Time plays a vital role in measuring the quality of customer experience. Due to a longstanding, unfortunate tradition of poor customer experiences, people tend to have a critical view of the customer service and support industry and its respect for customers’ time. The big- name leaders in B-to-C relationships have fought the uphill battle and won the hearts and minds of their consumers. You can too when you have the information to improve your customers’ experiences. Two key questions:
• How quickly are problems resolved?
• How long are customer contacts?
The No. 1 measure of customer experience value for Netfor clients is first-call resolution. In fact, research shows that customers would prefer to stay on a call a little longer than usual if their problem is resolved during that initial contact. If the customer has to have multiple brief contacts with a “help desk” or “call center” representative in order to get a problem resolved, the customer will not rate his or her experience positively.
Two factors that help determine the impact of problems are volume and duration. For example, if 10 customers are unable to use a service for 10 minutes, that’s 100 minutes of wasted time. If 100 people are unable to use a service for 5 minutes, that’s 500 minutes. The duration of the wasted time is lower, but the volume is greater. How are you calculating impact and using it to improve your customer experience? When new clients come to Netfor, they typically lack the capacity to deliver a great customer experience while quickly resolving problems on the first call. If this is the case, they often have to call the customer back, which slows the speed at which a call is resolved and increases the duration of a customer’s contact. It most certainly impacts the customer’s experience.
Real-World Anecdote
On the afternoon following the food fight, you are distracted, being pulled in five directions at once. As a parent, which do you think will be the most effective way to handle the issue? Option A: You sit down with Charlie before dinner to discuss the issue and its repercussions, although you are unsure how best to resolve the problem or reach a decisive resolution. You postpone the heart-to-heart and speak with your wife after dinner about the issue. During a second sit-down meeting with Charlie, you more clearly discuss his behavior, the food fight, discipline and how he should behave moving forward. Or B: Before broaching the subject with Charlie, you talk with your wife about how Charlie should be disciplined and how the issue should he resolved. After dinner, armed with a path to decisive resolution, you sit down with Charlie to discuss his behavior, the food fight, discipline and how he should behave moving forward. Option B, of course, is resolving the issue on the first call, creating a more satisfying and less frustrating experience for you and Charlie.
Irene says: 