An emerging channel that still doesn't seem to have been picked up over the years by organisations is web chat or commonly referred to as online chat.

Quick definition: web chat is a channel for customer interaction where a customer can chat with a customer service representative in real time over the web, without using instant messaging, either through the company's website or by opening up a new web browser.

Currently approximately one in five organisations have implemented a web chat technology, however web chat interactions only make up less than 1% of total interactions for an organisation.

Is this a lack of demand issue or is it because web chat has not been done well by organisations?

From our research, we know that web chat is a high effort (in terms of time and energy) channel, however customers are willing to use the channel in the future with one in ten customers indicating that they will regularly use web chat in the next 1-2 years to contact an organisation. Hence it is important to make the web chat experience as enjoyable as possible for the customer.

How can this be achieved?

Here's a handy guide I found from Firstsource... the 7 guidelines for a best practice web chat service include:

1. Set Chat Programme Goals
2. Monitor Your Site Activity
3. Place Chat Buttons Prominently
4. Dedicate Time to Your Chat Programme
5. Reach Out to Your Potential Customers
6. Make Chat Part of Your Sales and Service Processes
7. Learn How to Sell and Provide Service via Chat

The only thing I would add here is to ensure that web chat is proactively offered rather than just sitting in the corner of the web page somewhere. It is important to note that web chat shouldn't be randomly offered, but offered based on rules such as a period of inactivity especially at the pages where the customer is purchasing the product or service.

Now that we're all excited about web chat, just a word of caution, web chat is not for everyone or every interaction – it is vital to understand the needs and preferences of your customers prior to looking into web chat.

Last week saw the official launch of Fifth Quadrant's Asia Pacific Customer Service Analyst Practice

Of course we have been conducting Research and Benchmarking in the region for 15 years now but the launch of the Customer Service Analyst Practice incorporates all our work in the past 15 years... and MORE.

What's more?

1. A greater focus on customer service as a whole, including a wider coverage of all service channels including Online, Voice, Face to Face, Social Media, Mobile Apps and Correspondence
2. A wider service offering including Service Industry Market Reports, Analyst Briefings, Best Practice Models, as well as Benchmarking

For me, the most exciting service offering that comes with the Customer Service Analyst Practice is this...

Our revolutionary Market Reports.

These Market Reports will now capture perspectives from three different segments, namely:

1. Industry
2. Consumer
3. Vendor

This triangulation of results is truly magnificent, because we can now identify what the industry is doing versus what consumers want, identify gaps and shape the future by closing these gaps and also gaining insights from the vendor community about upcoming trends for any particular Market Report topic area.

The full list of Reports to be published in 2012 is as follows:

1. Customer Self-Service Industry Report
2. Enterprise-wide Service Strategy Report
3. Social Media and Mobile Apps Customer Service Report
4. Customer Experience Research Best Practice Report
5. Service Industry Technology Report
6. Service Industry Human Resource Management Report
7. Service Industry Analytics & Performance Management Report
8. Service Industry Workforce Optimisation Report
9. Outsourcing Management Best Practice Report
10. Telecommunications Industry Customer Service Report
11. Banking, Finance & Insurance Customer Service Report

If any of the above is of interest to you or if you would like to learn more about the Customer Service Analyst Practice please contact us on +61 2 99273347 or info@fifthquadrant.com.au

The last few weeks have been quite busy for me, juggling tight deadlines at work with the stresses and struggles of buying my first apartment...

Well, the work deadlines and the apartment are sorted now, but I couldn’t have done it without the flexibility my employer offered me during this period.

This flexibility I am referring to is working from home... and I truly believe that you will not fully appreciate the benefits until you need to work from home yourself. I was able to save the travel time to work, sort out what I needed to do with regard to the apartment and complete the projects required at work by the deadlines.

Working from home not only benefits the Employee, it also benefits the Employer.

Some of the commonly reported benefits of having a Home-Based Agent programme include:

1. Access to a wider resource pool that you would not usually access (e.g. work from home parents, regional/rural communities)
2. Improved staff morale and retention
3. Improved productivity of staff
4. Improved service response to customer needs
5. Reduced travelling times for employees
6. Improved work-life balance

With so many benefits and proven cases of the concept working across the world, it puzzles me as to why only one in ten contact centres in Asia allow agents to work from home.

Western countries such as the US and Australia have higher adoption rates of Home-Based Agent programmes and this looks set to continue to grow and attract increasing support from senior executives in 2012.

With the relevant OH&S and Security measures, working from home makes logical sense and should be the direction that the contact centre industry in Asia head towards.

Welcome back everyone to the first DragonCall blog of the new year, the year of the Dragon (how appropriately named is my blog!). 

While you recover from the excessive eating and drinking over the new year celebrations, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all good luck, prosperity and health in the year ahead.

Now to other important matters...

Recently I came across a white paper, How Can I Help You?, which talked about how having the right headset can improve agent performance and customer satisfaction.

This is indeed quite interesting because headsets are not really top of mind when organisations think about purchasing technology in the contact centre, typically it is the big items such as ACD, IVR, CRM, WFM and Knowledge Management. 

After reading the white paper it makes sense to place a higher level of priority on headsets – the values of headsets presented in the white paper include:

Welcome to the last DragonCall blog for the year before the Christmas and New Year break.

I have just returned from a few weeks holiday across Asia - China (Guangzhou), Macau and Hong Kong – and I had a magnificent time!

In between the numerous hotels I stayed at, shopping malls I splurged my money in and restaurants that have helped me gain a few extra kilos, I have come to observe that the level of service offered by service staff in these countries is quite different to what I have seen in western countries such as Australia.

Put simply the level of service I experienced was much better than what I've experienced in western countries – friendliness, willingness to help, attentiveness and timeliness were all top notch. This made me feel valued and important, hence I was much happier during my stays in the hotels and was more willing to buy more goods and services than I would have been if I was in western countries.

This comes off the back of recent research undertaken by Australian research consultancy AMR, where Australians were surveyed about their perceptions and experiences of customer service. Results showed almost 3 in 5 respondents felt customer service has declined in the last 5 years, with only 17% saying it has improved.

Understandably, the service experience in Asia is my personal experience but if you take into account that the level of service in Australia is also declining, it is no wonder western organisations are outsourcing their service operations to countries in Asia.

Better service experience = more engaged customers = higher customer loyalty = higher likelihood to recommend and re-purchase = increased revenue.

Simple.

Have a safe and joyous break everyone, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

See you all in 2012!