Sanjay Bharwani, Manager, Accenture, Jakarta
Sanjay Bharwani, Manager, Accenture, Jakarta
In a world where investment funds will remain scarce, a more
profitable approach to attracting and serving customers requires
comprehensive strategies that both reduce the cost of service
delivery and improve the value of customer interactions.
Executives are caught between heightened pressure from
financial markets to increase revenue and reduce costs on the one
hand, and increase customer demand for new and enhanced services
on the other. This situation reveals the inherent contradictions
in the blueprints for customer interaction used by many companies
today.
When customer interactions are critical to business
performance, companies must transform their approaches, not fine-
tune them or improve them incrementally. Accenture calls this
"investing to the tipping point" that is when the accumulative
impact of change moves a company to a new level of performance.
Parceling out investments through a series of tactical
programs limits the possibility of delivering sustained, market-
relevant results.
What will it take to fundamentally change the economics of
sales and service?
* Create a merit-based customer service system
Escape the tyranny of the "customer is king" model. Define a
customer interaction strategy based on who customers really are
and what they really want, and then allocate sales and service
resources according to these insights. Building integrated
capabilities for analyzing customer data, modeling and segmenting
the customer base and creating links between customer channels --
these actions will have clear a impact on business results.
* Know what it really costs
Develop a detailed and accurate picture of what it really
costs to execute current sales and service models by customer
segment. Although direct contact costs for labor, facilities and
telecommunications are usually readily available, most
organizations will have to dig deeper to define and measure
indirect costs: operational support, technology, vendor
management, integration with other business units and other
considerations.
* Balance costs and revenue
Determine service levels across the channel portfolio
according to the customer's needs and profitability defined by
the new strategy. This will involve handling most service
transactions through self-service or guided-service channels,
while reserving costlier support options for the more valuable
customers and transaction types. Emphasizing self-service means
emphasizing good service: personalized, efficient and consistent.
* Boost workforce performance
Given that labor costs make up more than 60 percent of a
contact center's operating budget, the right organizational
structure and performance tools are especially important for
optimizing headcounts and for increasing agent proficiency and
motivation.
* Explore alternative sourcing models
Outsourcing provides a flexible alternative to traditional
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) investment models by
lowering the fixed-to-variable cost ratio in customer sales and
care. Outsourcing and co-sourcing models allow companies to
launch new customer strategies with less capital spending up
front and less financial outlay over the life of the investment,
with the cost of strategic change amortized over a declining cost
to serve.
A combination of new customer treatment strategies, more
flexible investment options and creative operating models now
make it possible to transform the old system of tyranny to a
merit-based model, where customer treatment is in accordance with
customer profitability. A CRM strategy that seeks both to reduce
the cost of service delivery and to improve the value of customer
interactions will produce better results than if it just focused
on one or two factors. A strategy that addresses all interactions
and channels is more likely to influence customer attitudes and
behaviors than a piecemeal approach.