Support means more than helping customers with high-tech gadgets. Companies are expanding their definition of support to include any type of assistance they provide to customers after they buy their products or services.
Although support can overlap with service, there is a difference between the two. Customers often call or e-mail companies when they have inquiries about the status of processes like the approval of loan applications or the dates when packages of clothing they order on-line are supposed to arrive. Companies usually categorize these calls under customer service, even if the people they assist have never bought anything from them.
Unlike other types of calls, a support call comes from existing customers with specific questions about products they have already paid for. In some cases, an on-line knowledge base is sufficient to answer these questions. But the goal of a support organization is not always to avoid calls. Many principles of customer relationship management (CRM) originate in customer support organizations. Support - which often entails service level agreements with certain customers who purchase certain products - is at the foundation of CRM. At the very least, support reps have to demonstrate good-faith efforts to resolve problems within a set amount of time. At best, calls for support are opportunities for reps to offer additional services.
Many call centers still exist to provide support, but they are now taking on responsibility beyond that of help desks from the previous decade. Three of the four companies we profile in this article primarily offer technical assistance. Yet they are adopting new techniques and strategies to help customers, like incorporating support within a larger customer care operation or enabling agents to work from their homes.
The trends that these companies illustrate are worth covering in an entire book. That is why I am pleased to announce that my colleague Brendan Read and I are collaborating on a book known as The Complete Guide to Customer Support, which will come out early next year. With real-life examples, we will describe how the role of support is growing beyond the realm of IT to accommodate the greater demands of CRM. The following case studies similarly demonstrate how new approaches within support organizations continue to guide this evolution.
World Access
Customers purchase travel insurance to help them in case things go wrong, such as when the weather or medical problems require them to interrupt or cancel their vacations. But this type of insurance is not only for emergencies; it often includes services that enable customers who are having a good time to enjoy their trips even more.
World Access, a provider of travel insurance based in Richmond, VA, certainly includes operations one would typically find in an insurance firm. The company offers its own travel insurance directly to customers under the name Access America and indirectly through travel agencies. The company also provides overseas medical and health coverage to employees of its corporate clients and on behalf of insurers.
For organizations that issue credit cards, such as banks, investment firms or membership associations, World Access also offers concierge services. Customers who use these services generally call, for example, to request reservations at four-star restaurants, tickets for shows or time on golf courses. World Access employs 19 full-time concierges to answer calls and e-mail 24x7.
Josh Chapman, director of World Access' call center and financial services, says that the agents within the concierges group are often busy during the winter, when bad weather can strand customers or their luggage at airports. These agents, or concierges, also experience spikes during the summer, when callers ask about tickets to outdoor concerts.
Sporting events throughout the year generate a lot of calls as well, especially those between the two New York baseball teams. "We had an astronomical amount of people calling to see the 2000 World Series," says Chapman.
Concierges sometimes help customers who have more unusual needs. Chapman recalls that they once assisted a caller who was searching for a certain type of sandals by locating a cobbler in Boston who reconstructed the sandals from photos.
The concierges speak at least two languages and collectively speak as many as eight. With multilingual concierges, World Access can seek out resources that are outside North America. Chapman recalls, for example, that for one customer, concierges located a jeweler in Italy who crafted a new set of gold cuff links for less than jewelers in the US would have charged.
Regardless of the complexity of a request, World Access expects concierges to inform callers of their timeframes for providing answers. Chapman says that the maximum timeframe is 48 hours after receiving an initial call, even if a concierge is not able to complete a request by then.
"With a support call, there is an action item," says Chapman, explaining how he distinguishes support from service. "The big difference is [when] a follow-up item is required." He points out that service calls are often requests for information that concierges can fulfill during their conversations with customers. On average, concierges receive between 3,500 and 4,000 calls, as well as several hundred e-mail messages per month. Chapman estimates that up to 70% of customers ask for answers by e-mail after speaking with or corresponding on-line with concierges.
New hires spend their first three weeks in a classroom, and they devote about half of the third week to observing more experienced colleagues as they answer calls. New hires do not answer calls themselves until the first or second week after they complete their training.
Concierges also learn how to use World Access' in-house case management system. Chapman says that the company also encourages trainees to become resourceful, quick and accurate in looking up information on the Internet for customers.
In addition to concierges, World Access employs three senior associates who assign concierges to help customers with individual requests, or cases. There are also team leaders who create schedules for concierges, monitor their calls and provide regular feedback about their communication with customers.
The team leaders use Nice Systems' (Secaucus, NJ) NiceUniverse to record and play back concierges' calls. They listen to recordings to make sure that concierges speak with callers in a professional manner and understand what customers are asking for. Team leaders also observe if concierges clearly explain how they plan to assist callers and if they are adept at finding out if callers have any additional needs that World Access' services can help them with.
For concierges with the best call monitoring scores each month, as well as the highest levels of productivity and regular attendance, World Access displays their pictures and takes them out to lunch. The company presents annual awards for concierges with similar achievements during the course of a year.
