Kevin Laracey
President and CEO
edocs, Inc.
klaracey@edocs.com
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Help Yourself To The Self-Service Advantage
Customer service is a large and growing expense across many industries around the world. In both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) settings, product and service offerings are proliferating and customer interactions are multiplying. The numbers are staggering: - Customer service interactions are increasing as much as 30 percent year over year according to Giga Information Group.
- 3 percent of the American workforce works in a call center today, growing to 5 percent by 2010 according to Gartner Research.
- 92 percent of interactions still go through call centers and each incident costs anywhere between $6 and $10, adds Gartner.
- Annual customer turnover, or churn, can be as high as 25-35 percent, as seen in the wireless communications and credit card industries.
- In a recent Gartner survey, 68 percent of customers stated that they had left a supplier or service provider because they were upset with the poor treatment they had
received.
Clearly, organizations have to provide better customer service at a lower cost. Even so, many companies continue to disappoint. Jupiter Research reports that only 52 percent of emails sent to customer service departments received replies within 24 hours, while 32 percent took three days or longer. Major inefficiencies in business, such as misapplied payments and lengthy dispute resolution processes, further drive up costs and breed customer dissatisfaction. For example, because of highly manual, error-prone processes, payments from business customers can have a 30-50 percent exception rate (i.e. payments applied to the wrong account or in the wrong amounts).
A More Customer-Centric Approach
Customer Self-Service (CSS) is a new, better approach to today’s crisis in customer care. It gives customers direct control over their most common account-related tasks. CSS empowers customers to perform many functions that normally go through a call
center or e-mail, covering everything from finding information to executing transactions. It combines electronic presentment and payment (EPP), order management, knowledge management, personalization and application integration technologies to create an integrated, natural starting point for customers to address the bulk of their service issues.
An organization’s contact center provides the key to unlocking the potential business benefits of self-service. Contact center statistics provide critical insight into which issues generate the most inquiries from customers and the costs associated with them. An analysis of the contact center statistics shows that the vast majority – often 60-80 percent – of customer service issues relate to a customer’s bill and account. These inquiries range from simple requests such as accessing account information or performing common administrative tasks to more complex processes such as dispute resolution. For this reason, an effective self-service
solution must provide direct access to detailed billing and account information often housed in disparate legacy systems.
Whether an organization provides physical goods or services, the account relationship is sporadic or recurring, or the customer is a large business or an individual consumer, the self-service needs and customer demands are similar. These include the ability for the customer to: - Manage their accounts
- e.g. update profiles, configure account features, review invoices or statements
- Execute transactions
- e.g. open/close accounts, order products/services, execute payments
- Conduct research
- e.g. compare products or plans, investigate problems, analyze activity
- Interact with the vendor
- e.g. initiate disputes, report problems, escalate issues, receive alerts, view promotions
It costs organizations significantly less when
customers get the information they need or conduct transactions themselves than it does when a CSR assists them. Moreover, business and consumer customers view self-service applications as a valuable service enhancement because it makes it easier for them to do business with their suppliers and service providers. Gartner predicts that self-service interactions will grow five-fold over the next five years.
An effective customer self-service solution is a purposeful technology investment that complements and leverages existing investments in e-billing, CRM and data management technologies. CSS affords a quick time to market and addresses several specific business needs. Organizations that deploy CSS solutions can realize tangible returns in several areas, including reduced support and processing costs; reduced Days Sales Outstanding; and increased customer satisfaction and retention. And, unlike many other technology investments that improve internal operations but provide
little for the customer, CSS solutions provide tangible benefits to both consumer and business customers, alike. These include: - A convenient, 7x24x365 starting point for common tasks, such as accessing account information, analyzing statements, investigating problems and paying bills;
- Empowering customers to make better decisions through activity or usage analysis, categorization and reporting; and
- Reducing dependence on the availability of a key account manager or a knowledgeable customer service representative for routine questions and activities.
Making it Work: Key Success Factors in CSS
Unlike CRM or Multi-Channel Service systems that focus on internal productivity, the CSS approach starts with the customer’s point of view. The CSS platform is a natural evolution of the company’s e-billing platform and organizes information and integrates relevant systems so that all the resources are collected in one place. This ensures that the
CSS solution will be the natural starting point for a customer’s support needs. This in turn maximizes the benefits for the customer and the organization alike. To be successful, customer self-service solutions must completely meet the contextual and usability needs of users and continue to evolve as those needs change. The requirements for success break down into four key areas: - Access to billing and account data
Interactive access to detailed account data is required to answer the most common questions, and thereby to establish the self-service solution as the first place to go for answers. - Customer-driven functionality and design based on actual Top 10 inquiries
The most successful customer self-service implementations are based upon providing easy-to-understand capabilities to address customers’ most common service needs, not to merely expose internal systems to customer access. Research shows, that in most industries, these inquires are billing
and account related. - Managed transition between self-service and assisted-service
If the self-service channel is to become the preferred starting point, customers need to have confidence that they will be able to escalate to assisted service if their questions are not answered. At the same time, this escalation needs to be managed carefully to avoid unintended support cost consequences. - Integration with key systems and processes
As part of an overall service strategy, the Customer Self-Service solution should be integrated with related systems for consistent information across channels. CSRs and marketers should be trained to reinforce the use of the CSS solution in appropriate customer communications. With intensifying competition, rising customer expectations, and increasing costs of service delivery, the customer care crisis is real and must be addressed. Customer Self-Service meets the needs of organizations as well as their business
and consumer customers. Customers gain ready access to information and capabilities that empower them to take control of their service needs, while the convenience of CSS applications reduces the cost of doing business for them. For organizations that deploy CSS, the cost savings are also real and clearly quantifiable. Reduced support and processing costs lead to streamlined operations and increased business efficiency. Through a phased, quick deployment, organizations can begin capturing significant returns today and lay the groundwork for sustained and profitable customer relationships in the future.
About the Author
Kevin Laracey is President and CEO of edocs, Inc., the leading provider of customer self-service and e-billing software. Based outside Boston, Mass., edocs works with many of the world’s largest companies to help them evolve their e-billing and on-line self-care strategies to maximize ROI and improve customer satisfaction. Prior to founding
edocs, Mr. Laracey was vice president of marketing at Elixir Technology Corporation, a developer of electronic document production software. Mr. Laracey holds an M.B.A. in Marketing and Finance from the UCLA Anderson School of Business and a B.A. in Computer Applications and American Studies from the University of Notre Dame. He can be reached at klaracey@edocs.com. Or visit www.edocs.com.
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