Astute aberdeen multi-channel_service_delivery

Multi-Channel Service Delivery
Getting Customers the Service they Want, Where and When they Want it

June 2010
Sumair Dutta, Aly Pinder, Jr.

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Executive Summary
It is often a misnomer that with the increased use of multiple non contact- Research Benchmark
center based channels to deliver customer service, organizations are Aberdeen’s Research
afforded the opportunity to reduce and eliminate service interactions with Benchmarks provide an in-
their customers in order to cut costs. This strategy isn't reflective of the depth and comprehensive look
multi-channel framework supported by Best-in-Class organizations; those into process, procedure,
that do leverage multiple channels to eliminate unnecessary dispatches or methodologies, and
service calls, but are most interested in enveloping their customers with the technologies with best practice
right level of effective service information via the channels where customers identification and actionable
prefer to receive their service information. As a result of truly connecting recommendations
with their customers, these organizations are significantly outperforming
their peers with regards to key customer-facing and financial metrics.

Best-in-Class Performance
In May and June 2010, Aberdeen Group surveyed over 170 service
professionals to distinguish Best-in-Class companies from Industry Average
and Laggard. Those defined as Best-in-Class exhibited the following:
• 86% current performance in customer retention (74% for all others
- including Industry Average and Laggard companies) and 85%
performance in first-call resolution (56% for all others)
• 3.9 (out of 5.0) score for current level of customer satisfaction as
compared to 3.0 (out of 5.0) score for all others
• 21% reduction in total support costs over the last 12 months as
compared to a 1% decrease for all others

Competitive Maturity Assessment
Survey results show that the firms enjoying Best-in-Class performance are: “We are no longer perceived
as an expense center, now we
• More than two-times as likely as all others to provide their support are viewed as a critical part of
agents with real-time access to customer and service information the service organization
enhancing the customer
• Nearly 30% more likely than all others to leverage web-based self-
experience and firm as a
service solutions whole.”
• Three-times as likely as Laggards to instantly collect customer ~ Ed Billmaier,
feedback after a service interaction and more than four times as Senior Director of Relationship
likely as Laggards to proactively monitor customer sentiment & Interactive Marketing,
ScottsMiracle-Gro
Required Actions
To achieve Best-in-Class performance, companies must:
• Empower stakeholders with real-time access to information
• Educate customers on the availability of non-contact center-based
support channels
• Support multi-channel delivery with cross-channel agents
© 2010 Aberdeen Group. Telephone: 617 854 5200
www.aberdeen.com Fax: 617 723 7897

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary....................................................................................................... 2
Best-in-Class Performance..................................................................................... 2
Competitive Maturity Assessment....................................................................... 2
Required Actions...................................................................................................... 2
Chapter One: Benchmarking the Best-in-Class.................................................... 4
More Channel Options........................................................................................... 4
The Maturity Class Framework..........................................................................11
The Best-in-Class PACE Model ..........................................................................12
Best-in-Class Strategies.........................................................................................13
Chapter Two: Benchmarking Requirements for Success.................................15
Competitive Assessment......................................................................................16
Capabilities and Enablers......................................................................................18
Chapter Three: Required Actions .........................................................................25
Laggard Steps to Success......................................................................................25
Industry Average Steps to Success ....................................................................26
Best-in-Class Steps to Success ............................................................................27
Appendix A: Research Methodology.....................................................................29
Appendix B: Related Aberdeen Research............................................................31
Figures
Figure 1: Reasons for Incoming Service Requests ................................................. 6
Figure 2: Drivers for Multi-Channel Service........................................................... 8
Figure 3: If Only I Had Coupons - Cost Cutting Initiatives...............................14
Figure 4: Measuring Service Success - KPIs Tracked ..........................................23
Tables
Table 1: Opening up Service Options ...................................................................... 5
Table 2: Channels for Incoming Requests and Resolutions ................................ 6
Table 3: Changing Focus on Channels in the Next 12 Months.......................... 7
Table 4: Top Performers Earn Best-in-Class Status............................................12
Table 5: The Best-in-Class PACE Framework .....................................................13
Table 6: Supporting a Multi-Channel Service Framework.................................13
Table 7: The Competitive Framework...................................................................17
Table 8: Empowering Information for Support Agents......................................20
Table 9: Tools to Build a Multi-Channel Roadmap .............................................21
Table 10: Giving Customers What they Need ....................................................22
Table 11: Getting Social with Service.....................................................................24
Table 12: Multi-Channel Report Card ...................................................................28
Table 13: The PACE Framework Key....................................................................30
Table 14: The Competitive Framework Key........................................................30
Table 15: The Relationship Between PACE and the Competitive Framework .30


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Chapter One:
Benchmarking the Best-in-Class
More Channel Options
Fast Facts
The existence of numerous communication platforms and tools is changing
the way we choose to interact with our personal and professional √ 86% level of customer
networks. This is not only in reference to outbound communication to a retention reported by the
person or a group of people, but also in the way in which we gather Best-in-Class compared to a
information from others. Instead of picking up the phone to connect with 74% performance by all
other organizations
colleagues at work, one can choose to use instant messenger or email to
establish a direct personal line or use a company-based forum, social √ 21% reduction in total
network, or an intranet to tap into company information. On the personal support costs experienced
side, tweeting, texting, chatting, posting on walls, nudging, and buzzing are by the Best-in-Class over the
really just means to communicate and tap into the lives of others without last 12 months, compared to
ever having to speak a word. While we may talk less, we are communicating a 1% decrease for all other
more. organizations

The extended network of communication tools and platforms also impacts √ 47% of all organizations
looking at their multi-
the way customer service can be delivered. By no means is the phone the
channel frameworks to drive
only way one can get in touch with a product manufacturer or servicing revenue, compared to 34%
organization. As customers, whether in the form of consumers or of organizations in 2009
businesses, we are afforded a variety of channels to capture service
information, make service requests, share feedback and purchase additional √ 65% of organizations looking
products and services. These channels are also available to employees of an for more self-service options
as a primary means to cut
organization looking for information regarding their resources and benefits.
service costs
We are no longer tethered to the phone for all of these requirements. In
response, servicing organizations, whether direct manufacturers or third- √ 3% potential decrease in
party providers, are afforded a variety of platforms to deliver service. This total service costs from a 5%
can be in the form of reactive service in response to a particular customer decrease in unnecessary
query or proactive service on the channels in which customers are active. dispatches
These channels also allow for better visibility into issues of customer
sentiment and customer feedback, all of which can greatly impact customer
service strategy.
In a recent study of over 170 service and manufacturing organizations, a
majority indicated that they were using more than just the contact center as
a means to capture customer requests and deliver service. While the
contact center, fax, and email have been the traditional channels available
for customer service requests (Table 1), channels such as live chat,
customer-specific web portals, and others have seen increased support in
the last three years. Looking ahead, organizations are actively looking to
increase investments in live chat, social media, SMS, and technical forums
and discussion boards.


