Strategic Outsourcing Professionals

Let us begin by stating the obvious - The Internet has empowered consumers, and the online consumer wants their products cheaper, faster and without hassle.  For this reason, online business needs to have a great customer experience to ensure the level of satisfaction necessary to set itself above the competition; the first impression by users will determine the success of the business over time.

In the online world, there are so many opportunities to provide world class customer service in a manner that is smart and cost effective.  Most organizations look at customer care as a cost center that only needs budget to keep the revenue stream flowing; it is viewed as a burden of doing business versus the cost of providing service.  I hate to say it, but this is ‘Old School’ thinking.

When companies forgo the opportunity to capitalize on ensuring customer satisfaction through all contact channels, companies are impacting both the top and bottom lines because the experience of their consumers is purely reactive.  In other words, the services offered are only established to assist a customer when there is a problem.  In general, this can leave a poor impression upon consumers and they are more likely to abandon a product for another if there are competitors proactively retaining their business. 

The successful online business will incorporate proactive customer care programs into their operations to ensure customer satisfaction (CSAT), stronger customer loyalty and improved brand recognition, which in turn promotes customer persistency and improved customer lifetime value for the business.  The beautiful thing about proactive customer care is that companies actually enable themselves to outsource more of their operations to drive down the ‘burdensome’ cost of providing service.

This is going to be the first article in a series of posts that discuss different methods of building a proactive customer care organization.  This article lays the foundation for the governance structure, and follow-up articles will explicitly detail how to improve the customer service operations of any online business.  The goal is to demonstrate that great customer experience and proactive servicing techniques translate into stronger revenue, higher margins, cost reduction strategies and additional revenue opportunities.

The building blocks for an online business to deliver proactive customer service are as follows:

• User-Friendly Website
• Customer Loyalty Programs for Customer Rewards
• Tailored Newsletter for Product Reinforcement and Value Proposition
• Leveraging IVR, CTI, ACD and CRM to Promote Superior Consumer Experience
• Leveraging Chat to Increase Acquisitions and Transactions
• Skills-Based Routing for Both Email and Contact Center Services
• Optimized Knowledge Base for Customer Self-Service
• Tailored Value Retention Programs
• Organizational Readiness to Outsource Operations

In each article of this series, I will present best practices for building proactive customer service organizations.  These posts will specifically discuss cost control, revenue production and transforming all customers into happy consumers of more products and more services.

Vince Lombardi was not only a great football coach, but an inspiring leader who knew how to get the most out of his players. He was a fierce competitor and ensured that he instilled solid values of hard-work, perseverance and a winning attitude into all that listened. He has provided America with some of the most memorable leadership quotes of the 20^th century. More importantly, his views on leadership are not only relevant to achieving success on the field, but parallel that of a successful business leader.

When managing business, successful leaders need to demonstrate and project the same attitude and values that made Vince Lombardi so famous. Successful leaders bring people together to collaborate, work-hard and focus effort to a common goal – winning.

Here are some favorite Lombardi quotes that are applicable in the business world:

“The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.”

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.”

“Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”

“The leader can never close the gap between himself and the group. If he does, he is no longer what he must be. He must walk a tightrope between the consent he must win and the control he must exert.”

“Dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you’re willing to pay the price.”

“Football is like life - it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority.”

“If you are not fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.”

“Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.”

“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”

“Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.”