Interesting to see what everyone thinks of this once they’ve had time to digest…
The link to Ofcom’s consultation document on persitent misuse:
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/misuse/misuse.pdf

Best regards,

Mike

Hi folks. It’s been a while since last I wrote, due to time demands and some travelling (Peru - magical place, but I’ll put some notes on that next week). Anyway, for better or for worse, I’m back.

Today’s topic is one that I’ve suspected for some time: there are a lot of people working in customer service who really couldn’t give two hoots about customers.

At the risk of tarring everyone with the same brush, let me clarify something: there are a great deal of customer service workers who genuinely do give a damn about their jobs and the people their jobs bring them in contact with. I’ve had a little hassle with a large computer firm recently. After a month and more of getting nowhere, I finally chanced across one of these individuals, who put in a great deal of time and effort to sort out the tangled mess that other customer service personnel had left. I’d love to name him, but that wouldn’t be fair to the myriad of good, effective customer service workers out there - they all deserve credit.

However, the dark side of customer service is that, for many, it’s just a job. A way of earning a basic crust, and filling in the awkward gap between Sunday and Saturday. It doesn’t help that the job is often less than appealing; wages can be quite poor, the hours can be demanding and the public perception is of an industry that doesn’t look out for its own. Quite a number of people drift into customer service when they’re really rather be doing something else. This is the crux of my point: customer service is VERY important as it’s usually the attitude of the employee toward the customer which forms the basis of the perceived ‘friendliness’ of an organisation.

I think every organisation ought to do its best to make the job appealing, well-rewarded and with opportunity for progression. For if they don’t, you may not always attract the right kind of person.

John

Today, I’m told, is the start of National Customer Service Week.

As much as I’m tempted, I’m not going to comment about how we now have “weeks” for everything. In truth, I’m still trying to work out how we make 52 of them go around.

What does customer service week mean to you? I’d be interested to hear.

From the ICS website:

National Customer Service Week (NCSW), is designed to reward staff for all the hard work they do during the year. By hosting an event within your organisation, no matter how big or small, serious or fun, the NCSW aims to raise company-wide awareness of the crucial role customer service plays in your organisation’s reputation and success.

I’m not sure I’ve got this right: Is the main idea to celebrate good customer service by taking agents off the phones en mass? What effect is this likely to have on customer service?

Regards,
Scrooge

You may have noticed that John’s not been around for a while, and that’s because he’s off exploring South America. I’ve received this email from him that I thought a few of you may be interesting in reading:

Done loads and loads so far; feels like we´ve been here a lot longer than five or six days. We´re in the shadow of a few of the world´s largest mountains - El Misti (just under 6000m) and one that´s 6300m - and they´re all volcanoes. In fact, El Misti is due to blow “any time now", though it gives plenty warning. Scenery is spectacular, even if the mountain passes are really scary at times. LOTS of sitting around in the back of the 4wd truck, but good company as there is a great mix of people. Been up in a Cessna at the famous Nasca lines, climbed up a huge sand dune (200m high ‘ tough work!) and seen the largest sand dune in the world - over 2200m, almost twice Ben Nevis! Had a beach barbie by the pacific, saw hummingbirds in the garden, went out to a huge seabird colony and saw sealions, birds and penguins, about to go to the Erequipa market where you can buy anything from a Donkey, Rats, Food, Cocaine, probably black market guns and I may trade Mrs Clark for a nice Llama.

Next on our trip is an ascent from here up to Puna, which is something like 3000m above sea level. We´ll do Colca canyon, the world´s deepest at over 3000m and see Condor, and then spend a night on the reed islands on Lake Titicaca. Then, we make our way up to Cuzco and in around a week´s time we start on the Inca Trail itself…

Jealous? I know I am….

OK, I get a bit silly at the end but….

From: The United States of Litigation …

“Do Not Call. Those words are music to millions of Americans who have signed up for the list so they’re not bothered by telemarketers. Not content to let things stay as they are telemarketers are now lobbying the FCC to have state laws which regulate the practice overturned. In April an ad-hoc group of firms ranging from the Direct Marketing Association to the National Children’s Cancer Society filed a joint petition asking the FCC to declare that it has ‘exclusive jurisdiction over interstate telemarketing calls.’ The issue revolves around some states whose Do Not Call laws are more strict than Federal law and which prohibit telemarketers from calling anyone on a Do Not Call, regardless of an existing business relationship.”

The above was pointed out to me at the end of last week, I have the feeling this was done to elicit the same reaction as a red rag to a bull.

Digging a bit deeper it seems this ‘Ad-hoc’ group is saying that in five states where, locally, they have tightened the law over and above the federal statutes, marketing to existing customers (which is outlawed) should be allowed.

For a full description see Here: epic.org

Ok, so what does this mean?

Well the short version is some states have completely banned cold calling, whereas the majority have gone with the federal limits on ‘Existing Relationship Contact’, the ‘We may contact you with products or services we feel may suit you’ rather than the other, ‘ We’ll pass your details onto anyone who pays us a large wodge of cash for your personal data’.

