule is set to go into effect in the not-so-distant future. And, if you haven’t already begun taking action to ensure your centers are in compliance, now’s the time to get started.

Effective September 1, 2009, you will no longer be able to place calls that deliver prerecorded messages to customers with whom you have an existing business relationship (EBR). After that date, you’ll be able to initiate these calls only to customers who’ve already provided you with express written consent to receive such calls.

But don’t frown. This can actually be good news. If you take the time now to build a database of customers who want to opt in, your outbound efforts can actually become more fruitful. Instead of wasting time and money reaching out to customers who will immediately hang up, you’ll be focusing more of your efforts on customers who are interested in what your company has to offer. This should yield better results for your telemarketing campaigns, and your customers will be happier because they’ll be getting exactly what they want.

The trick is to start building your database now, if you haven’t already begun to do so.  You can use your voice portal to proactively call customers and ask if they wish to continue receiving information about your company. Your database script can give customers the option to “press 1 to continue to receive information” or “press 2 to no longer receive information.”  Taking that a step further, don’t be shy to ask how customers prefer to be contacted – home phone, email, cell phone, text message, etc.  Once you have all this information, you’ll be able to mail the appropriate written communications for your customers to sign.  Then, after September 1, you’ll be ready to use your Advanced List Management capabilities to create targeted calling lists that are in compliance with the law, and outbound dialer functionality to initiate your more targeted campaigns.   

How are you preparing for the upcoming FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule amendment?

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Improving Customer Satisfaction Could Save Your Company Millions

Author:  Mike Sheridan, SVP of Strategy at Aspect

Whether your contact center serves customers in North America, Europe or the Caribbean and Latin America, the odds are, your customers may not be as satisfied as you think they are. And, that shouldn’t be taken lightly. 

The recently published 2009 Aspect Contact Center Satisfaction Index™ Caribbean and Latin America shows that consumers in the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) view their contact center experiences as barely acceptable, with an overall satisfaction rating of 72 percent.  Consumers in North America give contact centers an identical score, while European consumers come in eight percentage points lower at 64 percent.

This is important because research shows that there is a direct correlation between high levels of satisfaction and future business.

In CALA, for instance, half of consumers who are satisfied with their last interaction say they will conduct more business with a company, while four out of five consumers (80 percent) of those who are unsatisfied will conduct less business. In North America and Europe, roughly one third of consumers who have exceptional experiences are likely to conduct future business with a company. But, perhaps even more importantly, nearly three quarters of consumers in North America and half of the consumers in Europe who have bad experiences will conduct less business.  One more sobering statistic – at this very moment, a sizeable subsection of your customers is willing to defect to one of your competitors based on their latest interaction with your company.

Don’t worry, there’s much you can do to keep those customers from leaving.  But, you need to bridge the gap between customer expectations and your organization’s ability to satisfy them. In other words, listen to your customers and put the right people, processes and technology in place to meet their needs.  Then, develop and implement a well thought-out strategy that brings together your business rules, best practices and administration into a single platform that you can manage from one location, so that you can consistently create a personalized, friendly experience that:

• Enables customers to contact your business via their preferred channel
• Reduces the amount of information your customers have to repeat during the course of an interaction
• Gives your agents access to the resources they need so they can improve first call resolution
• Allows your managers to gain a comprehensive view of contact center performance so they can make faster, more informed decisions, and better meet the dynamically changing needs of your customers

The good news is that there are already companies out there that are providing consumers with exceptional experiences, and the Aspect Index tells us exactly what is making those experiences exceptional.  It will make a competitive difference if you leverage that intelligence and improve your customer’s loyalty.

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Social Media Shaping a New Contact Center Paradigm

Author:  Mike Sheridan, SVP of Strategy at Aspect

Since social media’s  birth, public relations and marketing professionals have been using it to gauge and help shape public perception of their companies. These days that’s just not enough.  Consumers are crying out for companies to use social media for much more.  In fact, according to a study conducted by Cone, a strategy and communications agency, 43 percent of consumers think that companies should use social media to solve their problems, while another 41 percent say that companies should embrace social media as a way to solicit feedback on products and services.

Whether you like it or not, social media is helping to shape a new paradigm  for the contact center.  It’s about even more real-time, anytime, anywhere customer service than we’ve seen evolving over the past few years. Sure. This paradigm includes more traditional methods of communications, like phone and email. But, it also incorporates social monitoring and media – reactively and proactively responding to blogs and “tweets”.

Customer service organizations that haven’t begun planning or implementing their social media strategies should definitely get started.  There are companies out there that have already allocated people to the social media cause, and are seeing it pay off. I recently read a blog about a consumer who “tweeted” a Dell contact regarding an ongoing computer problem.  The Dell contact immediately responded to the consumer’s request, resolved the customer’s problem and probably earned his continued loyalty through social media.

Some companies are extremely proactive, using social media to “take the bull by the horns” so to speak, and turn bad situations around. If a consumer posts or “tweets” about a negative experience with your company or products, why not use your customer service department to mitigate the damage or change the outcome by reaching out online? Likewise, when a customer posts a negative comment about your competitor, what’s stopping you from swooping in, turning them on to your company as a viable alternative, and changing a bad experience with your competitor into a revenue generating opportunity for your company? Southwest Airlines for instance, has a whole social media team that responds in a personal way when someone posts an online complaint.

Forward-thinking companies like Dell, Southwest Airlines and Comcast provide great case studies for how to use social media to wow customers and improve their experiences. This is just the beginning. Moving forward, many more companies will integrate this function into their customer service organizations. 

How is your company incorporating social media into your overall customer experience strategy?

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Debt Settlement – No Longer a Dirty Phrase

Author:  Allyson Boudousquie, Director of Business Process Marketing for the PerformanceEdge Group at Aspect

It used to be commonplace for American consumers to refinance their homes for more than they owed, then use the extra cash to pay off credit cards and other debt. But, the unstable economy has brought with it a credit crunch, as well as a significant drop in home values. As a result, many homeowners have lost the ability to borrow against their homes, and the number of past due accounts on all types of debt has risen to massive proportions.

On one side of the fence, you have lenders who are looking for new and innovative ways to recoup more of the money they have paid out. And, on the other side are consumers – a large number who are genuine in their desire to pay back what they have borrowed, but are struggling to stay afloat. When both of these parties come together to agree on a debt settlement, it’s often a win-win for everyone.  By agreeing to settle, lenders often recover more money than they would otherwise have gotten back ($700 is better than $0 on a $1,000 loan), and consumers gain the ability to make payments that actually fit into their budgets.

So, how can you use settlement offers to increase your collections results?   

Start by creating strategic lists that target the right contacts – people who you believe would be willing and able to make settlement payments.  With campaign optimization tools, you can aggregate, then slice and dice data based on criteria such as delinquency, credit bureau scores and risk scores. Using sophisticated filters, exclusion and Best Time to Call capabilities, you can identify and target the right customers so that you can proactively call them where and when you will be most likely to reach them.

After you cull your list, you may find that it makes sense to create a “settlement queue” that is solely comprised of agents and/or subject matter experts who specialize in structuring and negotiating settlement agreements. Another option is to have regular agents reach out to these customers, talk to them about their options and, when a customer expresses interest, transfer that customer to a special “gate” where final negotiations take place and terms are agreed upon. Whatever you decide, it’s important that you continue to refine your targets and your strategy as you develop a successful debt settlement history.  Doing so will help you ensure the best possible business results.

Have you structured settlement negotiations yet? If so, we’d love to hear about what you’re doing and the technology you’re using.

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