All call centers deliver a customer experience. It just may not be what is desired. Colin looks at how call center can identfy, and build a roadmap to deliver the desired Customer Experience in this popular presentation that has been given on three continents.

1. "The Customer Roadmap, Customer
Experience and Customer Satisfaction-
Planning the Journey and Executing the Plan"
Colin Taylor, CEO
The Taylor Reach Group, Inc.
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TRG Inc.

2. The Taylor Reach Group
• Call/Contact Center Consultancy,
• Offices Toronto, New York, Atlanta, Sydney,
• Contact Center assessment, design,
improvement and operational management,
• 27+ awards for excellence in contact center
operation,
• 14,000+ agent desktops operating under TRG
designed operational models globally,
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13/05/2011
TRG Inc.

3. Colin Taylor
• CEO Taylor Reach,
• 36 years in call/contact center
operations, design, sales and executive
management,
• More than 20 awards received on two
continents,
• Publisher of Customer Reach
newsletter with 11,000 + subscribers
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13/05/2011
TRG Inc.

4. What is Your Customer Experience?
• Every company or organization delivers
a customer experience
• It may not be the experience we would
like to be delivering
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TRG Inc.

5. Definitions
• Quality Monitoring/Listening – individual
assessment of agent performance
against a set of criteria.
• Internal Quality – the roll up or
consolidation of Quality Monitoring
• Customer Satisfaction – What the
customer feels about their interaction
• Customer Experience - ...
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5/13/2011
TRG Inc.

6. Customer Experience Definitions
“The Experience of the customer when
buying or servicing the product or
service you have sold them”
“The designed interaction between a
customer and your organization”
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TRG Inc.

7. Where do we Provide this Experience?
Contact centers today handle more than just
calls: emails, chats, mail, SMS and social
media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.)
Contact centers are not the only Customer
Experience „touch-points‟, other „touch-
points‟ would include in store, direct mail,
advertising, email marketing, etc.
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TRG Inc.

8. Is Customer Experience Important?
According to Forresters;
• 90% of senior executives rated it as
“very important” or “critical‟
• Only 11% said they were „very
disciplined‟ in their approach to
Customer Experience
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TRG Inc.

9. But What Can We Do About It?
The call centre or contact center will not
define the customer experience
We can be held accountable to deliver the
customer experience however
We need to understand what is expected by
all parties to this process: Customers,
Company and the Call Center
We must understand where these
expectations are in conflict
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10. What Experience are we Supporting?
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11. How can the Center Impact the Experience?
The center does control:
– Service Level (ASA/GOS/Abandon)
Speed of Access
– Forecast Volume
Ease of Access
– Staff Scheduled
– Quality of the interaction
• Informed, • Effective.
• Professional, • Efficient,
• Accurate, • Logical,
• Helpful,
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12. Customers‟ Progress
Marketing = Promise The
Customer
Experience
Product = Delivery
A Customers‟ Progress
Marketing sets the customers expectation
Management sets Policies and Procedures
Management sets Service Levels etc.
The call center is where these potentially apposing Points of View
meet
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TRG Inc.

13. Customer Experience Definitions
“The designed interaction between a
customer and your organization”
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TRG Inc.

14. Who Defines & Designs Customer
Experience?
• In most companies- Marketing and Senior Management
• Marketing controls and drives Brand and defines the
Customer Experience
• Customer Service and call center rarely included in the
process
• So how do we as call center executives impact the
Customer Experience?
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TRG Inc.

15. Measuring the Customer Experience
In order to measure the customer experience
measure it at each touch-point (calls, chats, in-
store, emails etc.)
This is difficult as most organizations:
– Do not have a defined customer experience statement
or definition
– Do not measure customer satisfaction (CSAT) or
customer experience at all, not at all touch-points
– Do not measure CSAT in the same way for all surveys
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16. The Customer Experience Today
Identify messages provided to customers and
prospects
– Mission Statement, Vision, Values
– Marketing messages, communications
Discuss with Marketing the Brand Attributes (words
or phrases that characterize the brand)
Build Bridges with Marketing too create better
communications. This will benefit the Customer
Experience and also forecasting campaign
volumes
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17. Mission, Vision, Values
Watch words that convey expectations;
• World Class Customer Service (or similar),
• Access,
• Empowered Employees,
• Quality,
• Returns for our Shareholders,
• Satisfaction,
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TRG Inc.

18. Sample Brand Attributes
Arrogant, Authentic, Best brand,
Carefree, Cares about customers,
Charming, Daring, Different,
Down to earth, Energetic, Friendly,
Fun, Gaining in popularity, Glamorous,
Good value, Healthy, Helpful,
High performance, Intelligent, Kind,
Obliging, Original, Prestigious,
Progressive, Restrained, Rugged,
Simple, Straightforward, Stylish,
Tough, Traditional, Trendy,
Trustworthy, Unapproachable,
Up-to-date, Upper class, Worth more,
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TRG Inc.