This is specific to several states where the local legislature has ruled against not only marketing to individuals who are on the DNC list but to existing customers as well. This means they can’t call to up-sell, re-sell or solicit.

Now I have had calls where they’ve marketed on the basis I’m an existing customer (Guess who?) but I’m more interested in the slightly more esoteric and mercurial status that is ‘Existing Relationship’. Who do I have an existing relationship with? Who do you?

Some of the answers may surprise you.

1) Obviously anyone you trade with, Gas, Electricity, your bank, Telecoms provider.

2) Anyone you used to trade with. So if you’ve changed suppliers for any of the above in the last 12 months they can call and try to persuade you to switch back or sell a new product

3) Now the grey area. Anyone YOU have approached for information and supplied personal contact details to. Again they have 12 months to call.

Now we all know the NIMBY effect around Contact Centre staff. Hands up who’s NOT TPS registered? So one wrong marketing survey, one missed “Can we pass on your details to our carefully selected Cash Cows”, box and the whole cycle starts again. In this case you’ve potentially actually removed yourself from the list voluntarily.

So across the pond they are campaigning to be allowed to call ‘Existing customers’

I’m about to let my imagination run riot.

How long will it be before the courts are sitting on a test case where the American company is defending their right to call and sell you insurance because you bought a can of beans in one of their stores. Therefore establishing an existing relationship.

Come to think of it we’re not that far away here, even given my comments above.
Insurance, home loans, air freshener, new car and bunch of flowers all under one roof,
or in one call? How long before the ‘Existing relationship’ renders the TPS regulations invalid just by the scope of a modern business or a well thought out ‘Strategic Partnership’ forged only to exploit the two, potentially varied, customer bases comes into being?

British Airways and Samsonite? As you use luggage you may travel, as you travel you may use luggage?

Easy Jet and Walkers, because you bought a packet of their crisps on the plane or might be interested in other places they sell their crisps.

BMW and Odeon Cinemas because you saw the Italian Job therefore like Mini’s or vice versa.

Back to the serious part though…

As with Spam and Spam blockers where there is ongoing battle to hit your ‘In-Box’ the marketing / advertising / soliciting trade (Ok ourselves) are constantly adapting to the changing market conditions. I’m deliberately not using the phrase Market forces, all too often we use a ‘Shotgun’ approach. As the legalities of the trade tighten who isn’t prepared to shamelessly exploit the loopholes left in an effort to hit the widest possible demographic?

Will we in five years time see ourselves in the same position as our colonial cousins?

From the article above it appears the US DMA is one of the bodies behind the legal challenge. Whilst here we champion ‘best practice’, we set ‘Industry guidelines’ and we try to self regulate, for which the DMA here is responsible. Will we hit a point where our DMA is forced by the industry to challenge the TPS service it itself helped champion in the first place?

And what’s more do we want to be around to see that battle?

Dave Appleby

I’m writing this from the perspective of both a client who wants to outsource inbound, outbound and customer service call centre work, and also from a customer’s viewpoint and i’ll explain why below.

Firstly, in my previous job I was client side and worked for a pan-european business that outsourced all ‘telemarketing’ activity including customer service. As a result of my job title ‘European Telemarketing Director’ my name and phone number appeared on many call centre business development manager’s call list and I received calls every week from folk wanting to pitch for business.

The one thing that annoyed me most about the initial conversations and pitches was that ALL companies approached the discussion with the assumption that as a client my primary concern was about cost which then led to discussions about off-shoring.

In truth, cost was an issue BUT not the number one concern - that was quality. I actually cared about my customers and genuinely wanted them to have a positive customer experience EVERY time they contacted us even if that was to raise a complaint or to cancel their membership. I believe that the best quality of service available is here in the UK for UK customer i.e. in local market so France for French customers and Germany for German customers.

For many years the direct marketing world has been consumed with CRM and maximising relationships with customers. Whilst for many this meant simply spending a fortune on software or analysis but no implementation we took a different approach. We didn’t invest millions in analysis software (we did spend something) but first simply put ourselves in the shoes (or ears) of our customers and asked ourselves how would we want to be treated? What would our expectations be? How did we define good service?

From the call centre perspective we should remember this and reference it in the pitches we make to prospective clients.

Secondly, from a personal point of view I had a very enlightening conversation with a chap from HSBC (who I’m sure you all know offshore to India and beyond). I’d phoned the telephone banking line to ask why a transaction for less than £10 had been refused when there was more than sufficient funds in my account. The agent asked me what shop i’d been in and when I explained I had shopped on-line at Amazon, she immediately tried to transfer me to the internet banking team.

After much huffing and puffing (and I hate doing that) I managed to explain that she should be able to deal with my enquiry. Unfortunately the call ended with the agent saying she had no idea why the charge had been refused either! I then sent an email for the attention of the CEO of HSBC (if you’re going to complain - make sure it counts!) and I got a call back (not from the CEO). I spoke with the guy who is responsible for the quality of service for the UK and he was really keen to know what I expected as a customer, wht I thought of the call (as someone from the call centre world) and what did I think could be done better. He explained that the reason they’d gone offshore was availability of good quality staff in the UK. He also explained that Offshoring is giving the bank real problems and that finally they’re taking this seriously. They’ve now started an initiative with M&S on quality benchmarking and taking external advice. He felt this was the last chance for continuing offshoring and if it failed, they may come back to the UK.

