Customer Services & Telecommunications Technology is calling…
Martin Scovell, CEO of MatsSoft Ltd. explains how technology is answering the call for better customer service.
calls from frustrated customers who just want to know what’s happening. With the immediacy and convenience of mobile communication and smart phones today, it is even easier to keep customers up to date.
A company’s most vital asset is its customers. And in light of current trading conditions, it has become more important than ever for businesses to compete fiercely in order to retain consumers.
A recent study found that around a quarter of customers had stopped doing business with an organisation as a direct result of poor customer service.
In addition, successive studies have also proven that a majority of large companies are prioritising initiatives that improve the customer experience, while surveys consistently demonstrate the public’s willingness to switch their spending in favour of better service.
The objectives of driving down costs and driving up customer service levels at the same time however can prove difficult. This is a very real challenge facing modern facilities managers.
To protect the customer experience, companies need to embrace new telecommunications technology to support, enhance and extend the service already provided by their business.
One of the first priorities for organisations is to cut down avoidable contact, rather than simply responding to unnecessary ‘chaser’
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By deploying a system such as MATS® (Multi Application Tracker System), customers are automatically updated via SMS, email or personalised web pages when key stages of a process are successfully completed – and alerted when action is needed to overcome delays, whether it’s an enquiry, application, complaint or account opening.
Internally, the removal of chaser calls and better visibility of workflow helps to increase efficiency and productive capacity, as well as improving staff morale.
Early deployments have resulted in significant drops in customer complaints (down by 90% in many cases), which has not only helped to boost retention of existing customers, but had an impact on public perception and therefore attracts new customers.
Crucially, MATS® is part of the new and highly agile generation of web-based solutions which are quick and simply to deploy, entirely configurable, cost-effective and seamlessly integrate with existing IT systems.
Cohesive internal communications and sound management of internal processes between departments is also integral to delivering good customer service.
One example of this is a high street bank who took the admirable step of ensuring a letter of condolence was sent to the bereaved families
of all account holders who had died. All the good intended by this gesture was lost when families found themselves receiving a number of very similar letters, all from different departments within the same company.
If employees within an organisation have a logical, transparent platform that enables them to log and track particular actions on individual cases, there’s an immediate improvement in terms of cohesion and information flow.
Ensuring that internal communications are coordinated and consistent is more important than ever, but it is not an easy task, particularly in a period of change for many large organisations that are expanding through acquisition, shifting their strategy, seeking economies, outsourcing some of their functions, consolidating and creating new divisions.
There’s now a growing recognition that bringing clarity and commonality to workflow across a business is a vital first step towards more effective and more efficient communication with customers.
Of course there will always be activities that demand person-to- person interaction and sympathetic discussion which technology cannot replicate. However, web-based technology such as MATS® can help to alleviate some of the more predictable functions, freeing up staff to focus their skills where they are most needed and making the best of their customer service skills.
www.matssoft.co.uk
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