19. Perceptions
People make decisions on emotion,
that are rationalize with intellect
“I’ve Learned that people will forget
what you said. People will forget
what you did. But people will never
forget how you made them feel”
Maya Angelou
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20. Understanding the Dichotomy
Marketing is creating advertising with the
purpose of making people feel warm,
fuzzy and engaged with the Brand.
While when interacting with the call center
the customers may feel angry,
frustrated, misled, stressed and
unhappy
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21. Messages & Gaps
Hypothetical Mission Statement
“To deliver World Class Customer Service to our
Customers, by providing access to our products and
services the way our customers want them, when they want
them, while providing a positive, enjoyable and productive
environment to our employees and delivering superior
returns to our Shareholders”
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5/13/2011
TRG Inc.

22. Sample Brand Attributes
Accessible, Arrogant, Authentic, Best
brand, Carefree, Cares about customers,
Charming, Daring, Different,
Down to earth, Energetic, Friendly, Fun,
Gaining in popularity, Glamorous, Good
value, Healthy, Helpful, High performance,
Intelligent, Kind, Obliging, Original,
Prestigious, Progressive, Restrained,
Rugged, Simple, Straightforward, Stylish,
Tough, Traditional, Trendy, Trustworthy,
Unapproachable,
Up-to-date, Upper class, Worth more,
Youthful
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TRG Inc.

23. Measuring the Gap
Brand Attributes Delivered- Aligned Corrective action
Accessible
Cares about Customers
Daring
Different
Energy
Fun
Glamorous
Stylish
Trendy
Youthful
World Class Customer Service
Looks after Employees
Profits for Shareholders
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TRG Inc.

24. Measuring the Gap
Brand Attributes Delivered- Aligned Corrective action
Accessible No- long wait times, IVR front end
Cares about Customers Not apparent- understaffed, long wait times, unfriendly
policies
Daring Perhaps, but not in a good way. More „daring‟ to deliver
sub par service while claiming to be committed to
superior service
Different Experience is the same as phoning your cable or
wireless provider
Energy Not Evident
Fun Not Evident
Glamorous Not Evident
Stylish Not Evident
Trendy Not Evident
Youthful Not Evident
World Class Customer Service No- poor access, understaffed, undiferentiated
Looks after Employees Center will have high occupancy and likely lots of
unhappy customers- this does not describe Looking
after employees.
Profits for Shareholders Possibly well aligned – Poor service can (but doesn‟t
always) cost less. But the profit can be at the expense
of brand erosion.
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5/13/2011
TRG Inc.

25. Measuring the Gap
Brand Attributes Delivered- Aligned Corrective action
Accessible No- long wait times, IVR front end Improve Service level target and performance-
Improve forecasting and scheduling, add more staff.
Offer more channels (Inbound calls, emails, chats,
SMS, Social Media, Mail etc.), 7 x 24 hour access
Cares about Customers Not apparent- understaffed, long wait times, unfriendly Improve access, agent hiring. Training to reflect
policies desired attributes
Daring Perhaps, but not in a good way. More „daring‟ to deliver Lose IVR,
sub par service while claiming to be committed to
superior service
Different Experience is the same as phoning your cable or Lose IVR, Dedicate agent totake ownership to
wireless provider resolve customers problem
Energy Not Evident Agent profile, hiring and training
Fun Not Evident Agent profile, hiring and training
Glamorous Not Evident Messages from designers on IVR and hold messages
Stylish Not Evident Messages from designers on IVR and hold messages
Trendy Not Evident
Youthful Not Evident Agent profile, hiring and training
World Class Customer Service No- poor access, understaffed, undiferentiated Be Accessible, set and met superior service levels,
set, measure CSAT- Offer customer to call back and
speak to same agent.
Looks after Employees Center will have high occupancy and likely lots of Measure you Employee Satisfaction, Employ metrics
unhappy customers- this does not describe Looking that matter FCR, CSAT, Quality over AHT and ASA
after employees.
Profits for Shareholders Possibly well aligned – Poor service can (but doesn‟t Better Customer satisfaction will increase long term
always) cost less. But the profit can be at the expense value and returns
of brand erosion.
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26. Policies, and Processes
Don't be a barrier to your own customers
Examine how your internal policies,
procedures and processes and how
they impact on the customer
experience.
Identify those that are not aligned with the
desired customer experience.
Review with management potential
changes to the policies etc. To improve
alignment.
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5/13/2011
TRG Inc.

27. Designing the Customer Experience
Roadmap
1. Know what the current experience is,
2. Know how you are measuring the
experience,
3. Understand your policies, processes
and any negative customer impacts,
4. Plan changes and tests,
5. Measure improvements/reductions as
a result of tests,
6. Roll out positive changes and continue
other tests,
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5/13/2011
TRG Inc.

28. Customer Experience Design Process
Understand Discover Conceptualize Validate Implement
Iterate
What What are Gap
Experience Testing Creating the
we Analysis. changes, training and
do we want delivering What has to
to deliver? measure collateral
today change to customer
create the reaction
desired
Experience
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TRG Inc.

29. Questions?
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13/05/2011
TRG Inc.

30. Contact Details
Colin Taylor, CEO
The Taylor Reach Group, Inc.
416-979-8692 ext 200
Email: ctaylor@thetaylorreachgroup.com
Web Site: www.thetaylorreachgroup.com
Blog: http://callcenterperspectives.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @colinsataylor
Copyright
13/05/2011
TRG Inc.