Does this mean that there’s hope for the future? If HSBC is reassessing their decision to offshore and making a final attempt to improve quality - will that make others sit up and listen? Could it mean that work will come back to the UK?

I am not a natural whooper and leaper. On a bad day, even the most perky effervescent cheerleader type would probably find curmudgeonly1 a generously optimistic adjective for me.

However one thing I do buy into is the power to influence others; small changes we can make to what we do that can have a big impact on the actions of others. And if this is applied positively (using your powers for good) so much the better!

For example: My fifteen-month old daughter (not uniquely!) has an aversion to having her nose wiped. And thanks to a ‘summer cold’ this is an activity we have to do with alarming regularity recently. (Sorry – stay with me, that’s as graphic as it gets and there is a work-related point to this!) Weary of chasing her round and cornering her with a piece of tissue (at this point do feel free to add a Benny Hill style soundtrack to the image for maximum effect), to be greeted by tears, tantrums and flailing limbs, I considered the situation objectively and examined our respective roles. By doing this I was able to change what I did which then influenced her response. So rather than feed her reaction (“I know, you don’t like having your nose wiped, but it has to be done – now, hold still, please!”), I started praising her (initially non-existent!) co-operation (“Well done! What a good girl having her nose wiped.”). And it really helped, at first her reaction was less extreme, then calm and after five days I just have to ask her if she needs her nose wiped and she says yes and comes straight over!

Separate out what you can control, influence or merely respond to and then adjust your side of the script to influence theirs. Simple!

Now if this sounds to you a little like NLP, well I’m glad you noticed! Joking2 aside, I think some of the more practical NLP techniques can be fairly useful in the call centre/customer service environment. For example I would say that the ability to guide an irate customer to a more reasonable and responsive state to begin to resolve their issue using Pace, Pace, Lead is quite a handy tool. And I would also say that a course for agents to be trained to tap into the callers’ processing preferences by noticing whether they use visual, auditory or kinaesthetic references and then adjusting your own responses accordingly in order to increase conversion is probably not going to bring about the return on investment you hoped for.3

Now typically call centre agents barely have five minutes let alone five days to work this magic on customers. But there are some really simple small things agents can do that can make a difference.

Consider this: If an agent needs to refer someone on, rather than saying, “I’m sorry I can’t help you with that, you would need to contact X”, try saying “Yes, you can do that by contacting X” And how about even anticipating the next question and offering the number! The outcome is the same in both, but how the caller perceives the level of customer service they have received is likely to be more favourable in the second example. Now this example is fairly generic, but I’m sure you can come up with a selection of typical exchanges in your own environments that could benefit from a few simple changes that may even have a Pareto-style4 effect on levels of customer satisfaction. Ask your agents – I’m sure they could come up with some suggestions!

Whether you support NLP or not, surely anything so simple with the potential to reduce callers’ frustration levels is worth some consideration.

Zoe

1 An ill-tempered person full of resentment and stubborn notions.
2 NLP being the art of noticing – well I thought it was witty!
3 Scoff all you like, but as an agent I once endured a five hour session to do just that.
4 Pareto’s law states that 80 % of the objectives or effects are achieved with 20 % of the means or causes.

Last time I promised that I wouldn’t post again on Silent Calls. I promised that I’d change the record.

I’m sorry to say that I’ve changed my mind.

Firstly, because I’ve spent so much time on silent calls over the last few weeks that I haven’t had much of a chance to do anything else interesting. Secondly, because BBC breakfast went nuts about the story this morning.

I’m sure many of you spotted the story, and a couple of you may even have spotted that David Hickson was shown reading our Voluntary Code of Practice.

But unfortunately, this was the most exposure that the code got. This was a real pity.

Whether we can ever expect BBC breakfast to produce a story that supports industry is another discussion, but I wonder if BBC breakfast are really interested in helping stop silent calls at all. I get the impression they’d rather pretend they are and do nothing about it.

What do I mean? Well, lots of people involved in call centre management would have seen the piece yesterday. They may be thinking that they want to stop making silent calls, but don’t understand exactly how the informaton message should be used. They would have seen Robert from the DMA talking about their code being updated and will probably have concluded that they’ll wait until then before they do anything.

It’s unlikely that the DMA will update it’s code until Christmas at the earliest. This is because the DMA has strict rules in it’s constitution to ensure that any changes are fully considered.

The result is that many call centres are not going to think about making this change until after Christmas. That’s a lot more silent calls, and a lot more TPS registrations. This wouldn’t be the case if they knew about the Voluntary code.

I suppose you could put it down to the BBC not knowing about the code, or not understanding why it should have been mentioned. This would be true, except for the fact that I had a telephone conversation with the reporter just before they filmed the piece and explained all this to him.

If the BBC don’t really want to help, perhaps they should change the record.

Regards,
DB