Satisfy customers. Grow their loyalty. In many industries, markets and businesses, contact center efficiency and surprisingly customer satisfaction don t directly drive customer loyalty. Customer loyalty grows instead from the totality of interactions, including all forms of engagement, known as the customer experience. This is what moves the business forward. Customer experience is so diverse, that to build loyalty, companies need to pursue multiple directions at once. Even while handling immediate tactical or transactional issues, they also have to focus on long-term strategic and visionary goals. This white paper takes a look at recent survey findings about contact center priorities, goals and the challenges in getting there, with an overview of how Harte Hanks can help.
Make the connection. Move ahead. Customer service, often measured by satisfaction, is what your business provides. Customer loyalty is the result of that service. A recent survey by Call Center IQ, commissioned by Harte Hanks, found that 82 percent of contact center professionals agree that what is good for the customer is ultimately what is good for the business. 1 But, as the study concluded, different businesses or even different components of the same business often view what is good differently. That s because every organization is unique, with its own mix of priorities for customer satisfaction and loyalty. The process is like a track and field meet, with each participant entered in a different event, overcoming different obstacles and achieving different goals but with the same ultimate goal: a win for the team. What gives businesses the edge is having Harte Hanks as a teammate to identify and execute a winning strategy by managing interactions that deliver loyalty.
Extend and align. Contact centers typically begin their lives concerned with performance metrics like average handle time and average speed of answer. As the business matures, these and other tactical measures remain integral to customer satisfaction but they are no longer the only priorities. Successful companies go beyond daily pain points to build a customer experience that not only delivers satisfaction but creates loyalty and supports growth. When properly handled, the transition to a focus on loyalty can be smooth and coordinated. In fact, many companies find that their tactical and strategic functions are remarkably similar. The Call Center IQ study found that customer satisfaction and loyalty were separated by only a few percentage points, regardless of where the company puts its focus. 1 As a leader in customer interactions through the customer lifecycle, Harte Hanks can help your company use the customer satisfaction you ve painstakingly earned to build ongoing customer loyalty. Coordinate The customer experience must align with how the brand wants to be represented and what the brand wants to achieve. Harte Hanks Start strong. Hand off smoothly. Build your lead. At operations level: 36% say customer satisfaction is the priority. 34% say customer loyalty is the priority. At C-level: 29% say customer loyalty is the priority. 21% say customer satisfaction is the priority.
Master Satisfaction is fine as a key performance indicator, but loyalty is a leadership objective. Harte Hanks Each success puts you closer to winning. Customer satisfaction requirements, ranked: 1. Accuracy in interactions 2. Human-to-human connections 3. Empowered agents 4. Resolution on the first contact Loyalty goes further, with another key requirement: A long-term relationship with the customer Make every step count. What makes a contact center experience great? Accuracy, says the Call Center IQ survey. On a scale of 0 to 5, survey respondents rank it at 4.1. 1 But other measures aren t far behind. And of the leading satisfaction requirements, three also are key to building loyalty: the ability to resolve an issue at the first point of contact, personalization or customization of the issue s solution, and human-to-human connections between brand representatives and customers. Only the desire to build a long-term relationship comes out ahead. 1 Mastering the tactical, transactional requirements, in other words, is fundamental to achieving the strategic, growthoriented requirements. You can t meet broad goals for the future without continually conquering the detailed tasks of today. And you can t skip steps. Throughout the journey, Harte Hanks can help you meet the challenges of managing all your engagements for smarter customer interactions.