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Table 1: Opening up Service Options
Percentage of all respondents, n=172
Channel In Place for more In Place for 1- In Place for less Not in Place, Will
than 3 years 3 years than 1 year be in 1 year
Mail / Fax 74% 6% 3% 1%
Email 73% 11% 6% 3%
Contact Center 70% 8% 5% 5%
Help Desk (Internal) 56% 8% 5% 7%
Website Queries 43% 12% 8% 10%
Customer Service Desk
41% 6% 4% 3%
(Physical Location)
Customer-specific Web
34% 14% 13% 15%
Portals
Remote Support 31% 13% 9% 8%
Web-Based Technical Forums
13% 12% 9% 23%
/ Discussion Boards
SMS / Texts 12% 11% 7% 16%
Live Chat 9% 8% 10% 21%
Social Media 3% 10% 19% 22%
Source: Aberdeen Group, June 2010

With the availability of and familiarity with a great number of channels, "[We have seen] significant
customers are actively leveraging non-contact center based channels for reductions in administrative
their service requests. In fact, while organizations reported that they questions to our L1 tech
received an average of 1.15 million service requests through the contact support when we integrated a
center (including escalations) in the last 12 months, they received 316,000+ live chat function.”
service requests through non-contact center based channels in the same ~ Mark Bath,
time frame. With reference to incoming requests, customers are leveraging Director, Customer
email as the primary non-contact center-based support channel with varied Service/Support,
use of web-based queries and mail / fax. Other newer channels such as Overland Storage
social media, instant messenger / chat and SMS still only account for 6%, 4%,
and 3% of overall requests respectively.
A majority of incoming requests are either for issues around technical
support or troubleshooting (Figure 1). Thirty percent (30%) of all incoming
requests are to schedule service appointments with 29% tied to the
purchase of a part / product or additional service. Billing queries and
changes as well as other account changes were indicated as reasons for
incoming service requests by approximately 23% and 16% of respondents
respectively.


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Figure 1: Reasons for Incoming Service Requests
"As with all organizations we
Technical support request 58% find that our customers have
different preferred channels for
service and even have multiple
Troubleshooting 37% channels to obtain information
on service. Providing great
phone support does not
Request for product information 33%
address the needs of a
customer who prefers self help
Request repair / maintenace appointment 30% tools on a web site. We want
to make sure that we address
the customer’s needs in the
Purchase of part/product/service 29% channels that they are using."
~ Don McNair,
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Senior Director - Customer
Percentage of respondents, n=172 Interaction,
Note: Respondents were asked to select their top three answer choices Yaskawa America Inc.

The contact center remains the major medium of issue resolution
accounting for more than a quarter of all service issues resolved (Table 2).
Field support, email and remote support are other channels that are highly
leveraged to resolve service issues. Nearly 8% of all issues are resolved
through self-service channels (company branded or otherwise) and an
additional 4% of issues are resolved via online search engines. It is
interesting to note that while social media accounts for approximately 6% of
all incoming requests, less than 1% of all issues are actively resolved via
social media.

Table 2: Channels for Incoming Requests and Resolutions
For Incoming Requests For Issue Resolution
(Last 12 Months) (Last 12 Months)
Top 1- Contact Center - 35%
1- Contact Center - 26%
Channels 2- Other Email - 15%
(average 2- Field Support - 20%
3- Web Query - 11%
result - 3- Email - 14%
4- Customer Service Desk
percentage 4- Remote Support - 9%
(Physical Location) - 11%
of requests) 5- Customer Service Desk - 8%
5- Mail / Fax - 10%

Looking ahead over the next 12 months, while nearly 30% to 50% of
organizations report the maintenance of the status quo when it comes to
use of channels for incoming requests, more than 40% of respondents
indicate the increased use of website-based service queries and email for the
creation and logging of service requests. Fifteen percent (15%) of
organizations also see a significant 5%+ increase in the use of company-
branded social media channels for incoming service requests. On the

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opposite end of the spectrum, the contact center and regular mail or fax are
the most likely to see less traffic in the next 12 months.

Table 3: Changing Focus on Channels in the Next 12 Months

Proportion of Requests Percentage of all respondents, n=172
through Channel Increase Increase Slightly Remain the
(Next 12 Months) Decrease
Significantly (5%+) (Less than 5%) Same
Website Query 24% 22% 30% 2%
Other Email 20% 20% 33% 8%
Contact Center 17% 14% 34% 16%
Social Media (Company Branded) 15% 17% 37% 1%
Instant Messaging / Chat 13% 16% 39% 2%
Company Blog 13% 9% 44% 1%
Discussion Board 12% 14% 41% 1%
Helpdesk 9% 12% 47% 5%
Social Media (Third party) 9% 12% 44% -
SMS / Messaging 8% 13% 29% -
Customer Service Desk (Physical
8% 6% 49% 6%
Location)
Mail / fax 8% 6% 43% 16%

Pressing Needs - Dispatch Avoidance, Not Customer Service
Avoidance
As companies look to leverage multiple channels to enable the delivery of
service and support, they are doing so in the face of increasing customer
demands for better and faster service coupled with the need to control
service-related costs. The trend towards multi-channel service delivery isn't
just to push the cost per contact or cost per transaction to the lowest
common denominator, but to provide the customer with improved service
resolution regardless of the channel that is chosen. An isolated focus on
cost reduction without taking ultimate service issue resolution is short
sighted, just as a lack of focus on cost management in the current economy
is dangerous. As such, service organizations need to balance the pressures
of cost and customer satisfaction in their pursuit for the optimal mix of
service delivery channels.


