By Oscar Alban, principal global market consultant, Verint Witness Actionable Solutions

Most everyone is familiar with the hit television show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. In fact, the long-running CBS series has become a ritual for the nearly 20 million Americans who tune in to watch each week. The drama is known for focusing on the “howdunit” instead of the more-traditional “whodunit” approach.

What, you may ask, does this have to do with customer service?

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation logo

Well, just as the characters on CSI rely on data and technology more than on intuition, customer service agents are increasingly able to turn to technology as their roles evolve from mere call-takers to informed facilitators.

Customer Service Week ’09 logo

They may not be as forensically savvy as television’s famous detectives, but they play a critical role in uncovering the why behind customer calls.

This concept of empowering agents to improve the customer experience ties nicely into a look back at last week’s commemoration of Customer Service Week.

Recognizing the impact of customer service, the annual weeklong event was established by Congress in 1992 to honor the representatives who help resolve customer “mysteries” on a daily basis.

Everyone has experienced a frustrating and/or emotional conversation when dialing into a customer service center. But with the introduction of advanced analytics — and access to both unstructured and structured data — contact center management and agents are now able to get to the bottom of difficult customer issues. In the name of better customer service, organizations are using technologies such as speech analytics to listen for changes in emotion and/or key words (e.g., “cancel my subscription”). The sophisticated analytics can do more than merely flag particular concerns — the software can even put action triggers in place to ensure that complaints about specific promotions, products, and business practices get heard and dealt with quickly.

But technology alone isn’t the answer. Agents must evolve to become problem-solvers. Effective customer service agents understand what great customer service should look like, especially since they’re on the front lines and experience customer wants and needs firsthand. Today’s technology is allowing agents and the broader contact center operation to not only better identify customer requirements and call drivers, but also become smarter about the products and services they provide. It’s an exciting time for the evangelists within a company that value the importance of the customer relationship.

This year’s Customer Service Week may be behind us now, but the next time you’re on the phone with customer service, please take a moment to say thanks any time your service representative provides you with courteous, quick, and professional service. Remember, they’re more than just customer service agents — they’re customer service investigators. And these CSIs are listening, examining, and facilitating how to better solve your problem — every week of the year.

Oscar Alban (oscar.alban@verint.com) serves as principal global market consultant for Verint Witness Actionable Solutions. Prior to joining the company in 1997, he spent 12 years as a regional sales and training manager for a Fortune 500 company in its 1,200-person, inbound/outbound, state-of-the-art call center division.