“Cost of Doing Business” or “Adding to Your Bottom Line?”
For leaders in just about every Customer Service, Call Center, Contact Center, or Digital Center operation, it’s time to wake up and recognize that things are changing under our feet. Quickly. The overall economic environment is forcing efficiency and cost-savings to the top of the priority list. It’s no longer enough to just be “creating a good customer experience,” but it’s also important to measure and demonstrate how you are creating value–in concrete business terms. And coming in late July, you will have access to a brand new benchmarking tool that will make it easier than ever to do so.
We’ve been studying the evolution of customer service metrics and how performance is measured at financial services organizations of all sizes. We’re learning that as companies take a more unified approach to managing all their customer interactions (messaging, voice, video, AI) they are able to connect those interactions to a wider range of business outcomes beyond just CSAT or NPS.
Q: How could you measure the overall value you and your Interactions Team (formerly the Contact Center) are contributing?
A: You need to measure the composite impact of 3 different factors:
- Efficiency
- Effectiveness
- Experience
Was the interaction as efficient as it could be–both for the customer and for the rep who’s interacting with them? Was it effective not only in resolving the customer’s issue, but also capitalizing on any revenue opportunities that might be present (all of which is now totally predictable)? And was it the best overall experience for the customer–anticipating their needs and effortlessly guiding them to an easy resolution? And, oh yeah, was it also the best use of the rep’s time, and was it the best experience for them as well?
What we’ve been learning at Glia is that it is now possible to predictively engineer each incoming interaction (digital or phone) so that almost all of them create exactly the right combination of efficiency, effectiveness, and a great experience. And, if you could make those things happen a high percentage of times–impacting all 3 of those outcomes simultaneously–that would definitely demonstrate value.
And that is why we’re creating the Unified Interactions Index–a new benchmarking tool (coming in late summer) that will enable your organization to compare itself against other FI peers, across all 3 of these dimensions within one unified scoring system.
Q: How can I use the Unified Interactions Index to create value?
The Index will be presented as a self-guided online tool as part of the first-ever Glia Interactions Report. The interactive Index tool will ask you and your team a number of questions about a wide variety of metrics, and will rate your performance based on benchmarking standards of Excellent, Good, Fair, or Poor derived from over 3 billion interactions with customers of banks, credit unions, and insurance organizations.
There are sections that measure efficiency and cost savings, others that measure how well you capture revenue opportunities, and a final series based on the experience of that interaction and its impact on that customer’s future loyalty.
You will learn if your organization is currently a Frontrunner, a Pacer, or a Straggler. In which of the 3 outcome areas are you the strongest? Which ones can be easily improved? Plus, we will offer suggestions and improvement ideas based on successes from other similar organizations that are excelling in each area. Look for the Glia Interactions Report coming in late July and begin thinking about measuring your performance with the new Unified Interactions Index benchmarking tool.
You can’t blame anyone in your senior leadership ranks who thinks about customer service as a “cost center,” because that used to be accurate.
But if you are able to demonstrate that in 2024 you are contributing positively to saving money, driving more revenue, and creating greater customer loyalty and lifetime value–it becomes much more accurate to think of an Interaction Team as a true value-add–a profit center.