Boost performance. When it comes to insight into how a contact center or an entire business is performing, customer feedback is the number one indicator. But insight also comes from other sources, including senior and mid-level customer managers, C-suite executives and agents working on the front line of customer interaction. 2 With that many opinions, how do you make sense of it all? And how do you use it to improve business? Having the right tools for the job is key. And though it is still early in terms of adoption, analytics is increasingly recognized as a key tool. In a study by Aberdeen Group, 30 percent of companies said they use analytics to improve their customer relationships and 27 percent of those without it say they plan to implement analytics in the near future. 2 They should. Survey respondents who use analytics such as the capabilities offered by Harte Hanks to better understand how customers respond to contact center services say they ve increased customer retention loyalty as much 7.3 percent and customer satisfaction as much as 6.7 percent. 2 Equip You need to establish a framework to assess performance. Otherwise, you re just measuring random, static metrics. Harte Hanks The right tools can yield higher results. Without analytics 2.4% higher customer loyalty 2.8% higher customer satisfaction With analytics 7.3% higher customer loyalty 6.7% higher customer satisfaction
Improve If the business is still focused on cost or old-world productivity, the customer experience will not perform the way the customers want it to. Harte Hanks Because records are made to be broken. Priority contact center goals, ranked: 1. Resolution quality 2. Accuracy in interactions 3. Personalization of solutions 4. Resolution on the first contact 5. Human-to-human connections 6. Reduction in customer effort Push yourself. In the Call Center IQ survey, contact center management decisively rated customer satisfaction and customer loyalty as their top targets for growth and improvement. The study also noted, however, that while these goals represent a proper focus, most companies are not supporting those efforts with enough ferocity. 1 Caring about customers, the study said, is not enough. Companies need to extend that concern to delivering higher performing services. How does that happen? By moving beyond the most basic, daily concerns to delivering services that build loyalty. As contact centers seek improvement, a number of actions are getting attention among them: accuracy, first contact resolution, personal connection, and reducing customer effort. But the key service is the one that leads most directly into loyalty the overall quality of the way a company resolves the customer s issue. It s the one that requires the most comprehensive, integrated capabilities. It s the one that Harte Hanks delivers with our comprehensive, integrated and smart offerings.
The key to building customer loyalty is aligning operational efficiency with quality service and your company s customer experience priorities. And this is what Harte Hanks does. Our experts work with you as partners to provide a customized combination of solutions designed to build greater business value by delivering the outstanding customer experience that meet your goals for both customer satisfaction and loyalty. Working with Harte Hanks, you can strengthen your teams and create smarter customer interactions through: Smarter data insights: Get business intelligence and analytics capabilities, as well as critical thinking and thought leadership around data. Measure satisfaction with each contact center touch point for actionable insights you can use to shape improvements. Smarter workforce planning and training: Improve operations with workforce management solutions that are thoughtfully planned with the latest features and benefits along with innovative training that expedites both new employee on-boarding and ongoing education. Smarter channel interactions: Employ tools across the range of channels for monitoring, analyzing and responding to customer communications. Use best-in-class practices that analyze trends in channel interactions to improve your products and services. Smarter support technology: Take advantage of powerful technology solutions to create a different customer experience. Rely on Harte Hanks expertise to evaluate new technologies and manage upgrades. Leverage millions of dollars of technology without making the capital investment. With Harte Hanks, you can engage effectively with customers to create a customer experience that aligns with the brand perception and business goals you are seeking to achieve. We look forward to hearing from you.
1 Brian Cantor, Executive Report on the Customer Experience, Call Center IQ, March 2015. 2 Omer Minkara, Contact Center Analytics: Make (Better) Use of Your Data, Aberdeen Group, May 2014. ABOUT HARTE HANKS Harte Hanks partners with clients to deliver relevant, connected and quality customer interactions. Our unique approach starts with discovery and learning; leads to customer journey mapping, creative and content development, analytics and data management; and ends with execution and support in a variety of digital and traditional channels. We do something powerful. We produce engaging and memorable customer interactions to drive business results for our clients which is why Harte Hanks is famous for developing better customer relationships and experiences, and defining interaction-led marketing. CONTACT HARTE HANKS For more information, call 888-214-1430, visit the Harte Hanks website at hartehanks.com, or follow us on Twitter @hartehanks or Facebook at facebook.com/hartehanks. hartehanks.com 2015 Harte Hanks, Inc. All rights reserved.