 Donna Fluss Analyst Gartner Group melissa.hennesey@gartner.com |
Q. How do you staff contact centers to support E-CRM and E-Business? The Web has created the need for a new class of customer service representative (CSR), which will be called an electronic CSR (e-CSR). These staff members are technically adept, comfortable on the Web, type well, write well, and address both business and technical questions. Enterprises need e-CSRs who can handle questions, either business or technical, about the Web site, address e-mail inquiries and service collaborative chat sessions. The Problem: Inquiries about a Web site are usually bounced around among internal help desk staff, the marketing department (it is often felt that, if marketing built the site, they should be able to support it) and the customer service organization. In general, external customers expect questions to be answered correctly, at the point of contact, 80 percent to 95 percent of the time. This best practice has been set by call centers, which often meet or exceed this level of service. To satisfy customers using Web sites, enterprises need to provide this level of support for questions about the Web site. Customers asking questions about the Web site do not care that the Web is a new channel. They expect the enterprise to address their questions about the Web site just as it would any business question. Recommended Approach: The solution will depend on the customer service organization's complexity. Complex customer service organizations that address many products/services find it more difficult to add new skills than departments with a limited scope of service. |