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Figure 2: Drivers for Multi-Channel Service

Customer demand for faster service resolution -
68%
improved time to repair and first-call resolution

Need to control and reduce service-related costs 53%

Need to drive revenue opportunities 47%

Need to drive productivity / utilization across the
41%
entire service organization

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Percentage of respondents, n=172
Note: Respondents were asked to select their top three answer choices

Service organizations are also looking to their expanded service delivery "[Migrating customers to less
networks as a means to increase overall revenue opportunities. Multiple expensive channels of support]
channels of service delivery that envelop the customer not only breed is probably more important
increased customer loyalty, but also offer multiple outlets of promotion that than ever. With all departments
ensure that the customer is aware of complementary products and services looking to cut their allocated
support costs and product
offered by the servicing organization. The pursuit of revenue has been
management being driven to
highlighted in past Aberdeen research (The Chief Service Officer's Guide to lower and lower margins, less
Service Revenue January 2010 and in the 2009 Chief Service Officer Summit) costly support is almost
as a key goal for service organizations in 2010. This active interest in mandated.”
revenue in 2010 is further evidenced by the fact that the percentage of
respondents that indicated that revenue was a key pressure jumped from ~ Mark Bath,
Director, Customer
34% in Aberdeen's 2009 research on multi-channel research to 47% in this
Service/Support,
year's research. The ranking and priority of most other pressures have Overland Storage.
remained the same over the last two years of surveying.

Case Study — ScottsMiracle-Gro

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (Scotts) is a marketer of branded lawn
and garden care products. Scotts delivers customer support through a
number of channels, including contact center, email, phone, and social
media tools. The company handles approximately one million customer
contacts per year.
Scotts has a long history of focusing on the consumer and their needs. In
fact, the originations of the existing contact center date back to 1935.
While this focus on the consumer and their needs has a long history, the
amount of investment in this area has varied over time.
continued


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In 1993, Scotts viewed its customer support contact center as an
expense center and therefore did not invest in key processes, knowledge
sharing and technology to enable greater customer service. As a result,
support agents in the contact center were equipped with large binders
and manuals to refer to in order to offer resolution scenarios to their
customers. This manual process for support led to more than half of all
incoming calls being abandoned, a major problem for any service
organization that prides itself on providing a quality customer service
experience. In turn, this manual process led to support agents having no
ability to exchange best practices across the company while also having
no way to capture customer data in order to leverage this information in
future communications or internal processes. This lack of information
also hindered the organization from gaining insights into any product
development and marketing information that could have been inferred
from customer feedback.
Along with the manual process to handle customer calls, agents were
scheduled in a static manner which could not handle the seasonality of
the lawn / garden care business. Call volumes can fluctuate from peak
levels in the summer and fall of 160,000 calls per month to 6,000 calls
per month in the winter - leading to unutilized or overstretched
resources. Therefore to turn things around, it was integral for Scotts to
transform its service business, gain greater access to customer
information, and develop internal capabilities in order to equip their
support agents and customers with the necessary information for the
delivery of the right customer experience. In 1994, Scotts embarked on a
support group reorganization that was structured around:
- The capture, storage and accessibility of customer data
- Training in the use of data by support agents
- Workforce staffing levels
The company needed to formulate a strategy to change the culture and
information flow of the business prior to any investment in technology.
With insight into customer request volumes and trends, service leaders
recognized that the seasonal nature of Scotts’ business made its current
static support agent scheduling sub optimal. There was no need for a full
time staff of employees year round from eight to five, and thus the
organization moved to a dynamic staffing model which combined full-time
workers with seasonal non-traditional staff to mirror the business needs
and demands. With a part-time staff, it was integral that the accessible
data was easy to use in order to provide customers with an “expert” at
all times regardless of the employee being contacted. As a result, any new
systems or information architectures had to allow for faster time to
productivity for new / part-time agents and increased data capture. The
system also needed to be scalable enough to accommodate the rapid
growth of the organization through acquisitions.
continued


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Scotts’ has grown both organically and through acquisitions, and thus
needed a system that could integrate disparate knowledge management
systems in order to quickly create a uniform support offering for the
customer. With its restructuring in 1994, the organization was able to
see a significant reduction in dropped or missed service calls (from
250,000 in 1993 to 40,000 in 1994) and a significant improvement in
productivity - all at a minimal cost investment. Once the service
organization was able to show the value of an improved customer
experience and the need for improved information-related automation,
the company decided to move ahead with the implementation of a broad
customer management and interaction system in 2001.
As a result of these investments, customer support agents have the ability “The goal for the technology
to capture data in real-time while having immediate access to customer investment was to get more
history, call patterns, and weather information. This maturity in customer value. It was never sold as a
support delivery has led to measurable results with regards to service cost saving tool but one that
organization performance. Most importantly for the company, the enabled strategic
customer experience has been improved in regard to a more personal differentiation.”
interaction with support agents as real-time information is accessible at ~ Ed Billmaier,
each channel and can be leveraged to provide resolution and Senior Director of Relationship
recommendations. & Interactive Marketing,
ScottsMiracle-Gro
The company has also been able to reduce new agent training times by
25% through the user-friendly interface of the customer management
solution and the overall robust nature of the information that is available.
Scotts has also been able to leverage the customer data being captured
to increase product sales and personalize marketing efforts. With the
breadth of customer information / trends being captured, Scotts has the
capability to efficiently identify and provide an early warning email alert to
notify their customers of potential negative issues (i.e. insect infestations)
being identified and educate them on the right products to purchase to
eliminate the problem. This type of proactive insight not only leads to
increased product sales resolving an impending issue, but also a significant
percent of all email alert recipients purchase products after receiving an
email. Another added benefit of this interaction is that it also reaffirms
the expert relationship of the Scotts team to the consumer.
As Scotts continues the journey to perfect the customer experience
there is an opportunity to further enhance the knowledge base,
specifically with regard to increasing opportunities to leverage customer
insights and data by supporting business units (i.e., sales, marketing, and
engineering) further improving the service offering. The company would
also like to extend the knowledge base to its customers to greater
enhance their access to overall service information.
continued


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Also, as social media (i.e. chat, blogs, discussion boards) continues to be
internally validated and expected by the consumer, the company is
actively developing its customer interaction strategy via social media
platforms and is well positioned to continue efforts in delivering
consistent customer support through all channels that are leveraged by
its customers.

