Editor’s note: Rich Hebert is president and CEO of Sky Alland Marketing, a Columbia, Md., customer relationship management company.
Over the last decade, competitive forces in the automotive, utility, health care and financial services industries have prompted corporations to become more customer-oriented. In many product categories, where customer orientation was once thought to be a source of competitive advantage, it has become a requirement for corporate survival.
Consumer research and loyalty marketing are inseparable aspects of customer orientation. Companies intent on generating customer loyalty must develop a corporate culture that is devoted to serving the customer. However, it is seldom recognized that research is part of the customer loyalty equation. Properly executed telephone interviews not only provide management with valuable information, but can leave customers with the sense that the company really cares about them. This not only increases the loyalty of satisfied customers, but can make the difference in keeping disgruntled customers from switching to another brand. Although many companies broadly acknowledge this concept, it is regularly forgotten when performing telephone interviews.
Implementation of a successful loyalty marketing orientation requires that employees are sold on the concept themselves. Service quality - a key driver of loyalty - cannot be treated as just a "program" or "special campaign." It requires a continuous commitment from the entire company and from all of the third-party vendors who support the company. In an age where companies are increasing their use of outside services for many functions that touch their customers, they must ensure that these organizations share a common vision of customer relationships. Anything less can cause serious damage to the company’s reputation and relationships with its customers. Therefore, many companies are implementing full loyalty marketing programs both within their companies and within the service organizations they employ. They are examining all of their interactions with their customers to ensure that they are well-timed, coordinated and consistent in terms of the message, image and relationship being conveyed to customers.
Why the telephone interview?
There are three major options for collecting primary customer data: personal interviews, mail surveys, and telephone surveys. Personal interviews are obviously the closest form of customer contact, and can make the greatest impression upon customers. In addition, they yield deeper qualitative information and more data than telephone or mail surveys. The major drawbacks for personal interviews, however, are the burden on consumers and cost. The expense of collecting a large sample, or a sample spread out over a broad base, can be prohibitive. Therefore, most companies turn to either mail or telephone surveys.
There are several major issues to consider when comparing mail surveys to telephone surveys. Foremost among these are speed of data collection, response rates/bias, cost, and the communication style desired. In speed of data collection, telephone survey methodologies hold a clear advantage over mail surveys. There is also serious potential for nonresponse bias in mail surveys. Although mail surveys have traditionally been considered the least expensive form of collecting survey data, the rising costs of mailings and the improved technology of telecommunications have changed the situation. Since the mid 1990s, the decreasing cost of telephone surveys has rendered them quite comparable to mail surveys. Growing customer aversion to paper surveys has caused companies to move to the telephone interviews. More importantly, paper surveys lack the interactive element that telephone research provides.
Creating a relationship
From a customer’s point of view, the critical difference between one product and another often lies not in the product itself, but in the company that makes it. More and more, customers are seeking relationships with companies from which they purchase important products or services. Nowhere in the sales process is the company closer to the customer than in the call center. This not only includes the customer service department, but also the inbound and outbound sales desks.
Take advantage of this opportunity by creating relationships over the phone that can mean the difference between making a sale and creating a loyal customer. Following the four guidelines below will put you on your way to developing customer relationships that could last a lifetime.
1. Know the difference between customer relationship management and telemarketing. Customer relationship management is not about cold calls, and is more than "smiling and dialing." It’s a coordinated effort that combines all phases of the customer relationship - including lead generation, acquisition, satisfaction follow-up calls, marketing channel management, customer service, and cross-selling - into one intelligent and integrated process. For instance, the call-center screen should show every contact that has been made with the customer, through mail, phone, or any other method. This prior knowledge shows that the customer service associate knows the person he or she is calling and is prepared to prioritize what is important and relevant to that person, thereby limiting wasted time for the customer.
2. Identify your high-value customers on-screen. First, establish criteria for identifying your most valuable customers. Do they make regular purchases? Do they buy high-end items? Do they pay their invoices or bills on time, or early? Once the profitability criteria are determined, identify their priority status on-screen, then provide them with personalized interactions by offering products or services that meet their specific wants or needs. Remember that selling to an existing customer costs a lot less than winning a new one.
3. Train your customer service associates in how to engage in two-way dialogue and concentrate more on listening than talking. Customers usually appreciate a contact who remembers the little things about them and makes them feel special. Through interactive dialogue, make individual customers feel that they are in a class by themselves, and their happiness, satisfaction, and repeat business matters to you. For example, ask if the order they received last week was satisfactory, or say something like, "It’s about three months since you last ordered X, and I see that that’s about how often you reorder this product. Would you like me to go reorder that for you today?" Any customer feedback resulting from such interactions should be captured in the database and built upon for future interactions.
