Communications Providers Are at Crossroads Over Adding New Services

It's a delicate balance. Communications providers are working to find just the right mix between lowering customer call volumes and providing customers with new services. A study published this week indicated that with recent regulatory changes, technology advances, and increased competition, communications providers are adding new services at an unprecedented rate. The study, conducted by Enkata Technologies, which develops and sells software that analyzes the root cause of call center problems, focused on 147 call center managers and senior executives from 24 wireless, wire-line, cable, and satellite companies. Key findings also indicated that adding these new services often leads to increased customer call volumes. These new services may achieve call rates that are two or three times those of existing services. Respondents also say this increase can make a significant impact on a company's bottom line, as well as on customer satisfaction levels. The average cost of a customer service call is estimated to be $7. Other findings include a majority of respondents claiming that improving self-service channels is the best way to help reduce the number of agent calls when a new service is offered. According to Forrester Research, the cost of the average Web self-service session is $1, compared with $10 for an email response and $33 for a telephone call. However, the Enkata research also indicated that current self-service technologies like Interactive Voice Response and the Web are not being maximized. A majority of respondents say there is room for 50 percent improvement when implementing an IVR or Web-based self-service solution. Industry-watchers claim that when done right, Web self-service can answer 80 percent to 90 percent of customers' questions with a high degree of satisfaction at a much lower cost than telephone or email customer service. However, this means going beyond posting FAQs and providing immediate, relevant, and satisfactory answers to specific questions customers will have by using data warehousing and analytics

Print Version

Page 1

To contact the editors, please email editor@destinationCRM.com

Every month, CRM magazine covers the customer relationship management industry and beyond. To subscribe, please visit http://www.destinationCRM.com/subscribe/.

Related Whitepapers

From Contact Center to Customer Engagement Center

Driving New Marketing Opportunities with Marketing Data Lakes

Omnichannel Drives Superior Customer Experiences (and Journeys)

Empowering sales teams to accelerate contracts

Designing an Intelligent Contact Center for Competitive Advantage

Smart Customer Service Engages Customers

Driving Intelligent Customer Service with Knowledge Management

Customer Experience Management For Building Customer Loyalty

Discover how CRM automation accelerates results from your sales and marketing

The Road to a Smooth Sales Process is Paved with Powerful Apps

Proactive Customer Service Respects Customers

Executive Spotlight

How Document Generation Can Solve Your Document Problem

The Modern IVR for Personalized Customer Experiences

5 AI Growth Hacks for Sales