The Maturity Class Framework
Cost per Contact (Average
The ability to manage the highlighted pressures (Figure 2) is the true Result)
measure of a Best-in-Class service organization. As a result, these
√ $248 Field Support
companies excel in metrics (Table 4) that tie directly to:
√ $58 Contact Center
• Customer satisfaction. Best-in-Class organizations indicate that
their customers rank them at 3.9 on a 1 to 5 scale of customer √ $31 Email
satisfaction. This is compared to a 3.0 average for all other
√ $27 Chat
organizations.
• Cost. Customers of Best-in-Class organizations are more likely to
see resolution for their service requests on first-call basis, therefore
leading to higher levels of satisfaction at lower overall costs. For
service requests in the contact center, leading organizations report
an 85% level of first-call resolution performance when compared to
a 56% level for all other organizations. In fact, Best-in-Class
organizations report a high first-time resolution performance across
multiple service delivery channels such as email, e-service and chat.
In addition to excelling at overall service efficiency, Best-in-Class
organizations are also more successful in directing their customers
to the most cost-effective service channels. These organizations
report that 22% of requests could have been handled by a more
cost efficient channel over the last 12 months, compared to 26% of First-Time Resolution Rates
service requests for all other organizations. As an overall result,
√ E-Service
leading service organizations have seen a 21% reduction in total
Best-in-Class - 72%
support costs over the last 12 months when compared to a 1% All Others - 44%
reduction for all other organizations.
√ Email
• Revenue. While a 3.9 scale of customer satisfaction still indicates Best-in-Class - 74%
significant room for improvement for the Best-in-Class, they All Others - 53%
successfully retained 86% of their customers over the last 12
months when compared to an overall 74% retention rate for all √ Chat
other organizations. Aberdeen's research on service revenue (The Best-in-Class - 77%
All Others - 33%
CSO's Guide to Service Revenue January 2010) highlighted that
organizations reporting a 70% to 80% level of customer retention
experienced a 4% decrease in total spend from existing customers
over the last 12 months, when compared to a 3% increase in total
spend for companies reporting an 80%+ level of customer
retention.


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• Productivity. The cost and customer satisfaction performance
advantages experienced by Best-in-Class organizations are also tied
to significant improvements in support agent productivity and
utilization driven by these organizations. Over the last 12 months,
leading organizations have driven a 38% increase in support agent
productivity when compared to a 6% increase for all other
organizations.

Table 4: Top Performers Earn Best-in-Class Status
Definition of
Mean Class Performance
Maturity Class
3.9/5.0 level of customer satisfaction
86% customer retention in the last 12 months
Best-in-Class: 85% first-call resolution performance in the contact
Top 20% center
of aggregate 38% increase in support agent productivity over the
performance scorers last 12 months
21% reduction in total support costs in the last 12
months
Industry Average: 66% first-call resolution performance in the contact
Middle 50% center
3% reduction in total support costs in the last 12
months
Laggard: 35% first-call resolution performance in the contact
Bottom 30% center
4% increase in total support costs in the last 12
months

The Best-in-Class PACE Model
Aberdeen’s PACE framework is designed to highlight the key strategies and
capabilities employed by firms that attain Best-in-Class status through their
excellence in meeting and overcoming internal or market pressures. The
framework serves as a roadmap for non-Best-in-Class firms to duplicate the
strategies enforced and capabilities developed by Best-in-Class firms to
improve their service performance (Table 5).


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Table 5: The Best-in-Class PACE Framework
Pressures Actions Capabilities Enablers
Meet customer Increase access to Real-time capture and storage of Optimized support agent schedules
demand for customer- and customer and service information CRM Solutions with multi-channel
better service - service-specific Standardized escalation protocols support capabilities
enhance speed information across Service information made available Service or contact center analytics
and effectiveness the organization in central knowledgebase Customer feedback management
of service Invest in Immediate capture of customer solutions
delivery technology feedback following a service Web self-support platforms
solutions or interaction Knowledge management solutions
platforms to Front-line support agents have real-
enable multi- time access to complex resolutions
channel support steps and schematics
Best-in-Class Strategies
In Aberdeen's 2009 Delivering Customer Service via the Contact Center and the
"[The most vital action that our
Web report, it was highlighted that Best-in-Class companies are enabling organization has taken to
market leading service delivery frameworks around the 5Es: Educate, ensure the success of our
Eliminate, Escalate, Evaluate, and Empower. While the priorities of these multi-channel solution is] tight
actions has changed in 2010, the Best-in-Class are still looking to these integration between the CRM
principles to enable a true multi-channel service model in order to ease cost system, ERP system, and
and customer satisfaction pressures (Table 6). For instance, leading business communication
organizations continue to look to empower their service agents with real- systems which enable us to
time access to customer and service-specific information to aid issue have a central depository of
resolution efforts. This empowerment is enabled with the evaluation and information obtained during the
different touch points with the
implementation of solutions and knowledge platforms that allow for the
customer."
efficient capture, storage and distribution of information. With investments
in multiple service delivery platforms, the Best-in-Class are also looking to ~ Don McNair,
ensure the accuracy, validity, and efficacy of information across all channels Senior Director - Customer
so as to eliminate inconsistent service experiences and unnecessary follow Interaction,
up service requirements. Ultimately, education regarding the value and Yaskawa America Inc.
efficacy of available service channels is enabled through the proactive
capture of customer feedback regarding the overall service experience.

Table 6: Supporting a Multi-Channel Service Framework
Percentage of Respondents
Action
Best-in-Class All Others
Increase access to customer- and service-specific information across the
63% 59%
organization
Invest in technology solutions or platforms to enable multi-channel support 54% 44%
Proactively capture / monitor customer feedback via surveys (phone, web) and
46% 39%
via web traffic and social media
Enable a multi-channel service structure / strategy encompassing the contact
43% 33%
center, web, remote, and other outlets
Ensure accuracy and consistency of service information across all points of
40% 31%
customer interaction (field, contact center, web)
Note: Respondents were asked to select their top four answer choices


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Aberdeen Insights — Cutting Cost in the Service Organization

In meeting cost containment needs, organizations are actively looking to improve the self-service options
available for service resolution, primarily as self-service only accounts for 8% of resolutions. Increased use of
self-service channels can be accomplished through the enhanced promotion of non contact center-based
avenues available to the customers and via attention to the benefits of using those channels. Ultimately, the
most valid proof point and subsequent promotion avenue for non-contact center-based channels is in the
ability of these channels to quickly and effectively meet the customer's needs. A single negative experience
on a web-based or other channel will pretty much ensure that the customer returns relying on the contact
center regardless of the amount of promotion that is done.

