Strategic Call Centers
Moving from cost centers to value-add
Lisa Gauvin
Vice President, Customer Care
Cox Communications, Inc.
This presentation is proprietary & confidential. It is the property
of Cox Communications, Inc., and cannot be reproduced or
shared outside of Cox Communications, Inc., without the
expressed written consent of Cox Communications, Inc.
Customer attraction and retention
Being on par in terms of price and quality
only gets you into the game.
Service wins the game.
― Dr. Tony Alessandra, PhD.
Cox Customer Care is challenged by
A myriad of competitive complexities
Home Management Services
Price
Entertainment
Services
Product
Service
Communications & Information Services
Building an effective call center strategy
A. Starts with pinpointing your service identity
B. Determining where you want to be:
Reactive service – least effective and costly. Too focused on
after-the-fact service recovery.
Responsive service – more effective. Moves away from a
reactionary service recovery model.
Proactive service – anticipatory. Looks at the landscape and
prepares. Responds to customer need before the customer has
a chance to articulate it. Relationship oriented but cost effective.
Top-line service – white glove. Caters to the customer’s needs.
Understands who the customer is and what he or she wants.
Highly relationship intensive and tends to have a higher cost.
Strategic call center management
Implements four primary drivers –
The right mix of
customer sales and
support options
Employee satisfaction
Balanced investment
Operational efficiency
and
Cost effectiveness
Price, market share, speed to market do not solely ensure
marketplace dominance over the long term.
Driver 1. Achieving the right mix of assistedand self-service options
Requires that you listen to your customers:
“Make it easy for us to do business with you.”
And take action
Sales and service
•
•
Purchase products and services online, by
phone, or in a Cox Service Center.
Bill pay online, kiosk, by phone, in person
Information
•
Proactive alerts and info online and on iTV
Support
•
Speech-enabled IVR self-service
troubleshooting, interactive online and iTV
tools: Instant Answers “robotic” chat, flash
tutorials
On-site
•
Technical support in the home or office
provided by a highly-skilled technical
support rep employed by Cox
Alignment Framework: People
Employee satisfaction is a driver of customer satisfaction
Take care of your people!
• Give them the tools to do the job
• Ensure their role is well defined and understood
• Get their buy-in and continually reinforce to keep it
• Provide standing opportunities for feedback
• Listen to their ideas, frustrations, and suggestions
• Close the loop with open, honest dialogue
• Drive awareness of the business imperatives to
help them make sound decisions
• Celebrate their successes!
Tools: Dynamic & integrated empower employees
To make decisions that are good for the customer
and the business
Training
Business
Customer
Care Center
knowledge
touch-point
employees
integration
Portal style
Desktop
Dynamic delivery system: tools,
knowledge, customer & network
information integration
Channel
alignment
Empower employee “right actions” to benefit the
customer and the business
The right tools
+
Clear guidelines
= Effective service recovery
Tool
Application
Credit Pay-per-view
adjustment Premium channel
Billing error
Outage Data no-connect
adjustment TV no-connect
Phone no-connect
Credit Service
performance
Free or Premium channel
discounted Pay-per-view
service coupon
(limited
duration)
Authorizer
Frontline
Frontline
Frontline
Frontline
Frontline
Frontline
Frontline
Incentives: Reinforce employee right actions
For good decisions & providing consistent quality customer
experiences
Type
Where offered Intervals
Letters of Corporate
commendation Field
Offers such as gift Corporate
certificate or Starbucks Field
card, etc.
Customer Service Corporate
Appreciation Week
Monetary Corporate
Field
Ongoing
Annual
Determines
locally
Quarterly
Annual
Driver 3: Operational improvements drive efficiencies
Results
Better customer experience
Better call routing
reduces customer
wait times
Fewer outsourced
calls increase
consistent
customer
interactions
Customers can
choose selfservice for simple
transactions or
assisted-service
for complex
issues.
ACTUAL
BUS CASE
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Reduced operational costs
Simple transactions move to
Data
Deflections
Video
Deflections
Call Handling Benefits: Actual vs. Planned
1.
% reduction of misrouted calls: 2.2 vs. 1.5
2.
