Challenge

A leading communications service provider launched an initiative to establish a Self-Service Strategy Organization in order to develop and implement its self-service capabilities. The goals of this cross-functional organization include determining the over-arching strategy for interactions between customers and the provider, and guiding the associated development and implementation efforts. This organization was to evaluate business unit requests and prioritize needs on the basis of revenue impact, operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.

The service provider defined three primary objectives for customer self service:

• Reduce costs
• Improve customer satisfaction
• Increase self service adoption

Inherent with these objectives is increased profitability, increased customer loyalty, increased customer intelligence, and increased revenues. As such, this initiative will play a pivotal role in the company’s future. The service provider called on TMNG Global for guidance in assessing the potential for improved customer self-service.

TMNG Global Solution

TMNG Global proposed the following four strategic guideposts to meet service provider’s self-service objectives:

• Guidepost #1: Drive customers to self service but use self service as only part of the channel mix – customers must have the opportunity to use the medium of their choice.
  
• Guidepost #2: Design integrated systems and channel from a user perspective with a transparent migration from one platform to another and multiple “opt-out” opportunities
  
• Guidepost #3: Manage self service diligently with dedicated resources
  
• Guidepost #4: “Operationalize” the strategic recommendations with a clear “how-to” plan considering all of the complexities

To evaluate the service provider’s effectiveness in meeting the stated objectives through the execution of a self services strategy, the TMNG Global team assessed three channels in the Consumer Markets Group channel mix: the inbound Call Center, the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, and the website. In each case, they looked at the current state and then completed a comparison with two sets of criteria:

• Common and Best Practices
• Self Services Strategic Guideposts

Common and Best Practices were derived through cross industry channel assessments. To translate the Strategic Guideposts into assessment criteria, they identified two basic questions:

Call Center Assessment Summary

The goal of the TMNG Global assessment of the call centers was to uncover the potential cost savings from migrating customers to self-service. The methodology for the assessment of the call center consisted of two parts:

• Analyzing calls to determine cost savings from migrating customers to self-service channels.
• Assessing how the service provider leveraged its call centers to migrate customers to self-service channels.

The team analyzed and assessed a sample of call center call records by developing and applying a process and transaction categorization.

Based on this assessment, the team determined that 9.8M calls into call centers could be handled by self-service. Furthermore, they estimated that the successful migration of these calls to self-service channels will result in a significant cost savings.

Therefore, the team recommended that the following actions be taken:

1. The service provider should design and institute incentives for representatives to encourage customers to use self-service channels. This includes developing a cross-channel compensation plan for sales representatives to encourage them to redirect customers to self-service sales channels.
   
2. Training sessions with CSRs should be conducted to educate them on self service channels and how to encourage their customers to use these channels.
   
3. The service provider should invest in technologies that enable call center representatives to easily introduce self-service channels to customers and that educate customers on how to use self-service channels.
   
4. The service provider should design and institute processes for systematically introducing and migrating customers to self-service channels from the call center.
   
5. Tracking and assessing self service migration from the call center using representative samples is needed.

IVR Assessment Summary

The TMNG Global team also performed a benchmarking assessment of the service provider’s IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system. Overall, their IVR system scored 60 out of 100 possible points. From a benchmarking perspective, the average overall quality score for all industries within the United States is 72 with a high of 93 and a low of 35.

Our analysts recorded more than 50 individual observations for every survey and 20 key variables contribute to the overall quality score for each application. This scoring mechanism had an achievable maximum of 100 points. This overall score has 20 maximum points in five categories.

The following chart shows how the service provider’s IVR score compared to the average of the total survey base.

On the basis of this analysis, TMNG Global recommended that the service provider implement the following changes to increase IVR usage and improve caller satisfaction.

• Reorganize and streamline menu call flow from a customer’s perspective.
• Simplify scripting by consolidating shared terms, tapering prompts, and eliminating wordiness.
• Add “white space” (silence) to break up long menu lists and slow down the pace of the voice.
• Improve error handling.
• Make IVR readily available after hours.

Website Assessment Summary

The team also conducted an assessment of the service provider’s website as a primary channel for consumer self-service delivery. The assessment was constructed to evaluate the areas of usability, navigation, performance, and functionality and to include benchmark comparisons to other service providers, as well as other industries (e.g., financial).

As indicated in the graphic below, the overall rating for the site was 77% which translates to ‘above average’. This compares favorably to the other sites that were included as part of this assessment.

Regarding methodology, the overall score for each assessment area was scaled to weight each area equally producing an overall score of 1 to 100. A comparative analysis was conducted of other communications service providers’ websites relative to these criteria as well as for select financial entities.

The team’s recommendations for short-term and long-term improvements included:

• Short-Term Recommendations:
  • Create Consistent Logon Experience.
  • Enhance Search Mechanism to Filter User Request by Segment.
  • Correct Navigation Inconsistencies.
  • Institute Breadcrumbs for Non-customer Site Navigation.
  • Eliminate ‘Dead End’ Site Navigation.
  • Improve Consistency of On-line Help Access.
  • Improve Customer Current Account Balance Feature.
  • Institute Section 508 Compliance Updates.
    
• Long-Term Recommendations:
  •  Create a Dynamic “My Account” Experience.
  • Create Cross-Channel Promotion between Web and IVR.
  • Analyze Site Navigation Statistics.
  • Evaluate Value of Spanish Language-based Site.
  • Monitor Relevance of Wireless PDA Access Channel.

The team determined that these recommendations could be implemented at a relatively low cost relative to the potential upside in customer service and revenue impacts.

Benefits to the Client

Based upon the results of the detailed analysis completed by the TMNG Global team, the service provider had a well-defined assessment of the current state of customer touch-points and a series of recommendations to implement customer self-service. Based upon the team’s recommendations, the service provider agreed that it must adopt all four strategic guideposts as a foundation for their improved self service initiatives. Further, they agreed with the team’s recommendation to pursue the following initiatives:

• Manage self-service as a product to ensure that, across all self-service channels, there is ease of use, accessibility, consistency, relevancy and intelligence.
  
• Enhance current customer segmentation through additional research in order to better understand and deliver the channel preferences for each segment.
  
• Drive migration of customers to the self-service channels to support non-complex transactions and enhance cross-selling/up-selling opportunities.
  
• Expand the self-service applications for the IVR to address more non-complex transactions and reduce the number of calls into the Call Center.
  
• Reinforce consistency of content and style across all channels to ensure a common Customer Experience.
  
• Revise sales compensation plans to encourage and support the use of the self-service channels.
  
• Employ self-service channels as vehicles for gathering more customer intelligence to profile users, track usage of the channel, and seek customer feedback.