Figure 3: If Only I Had Coupons - Cost Cutting Initiatives

Provide more self-service scenarios to customers 65%

Improve escalation processes and information to
ensure least amount of transfers and resolution time 39%

Educate customer regarding availability on non-
37%
contact center-related service channels

Minimize unnecessary field dispatches - primary
34%
visits

Invest in / leverage remote support 27%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Percentage of respondents, n=172
To optimize their cost structures, organizations are also looking to minimize unnecessary service field
dispatches. While 34% indicate that they can trim costs by reducing unnecessary dispatches of a primary
nature (initial visits for repair or service that could have been avoided), another 24% of organizations are
looking to minimize unnecessary secondary dispatches tied to inadequate first-visit resolution. Aberdeen's
research finds that nearly 12% of dispatches over the last 12 months were unnecessary, and a 5% reduction
of the unnecessary would have resulted in a corresponding 3% decrease in total service costs. This is
attributed to the fact that the cost per contact for a field dispatch for the average service organization is
nearly five times the cost in the contact center and eight times the cost of a transaction via email.


Page 15

Chapter Two:
Benchmarking Requirements for Success
The success of all initiatives and programs adopted in support of effective Fast Facts
multi-channel service delivery and customer management ultimately depends √ 60% of Best-in-Class
on the supporting cast of organizational capabilities and processes in place. organizations provide their
The identification of these vital capabilities, specifically around the capture, agents with standard
availability and management of service information, and the organizational escalation protocols
gaps that need to be overcome to put these in place will help service firms compared to 17% of
ascend to the status of Best-in-Class. Laggards
√ 54% of Best-in-Class
Case Study — Yaskawa America Inc. organizations optimize
service agent schedules
Yaskawa America Inc., a wholly owned corporation of Yaskawa Electric compared to 24% of
Corporation of Japan, is a high-tech manufacturer of AC Inverter Drives, Laggards
Servo and Motion Control, and Robotics Automation Systems with a
focus in the North, Central, and South American regions. Products are √ 49% of Best-in-Class
sold through direct sales, distributors, dealers, and partners throughout organizations provide their
agents with access to
the Americas. Internally, Yaskawa has 30 support agents that manage
complex resolution steps
either the technical support or inside sales aspect of customer service. and schematics when
The challenge facing Yaskawa 10 years ago was one that is similar to compared to 28% of all
most service organizations; how does it provide the best customer others
experience possible while maintaining a profitable business? Also, how √ Best-in-Class organizations
does the company deliver a consistent service experience through its are three times as likely as
vast partner network? During this time, the company funneled all Laggards to immediately
customer issues and requests through its contact center. However, capture customer feedback
Yaskawa was unable to capture any customer information and thus had after a service session
no ability to maximize the value of this customer interaction (i.e., ability √ Best-in-Class organizations
to understand the customer’s latent and overt needs and provide that are two times as likely as
service offering). Not being able to understand the customer led Yaskawa Laggards to use web self-
to a point where exceeding customer expectations would be difficult. service solutions
As customers continued to expect faster service, it was integral that
Yaskawa provide the right information to the right people in real-time. “About eight years ago, our
The company, in order to create a unified voice to the customer, sole channel of customer
implemented a strategy to centralize contact center operations / service contact was via the
information and map the process flows within the organization. As phone. We could not capture
process and information flows were identified and standardized, the much user data, and thus would
company made sure to involve / engage various stakeholders in order to say hi and goodbye with no
ability to leverage past call
extend the level of ownership across the company. Yaskawa, once the
history. We needed to better
process flows were standardized, implemented an Enterprise Resource understand the customer in
Planning (ERP) and Customer Resource Management (CRM) solution to order to improve their overall
better manage its information workflows. The integration of the these customer experience.”
management tools allowed Yaskawa to equip the support teams with the
information necessary to both resolve customer issues and explore other ~ Don McNair, Director –
Customer Service / Support,
products / services of need for the customer.
Yaskawa America Inc.
continued


Page 16

Case Study — Yaskawa America Inc.

Yaskawa has seen measurable returns from the implementation of their
CRM solution and subsequent transformation of their multi-channel
customer support. Yaskawa has achieved improvements in customer
retention and overall customer satisfaction; as seen through annual
customer surveys and a subsequent willingness of customers to
recommend the service offering to others. The customer satisfaction
survey program is a tool Yaskawa is using to not only gauge customer
sentiments but also to better understand the customer in order to more
effectively lead them down the path to issue resolution while also
tracking overall service performance. Over the last 12 months, Yaskawa
has seen measurable gains in both internal performance metrics and
overall future revenue generating metrics. The company has achieved an
increase in leads of 172% due to data / need validation. Also, Yaskawa has “Customers want accurate
information. They want good
been able to close 19% of these leads that would otherwise migrate to a
and accurate information. We
competitor. must lead them down the path
Yaskawa has been successful at providing their customers with a great to solving their customer
service experience while also leveraging the valuable information service issues in order to build
their trust and loyalty.”
captured throughout the service process to create opportunities to both
cross- and up-sell new products. As Yaskawa moves into the second half ~ Don McNair, Director –
of 2010, there are further opportunities to expand and enhance the Customer Service / Support,
current web portal to provide an even friendlier, more intuitive user Yaskawa America Inc.
interface in order to create an even better customer experience. This
improved web portal will also be leveraged by Yaskawa’s distributor
network to increase the functionality of the product ordering tool
allowing for even more opportunities to extend the selling cycle. The
benefits of providing a better experience to the customer while creating
an easier access point for the distributor network will in turn lead to
Yaskawa’s ability to reap the value of its efforts.

Competitive Assessment
Best-in-Class service firms, as determined by their performance in key
indicators, exhibit several of the capabilities highlighted in Table 4 that fall
into the five categories of Aberdeen's Competitive Framework: (1) process
(workflows for contact management, escalation, and feedback management);
(2) organization (corporate focus on the opportunity for improved
customer service through multiple service delivery channels, coupled with
increased visibility and oversight); (3) knowledge management (making
asset and service data available to stakeholders that can act on the
information to impact profitability); (4) technology (the selection of
appropriate tools and the intelligent deployment of those tools); and (5)
performance management (the ability of the organization to track /
measure performance and drive further improvements with necessary
modifications to processes in place).