% of data calls deflected: 11.2 vs. 8.0 through
SpeechCycle self-service application
3.
% of video calls deflected: 1.0 vs. 4.0 through
SpeechCycle
Standardized critical processes
Drives call handling consistency
Reduces call handling
complexity
Call Routing
Accuracy
Operational improvements lower costs
Operational costs decrease
Results
Usage of lower cost self-svc
options
ACTUAL
BUS CASE
• Speech-enabled IVR main menu
• Bill pay (promise to pay)
6
• Video self-service troubleshooting
5
• CHSI self-service troubleshooting
4
Standardized processes
• 3 Virginia Call Centers insourcing
3
• Cleveland/Kansas Centers insourcing
2
• support.cox.com & cox.com/support
1
• Quality assurance plan initiated
0
Overall costs decline
• Costs per minute
• Outsourcing support
• Capacity management
• Assisted to self-service
Call Routing
Data
Accuracy
Deflection
1
2
Video
Deflection
3
Total
Benefit
4
Financial Benefits: Actual vs. Planned
1.
2.
3.
4.
Reduced misrouting: $1.3M vs. $560K
Data tech deflection: $3.5M vs. $2.5M
Video tech deflection: $360K vs. $1.38M
Total projected benefit: $5.2M vs. $4.4M
Ongoing measures of efficiencies, costs, and
customer satisfaction
Robust analytics provide rich data for continuous operations
and customer experience improvements
Uninstalling 2%
Troubleshooting 12%
Customers asking about…
Outage 8%
Home Networking 3%
Install 21%
Remote Email
Access 5%
Customer
Questions
57%
Email
Server
40%
Sampling of
call drivers
Digital Cable
9%
Analog
Cable
33%
EAS Messaging How It Works 4%
Other 1%
Signal - Weak
16%
Closed
Captioning Active/
How much does
Digital Cable cost?78%
Driver 4: Balanced investment
Ensures solid operations and quality customer
experiences
People
Tools
Solid Operations
Quality Experiences
Processes
Results: Operationally efficient call centers and …
Customers who are advocates for your business
She was extremely pleasant,
addressed my concerns...
because of Cheryl I remain
a customer …
…Aaron was great. I was
amazed he set up my
service in under 15 mins …
…I felt that Bob was
genuinely concerned about
my service. He resolved it
immediately. He’s the reason
I stay with you.
Reaping the rewards
An award-winning company that is the envy of the industry
2006
J.D. Power and Associates’ 2006 Major Provider Business Telecommunications Services
StudySM highest honor for highest customer satisfaction among small/midsize business data
service providers in the nation. 1stt year CBS included in this study.
2005
J.D. Power Annual Customer Satisfaction Survey of Multichannel Providers. #1 overall
ranking among cable providers. #3 overall ranking besting Dish.
J.D. Power and Associates’ Highest Honor in Customer Satisfaction Among High-Speed Internet
Service Providers.
PC Magazine’s Readers’ Choice Award for Cox High Speed Internet service.
J.D. Power and Associates’ Highest Honor in Residential All-Distance Telephone Customer
Satisfaction Study SM in the West Region.
2004
J.D. Power and Associates’ Highest Honor in Residential Local Telephone Customer Satisfaction in
the West Region.
J.D. Power and Associates’ Highest Honor in Overall Customer Satisfaction in Bundled LongDistance Telephone Service. First time a cable company has ranked highest in this segment of J.D.
Power’s annual study.
2003
J.D. Power and Associates’ Highest Honor in Residential Local Telephone Customer Sat. Ranked
highest in overall customer satisfaction in the Western Region. First time any broadband
communications company has received this J.D. Power recognition and first time Cox has been in
included in the study.
PC Magazine Readers’ Choice Award for Cox High Speed Internet Service, Only Internet Service
Provider to receive an A+.
Northern Virginia Nat’l Cable & Telecommunications Assoc Vanguard Award
for Cable Operations Management: Gary McCollum, VP & region mgr., NoVA
No. 1 in CableFax 100.
Cox rises to No. 329 FORTUNE 500.
Questions