4. Take action. Capturing customer data is important, but that data is worthless if you don’t use it. Data needs to be processed and analyzed in real time so that it can be applied during future customer contact to personalize interactions, positively influence satisfaction levels, and sway ongoing purchase decisions. For example, if a customer mentions in June that your product might make a good gift for her husband in December, follow up in November to let her know the product is available in her husband’s favorite color.
Outsourcing the telephone interview and other telephone interactions
Many managerial benefits of telephone interviewing come with outsourcing the effort. Outsourcing must be done carefully, systematically, and with explicit goals. Companies that rush into outsourcing without fully understanding what they hope to gain may find themselves either mired in a contractual battle with a chosen vendor, or the recipient of services that decline over time. Sensible reasons to consider outsourcing include both strategic and tactical considerations on both a departmental and organizational level.
For example, at the tactical level, outsourcing might be justifiable for a company with comparably high costs of delivering telephone interactions or lacking competency in implementing the interactions that foster customer loyalty. Strategic considerations might include the need to immediately improve customer retention and compete on the basis of service in a highly competitive and commoditized environment. The primary business needs for call center outsourcing include lead management, customer satisfaction, channel management, churn management and cross-selling.
Outsourcing the customer communications associated with these critical business functions to a single, competent provider will improve the quality of the communications stream with customers and through consolidated reporting provide company management with the consumer insights it requires to stay on top of these processes and customers’ needs.
Scripting telephone interactions
Regular consumer interactions should be scripted, to ensure consistency and fulfillment of objectives. Scripts do not mean that interactions have to be cold; rather, they should serve as a conversation guide. Before developing a script, the company should undertake a needs assessment program to define business objectives. Questions to address during needs assessment include: what is the company trying to learn from its customers and what is the company’s main objective in making the call? For example, is the company trying to understand its customers’ attitudes towards the company or their satisfaction with a particular product? Is the company trying to make its customers feel good about the brand, or is the company trying to inform its customers about a particular service? Identifying the demographics of those interviewed is part of the needs assessment process also, as scripting may vary depending on the profile of the consumer.
Scripts are developed to help the customer service associate engage the customer in meaningful dialogue. The script should incorporate transitional phrases to avoid dead air and anticipate customer needs and attitudes.
The interaction should be carefully scripted so that it doesn’t sound like a sales call or a research interview (even if it is). The number one goal of every script is to leave the customer with a first-class impression of the company.
Logistics of telephone interviewing
Mature, articulate, educated people, with neutral accents should conduct telephone interactions. The quality of the interaction, including a courteous tone, knowledge of the company’s business and the ability to solve problems, is essential to successful consumer interactions. Regardless of a call center’s objective - whether it is to measure satisfaction, fulfill literature requests, or handle customer service - an overriding index of success is the impact it has on customer relationships. In its capacity as a communicator between a company and its customers, call center activities present a crucial - and sometimes the only - opportunity for interactive dialogue with customers.
Professional interviewers specifically trained in loyalty marketing techniques should conduct telephone surveys and interactions. This means that rather than maintaining a strict script in the interview process, which can seem cold and uncaring to customers, the interviewers are trained to respond sympathetically and reassuringly to customer concerns and complaints.
The customer service associate conducting the call should be up-front about the amount of time the conversation will last; length and format depend on the type of call. For example, welcome calls tend to be about two minutes in duration. In a welcome call, the customer service associate does more of the talking, providing information and thanking customers for their business. For customer satisfaction survey calls, the conversation should also be brief, aimed at a range of three to four minutes. In-depth research calls are typically longer and can take from five to 10 minutes - be sure to gain customers’ up-front consent on these. (These are average ranges; interview objectives should dictate length.) Customer satisfaction and research calls involve more listening and conversation documentation; be sure the customer service associates have those skills.
The successful conversation is conducted with enthusiasm and the ability to mirror the customer’s rate and tone of speech. The customer service associate should empathize and sympathize with the customer, when appropriate. Pure researchers will argue against this method because it could lead to a bias in results. However, customer service associates can be trained to use this methodology consistently, so that there is no bias in results. It is appropriate for the customer service associate to react to customers’ feelings because one of the goals of consumer interactions is to build relationships that create bonds between a company and its customers.
Leverage each interaction
In today’s business environment, it is more important than ever that companies leverage each interaction with the customer to gather competitive data and maximize profit opportunity. Telephone interviewing is a cost-effective, efficient, and personal way for companies to get to know their customers and establish relationships that will last a lifetime.