Page 17

Table 7: The Competitive Framework
Best-in-Class Average Laggards
Real-time capture of service, asset and customer-specific
service information
71% 55% 33%
Standardized escalation procedures - higher tier agent has
Process immediate access to call history and customer information
60% 50% 17%
Immediate capture of customer feedback following contact
center, web-service, or other specific service sessions
46% 41% 15%
Frequent and periodic training of CSRs or web agents in
Organization accurate diagnosis, resolution, and escalation procedures
67% 59% 30%
Front-line support agents have real-time access to
customer service history
86% 80% 50%
Knowledge
Front-line support agents have real-time access to
complex resolutions steps and schematics
49% 35% 15%
Optimized service agent schedules to account for high-
demand service times
54% 44% 24%
Customer Management technology currently in use:
51% CRM 44% CRM 24% CRM “We needed to create an
Solution with Solution with Solution with information architecture in our
Contact Center Contact Center Contact Center system to give information to
functionality functionality functionality the consumers when they need
49% Web Self- 48% Web Self- 24% Web Self- it and make all our reps sound
Service Solution Service Solution Service Solution like experts.”
Technology
43% Knowledge 38% Knowledge 17% Knowledge ~ Ed Billmaier,
Management Management Management Senior Director of Relationship
43% Contact 41% Contact 24% Contact & Interactive Marketing,
Center or Center or Center or ScottsMiracle-Gro
Service Service Service
Analytics Analytics Analytics
34% Contact 18% Contact 13% Contact
Center Center Center
Management Management Management
Solution Solution Solution
Proactive tracking and capture of customer feedback
Performance (sentiment) on web
43% 35% 9%


Page 18

Capabilities and Enablers
The Competitive Framework (Table 7) highlights that Best-in-Class
performance isn’t predicated on excellence in just one of the support
categories. Best-in-Class organizations exhibit a comprehensive focus on all
of the following support structures to strengthen the planned strategic
actions illustrated earlier (Table 6) in this research. In the context of the
discussion around multi-channel service, a majority of the capabilities
continue to fall into the 5E framework described earlier - Educate,
Eliminate, Escalate, Evaluate, and Empower. In addition, 2010 data indicates
that Best-in-Class organizations are taking significant steps to proactively
track, capture, and act on customer feedback.

Process
Sixty percent (60%) of the Best-in-Class indicate their organizations provide Insight: Standardized Escalations
their support agents with standardized escalation protocols when compared √ On average, organizations
to 38% of all other organizations. These escalations can occur across the that have standard escalation
same delivery channel (contact center to contact center) or on different protocols in place report a
channels (live chat to contact center). As a result, if support agents are 74% first-call resolution
unable to resolve a service issue at their level, they are provided with performance as opposed to
a 55% result for those that
guidance into:
do not
• when an escalation needs to take place
• who it needs to be escalated to
• how that escalation takes place with the smallest disruption and
inconvenience to the customer
• how to track the result of that escalation
The investment in standardized escalation protocols can be greatly
marginalized if the higher-tier agents or managers do not have immediate
visibility into the current service issue and steps that have already been
taken to resolve the issue. Therefore, the Best-in-Class strategy is not only
to standardize the upward escalation of service issues but also to ensure
that the agent receiving the escalated issue has full visibility into service issue
information prior to correspondence with the customer. As a result of the
focus from the Best-in-Class in ensuring that a first service call / email finds
the right service person, they are able to report higher first-call resolution
results. On average, organizations that have standard escalation protocols in
place report a 74% first-call resolution performance as opposed to a 55%
result for those that do not.
Immediate access for higher tier support agents to service information is
made possible due to the Best-in-Class focus on real-time capture of and
visibility into service, asset or customer-specific information. This real-time
mode of capture is in place at 71% of Best-in-Class organizations as opposed
to 47% of all other organizations. As seen in the context of escalation
protocols, leading organizations are also taking significant steps to invest in
making this collected information available to all relevant service


Page 19

stakeholders to ensure an improved and expedited resolution experience
for the customer.

Aberdeen Insights — Voice of the Customer

Increased access to service knowledge continues to be a key pillar in the
Best-in-Class multi-channel service delivery framework (further detailed
in the proceeding section). In addition, Best-in-Class organizations are
making significant investments in increasing their insight into customer
feedback regarding the efficacy of their service delivery and the strength
of the overall service experience. The success of any internal process
can ultimately be measured on the final service experience felt by the
customer. As a result, nearly 50% of Best-in-Class organizations
immediately capture customer feedback at the end of a service session
to not only understand whether the session was successful or not, but
also to understand if there are gaps in the service delivery process that
need to be addressed. Only 32% of all other organizations are looking
to immediately capture customer feedback.

Knowledge Management and Organization
As discussed earlier, Best-in-Class organizations are making significant "Complete integration of data
investments in their knowledge infrastructures to ensure the availability of across all support channels is
valuable customer and service information to all support agents as well as to critical to not only efficiency
other teams across the organization. Effective knowledge management but customer satisfaction as
forms the backbone of a successful multi-channel service strategy, and this is well.”
evidenced by the dual Best-in-Class focus on: ~ Mark Bath,
Director, Customer
• The storage of service information in a common knowledgebase so
Service/Support,
as to expedite access to vital service and customer information.
Overland Storage.
Such a central knowledgebase is in place at 31% of leading
organizations when compared to 26% of all others. As a result,
interactions with a customer on one channel can be leveraged for
subsequent discussions on another channel, thereby enabling
visibility into resolution practices or other service information that
can improve the overall customer experience.
• The type of information that front line support agents are
empowered with at Best-in-Class organizations (Table 8). As a
result of the available service information, support agents at Best-in-
Class organizations aren't required to blindly enter into an
unprepared service interaction with a customer and are immediately
alerted to past service instances or resolution scenarios that may
expedite the service delivery process. From the perspective of
service revenue, access to trends in customer service queries can
also alert the support agent to complementary services and
offerings that the customer might not be aware of. While this cross-
pollination of service and sales activities requires a focus on training,
Best-in-Class companies are much more likely to provide their front


Page 20

line agents with access to such sale offerings based on customer
usage and service history.

Table 8: Empowering Information for Support Agents
Percentage of Respondents
Customer Support Agent Ability / Reporting In Place
Access to:
Basic customer information (address, product usage etc.) 86% 73%
Customer service history 86% 69%
Basic troubleshooting steps 69% 40%
Instantly connect customer to higher level of support 60% 47%
Complex troubleshooting steps / Product schematics 49% 28%
Resolution steps / decision trees as determined by experts or past product history 40% 31%
Customized sale offers based on service history 39% 23%
Add / remove features to products/services leveraged by customers 26% 23%

Looking ahead, Best-in-Class companies are also looking to empower their
support agents with increased access to past customer feedback or the
ability to direct customers to take post-service feedback surveys
immediately after a service interaction. More than a quarter (26%) of Best-
in-Class organizations are prioritizing the increased access to customer
feedback history for front line service agents.
In support of the increased information available to support agents, Best-in-
Class organizations are actively supporting training programs to enable their
agents to actually use the enhanced information and capabilities that are
afforded to them. Two-thirds of leading organizations, compared to 48% of
all others, periodically train their customers on leveraging available service
information to improve diagnosis and resolution rates or to understand the
required escalation procedures to ensure that a service issue that can't be Solution Selection Attributes
handled at the front lines gets guided to the appropriate agent with a (Percentage of respondents,
minimal number of transfers. n=172)
√ 40% Integration
Technology √ 35% Total cost of ownership
The organizational focus on developing a true multi-channel service
√ 33% Configurability of
infrastructure, as reflected in the focus on knowledge management, training,
solution
escalation processes, and feedback capture and management, is also
reflected in the investments made by leading organizations in service and √ 30% Out-of-the-box
customer management tools and applications. functionality provided

With regard to the backbone of knowledge management, 43% of leading √ 26% Scalability of application
organizations are currently leveraging a knowledge management application Note: Respondents were asked
in support of their service environments, when compared to 30% of all to select their top four answer
other organizations. As a result, these organizations have a more structured choices


Page 21

focus on automating the capture, storage and distribution of data as
opposed to more unstructured and paper-based knowledge transfer
systems of non-Best-in-Class organizations.
This knowledge in turn needs to be integrated with customer management
systems that allow for the lifecycle management of a service customer. Fifty-
one percent (51%) of Best-in-Class organizations reveal the use of broader
customer relationship management solutions when compared to 37% of all
other organizations. These solutions allow for an integrated view of the
customer while supporting the multiple support environments tied to the
contact center, email, chat etc. described earlier in Chapter One. Specifically
in the context of the contact center, 34% of Best-in-Class companies report
the use of stand-alone contact center management solutions. These firms
are also nearly 1.5 times as likely as all others to use contact-center related
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and Computer Telephony Integration
(CTI) technologies that enable the more intelligent routing of customer
queries once made through the contact center.

Table 9: Tools to Build a Multi-Channel Roadmap
Percentage of Firms Reporting Solution in
Solution Place
CRM Solution with Contact Center Management Functionality 51% 37%
Web-Based Self-Service Solution 49% 39%
Service or Contact Center Analytics 43% 35%
Knowledge Management Solution 43% 30%
Customer Feedback Management Solution 37% 25%
CTI / IVR and Customer Routing Solutions 34% 24%
Stand-Alone Contact Center Management Solution 34% 16%
Contact Center Workforce Optimization / Shift Planning 31% 19%

Best-in-Class organizations are also more likely (54% vs. 37% for all others)
to optimize the schedules of their service agents to match the variability in
the service demands. Thirty-one percent (31%) leverage workforce
optimization solutions in the contact center (not all support agents) when
compared to 19% of all other organizations. In fact, 30% of all other
"Our Case Management
organizations indicate that they leverage static service schedules for their System is the most critical
support agents regardless of level of service demand, compared to 17% of element, because it ties
Best-in-Class organizations. Optimized schedules that take service demand everything together.”
peaks and dips into account, help Best-in-Class organizations ensure the
adequate utilization of their support agents by reducing underutilized ~ John Meaney,
EVP/SVP, Business
workers in times of low demand and by eliminating overburdened agents in
Development,
times of peak demand. Not only does this optimization increase the Digitalrep, LLC.
utilization of workers, but it also helps eliminate labor-related costs tied to


Page 22

overtime in peak times or excessive service representation in low-demand
times. It also helps improve the customer experience by reducing wait or
hold times particularly during high demand service periods. Aberdeen's past
research (Advanced Scheduling Execution, December 2009) has indicated how
optimized scheduling of field workforces drives overall productivity and
utilization. The same principles of optimization also apply to call center-
based or other support agents.

Aberdeen Insights — Self Service

Best-in-Class organizations are also distancing themselves from their
counterparts through investments in self-service platforms and portals
(49% vs. 39% for all others). As seen in Figure 3, the increased focus on
self-service is a major step towards the elimination of unnecessary
service costs while enhancing the speed of service delivery, particularly
for basic troubleshooting and information needs. As this stage most of
the self-service information afforded to customers is in the form of
FAQs and downloadable product information (Table 10). Best-in-Class
companies are actively taking the lead in the provision of all described
self-service capabilities, primarily as they relate to customized customer
portals with product service and customer account information.

Table 10: Giving Customers What they Need

Percentage of
Self-Service Capabilities Available
respondents, n=172
Frequently asked questions 65%
Downloadable manuals / drivers 56%
Keyword search box 52%
Customer-specific portal with product service
35%
information
Customer-specific portal with customer account
30%
information
Product forums 25%
Resolution videos 16%
Natural language search 13%
Virtual assistant / conversational agent 7%
Resolution decision trees 6%

Performance Management
In addition to the above mentioned investments in self-service, customer
management and knowledge management solutions, Best-in-Class companies
are also investing in contact center and other service analytics to accurately

Page 23

track the performance of their multi-channel service environments. Forty- "Our overall customer
three percent (43%) of leading organizations currently have analytical tools satisfaction scores have
in place when compared to 35% of all other organizations. The real-time increased three points since
capture and presentation of service data to executives enables the prompt implementing a multi-channel
CRM system. [We have]
evaluation of investments in processes or technology and allows for
increased leads by 172% to
improved planning and forecasting of parameters such as service demand, cross-sell and up-sell products
resource availability, service resource costs, and overall service resulting from the ability to
performance. Executives at Best-in-Class organizations are most concerned data mine information collected
with visibility into customer satisfaction and efficiency metrics to evaluate through multiple channels.
the performance of their service organizations which link directly to the top [There has also been an]
pressures being faced by these organizations in today's service environment. increase in speed of service
through automatic populating
of customer information as
Figure 4: Measuring Service Success - KPIs Tracked
contacts are made."
~ Don McNair,
Customer satisfaction 83% Senior Director - Customer
Interaction,
First-call resolution 69% Yaskawa America Inc.

SLA compliance 37%

Customer retention 34%

Total service and
26%
support costs

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Percentage of Best-in-Class

Note: Respondents were asked to select their top five answer choices

Aberdeen Insights — Social Media and Service Performance

As noted earlier, Best-in-Class organizations are also taking a greater
interest in capturing customer feedback to get a true customer view of
the performance of the service organization. Nearly 50% of Best-in-Class
organizations currently have processes in place to immediately capture
feedback after a service interaction. However, for these organizations,
the customer feedback capture and management strategy goes beyond
post-interaction feedback, as 43% of Best-in-Class organizations are
currently proactively tracking and monitoring customer feedback and
customer sentiment regarding their organizations on the web, compared
to 25% of all other organizations.
continued


Page 24

Aberdeen Insights — Social Media and Service Performance

Social media tools and applications afford service organizations with
increased opportunities to track customer sentiment. While most
organizations have yet to develop an overall social media strategy around
customer service (72% report not having a strategy in place), or leverage
social media extensively for the creation of service requests, 25% of
organizations indicate that they currently leverage social media to
monitor customer sentiment with another 12% indicating the use of
these tools to monitor the health of the organization's brand.
Currently, most use of social media tools for customer service is for
directly responding to customer queries or general customer feedback
(Table 11). Very few organizations are successful in leveraging captured
feedback to improve service performance or quality as survey
respondents rate themselves a 2.9 (on a scale of 5.0) in being able to
actively synthesize and use feedback data to improve performance.
Service organizations need to be more proactive in leveraging customer
feedback to improve their service and customer management processes.
Along the lines of being more proactive, organizations would be well
served to use the extensive network afforded by social media tools to
proactively lead service discussions or notify customers regarding service
updates.

Table 11: Getting Social with Service
Percentage of
Use of Social Media for Customer Service respondents,
n=172
Respond to direct customer inquiry 40%
Promote upcoming product / services 35%
Respond to general customer feedback (e.g., customer
29%
posts comment regarding organization)
Monitor customer sentiment 25%
Proactively reach out to customer regarding updates 16%
Monitor the health of organization's brand(s) 12%
Proactively lead and moderate discussions 9%


Page 25

Chapter Three:
Required Actions
Whether a company is trying to move its performance in service delivery Fast Facts
and customer satisfaction from Laggard to Industry Average, or Industry √ 33% of Laggards do not
Average to Best-in-Class, the following summarized actions structured measure or are unaware of
around the development of a multi-channel service delivery framework, will their customer service
help spur the necessary performance improvements. performance
√ 5:1 ratio of incoming
Laggard Steps to Success requests via the contact
center to non-contact center
When evaluating the performance of Laggard organizations in key service-
channels for Laggards
related performance indicators (Table 4), it is found that they significantly compared to a 2:1 ration for
trail both the Best-in-Class and Industry Average in all metrics tied to Best-in-Class organizations
customer satisfaction, cost control, and overall workforce productivity. To
progress down the path to Industry Average and ultimately the Best-in- √ 55% of Industry Average
Class, these organizations can take steps to: organizations capture and
store service information in
• Understand how customers rate service performance. In an real-time compared to 71%
effort to improve customer service performance, it is vital for of Best-in-Class
Laggard organizations to first understand where they stand in terms organizations
of key metrics such as customer service and retention. Thirty-three √ 49% of Best-in-Class
percent (33%) currently don’t know or don't measure their organizations are looking to
performance in a customer service-specific metric compared to 8% increase investments in
of Industry Average organizations. These organizations show a educating their customers
similar lack of visibility into other financial, operational, and around the existence of non-
customer-facing metrics. Prior to making any investments in contact center-based
processes or technology to improve performance, it is imperative support channels
that these organizations develop a clear line of sight into their
performance in basic customer satisfaction metrics.
• Capture customer feedback. Some insight into customer
service performance can be gleaned from the proactive tracking and
measurement of customer feedback. Only 15% of Laggards indicate
that they immediately capture customer feedback after a service
session compared to 41% of Industry Average organizations.
Immediate feedback on a service interaction is a simple way to poll
customer sentiment without requiring a significant investment from
both parties in a follow-on customer feedback appointment.
• Support multi-channel delivery with cross channel agents.
Laggards report a 5:1 ratio of requests that come in via the contact
center as opposed to non contact-center-related channels. This
proportion is similar for Industry Average organizations but a far cry
from the 2:1 ratio seen by Best-in-Class organizations. To support
the broader acceptance of multiple service delivery channels,
Laggard organizations can start by increasing the use of non-contact
center channels for basic issue / request notification needs.


Page 26

The move to a multi-channel environment can also be supported
"From our customer
with changes in the workforce structure of service agents. While satisfaction surveys we have
59% of Laggards indicate that they currently have an integrated found that there is a high
workforce across service delivery channels, as opposed to channel- correlation to the accuracy of
specific workforces, this proportion lags the 65% of Industry information provided not only
Average and 86% of Best-in-Class groups that have integrated with overall satisfaction, but
workforces. In an effort to expedite the success of a multi-channel also with loyalty and retention.
environment, the use of a flexible cross-channel workforce can With tight integration between
greatly assist in the delivery of a consistent service experience CRM, ERP and business
across all channels. communication systems [we
have] the ability to
• Standardize escalation protocols and increase investments continuously cleanse and enrich
in support agent training. Laggard organizations can also benefit the customer data. This
from equipping their support agents with standard escalation information can not only be
protocols to allow for the expedited handling of customer requests used to address the immediate
by the right level of support. Currently 17% of Laggards have customer concerns, but
through analytics we can assist
standard steps communicated to their service teams when
in the design of future service
compared to 50% of Industry Average organizations. Forty-three offerings."
percent (43%) of Laggards are prioritizing the investment in
standard escalation protocols indicating a clear understanding of the ~ Don McNair,
cost and customer satisfaction ramifications. Along the lines of Senior Director - Customer
better visibility into protocols, Laggards can also increase the focus Interaction,
Yaskawa America Inc.
on training for service agents in the accurate diagnosis, resolution,
or escalation of issues. Compared to 59% of Industry Average
organizations, only 30% of Laggards have periodical training
programs in place.

Industry Average Steps to Success
When compared to Best-in-Class performance, Industry Average
organizations do reasonably well in customer service ratings and overall
customer retention. However, the delivery of service comes at a price as
these organizations severely lag the Best-in-Class in terms of operational
efficiency and the ability to deliver exemplary service while controlling
service costs. To progress down the path to the Best-in-Class, these
organizations can take steps to:
• Empower support agents with information in real-time.
Best-in-Class organizations report a 85% performance in first-call
resolution compared to a 66% mark for Industry Average
organizations. The additional cost associated with repeat service
transactions adds a significant cost burden to the organization.
Therefore these organizations can take significant steps in improving
the capture and distribution of customer and service information in
real-time. Fifty-five percent (55%) of Industry Average organizations
currently capture and store service information in real-time
compared to 71% of Best-in-Class organizations. More so, support
agents at Industry Average organizations are less likely to have
access to information such as past customer service history, basic


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