From my inquiries with customer service professionals, I wanted to get a generalized view of where companies are with respect to implementing the very best of customer service initiatives.

It’s become pretty clear that most are struggling with outdated technology, systems that are not integrated together, and archaic or nonexistent knowledge management software. They haven’t deployed proactive chat or ventured down the social media path.

Worse, these customer service professionals are unsure of how to document the extent to which these factors are increasing operational costs; reducing customer lifetime value; and lowering sales, revenue, and profit margins. And they don’t know how to make the business case to show that, if these types of things were changed, the return would not only be positive, but (in many cases) very large.

Meanwhile, despite these huge handicaps, their organizations continue to expect them to provide great customer experience.

Time for a Change! Seems like something has to give. Doing things the same way and expecting different results is the definition of insanity! The question in my mind was how to collect this information I was finding in the inquiries. “How can I help to bridge the gap between what companies must do to provide great customer experiences and where organizations are at?”

More after the jump…

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In the ramp up for Bozeman, Mont.-based on-demand customer experience management provider RightNow Technologies’ Summit 2008 here in Colorado Springs, you can expect many of the attendees to yearn for — and ask about — ways to continue to improve their companies’ customer experiences amidst an economy that has taken the country for a roller-coaster ride in the past several weeks.

Expect some more “on-the-scene” blog posts after some conversations with key executives and customers as the summit officially kicks off in a couple of hours with a keynote speech from RightNow Chief Executive Officer Greg Gianforte.

Nevertheless, there was a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive (and in the pursuit of transparency, sponsored by RightNow) on the impact of customer experience. In its third year, the study finds that the experience is becoming more important as consumers continue to demand the service bar to be raised.

Here are some highlights drawn from the poll of 2,112 United States consumers (age 18 and older):

• 87 percent will discontinue business with a company after a negative customer experience, an increase of 7 percentage points from 2007;
• 58 percent will “always or often” pay more for a better experience during a down economy;
• 84 percent of those polled will tell others about a bad customer experience, up 10 percentage points since last year; and
• 51 percent of consumers want the option of a live Web chat session.

What was particularly interesting was the way in which consumers react to poor service. According to the study:

• 26 percent have sworn;
• 17 percent have shouted;
• 9 percent have felt sick;
• 5 percent of males say they hit or break something; and
• 9 percent of females cry.

With customer service hubs becoming the first interaction touchpoint for many consumers, the study finds it is imperative for companies to ensure they are doling out the goods for both instant and future business success. Fifty-eight percent of respondents are “at least somewhat likely” to make a purchase during a service engagement. Additionally, outstanding service is the top reason respondents would recommend a company to someone else–coming in at 58 percent. Low prices and product/service quality came in second and third, respectively.

Now for the call to action. For the companies out there waging the war of customer service every single day, are these stats surprising to you? CRM magazine and other media publications have been writing about the customer experience for some time now, but is it really hitting home or is it just another nice-to-have for you at this time?

Some interesting takeaways came to light here during a session on First Contact Resolution (FCR) led by Jim Grace, senior consultant for the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) here at the Annual Call Center Exhibition (ACCE) in downtown Phoenix.

In his session, called “FCR: Great Principle, Hard to Apply,” he explained the results found in an ICMI study in January 2008 after surveying 298 contact center professionals–and the stats were fairly surprising:

• only 51.2 percent of respondents said their contact centers measure FCR for live agent calls;
• 25 percent measure FCR for emails; and
• approximately 3.8 percent measure this in the chat channel.

This flies in the face of conventional thought, according to Grace. He pointed out that any believe that FCR is at the forefront of performance metrics, and that contact centers are rethinking en masse how performance and success is viewed.

That said, Grace believes the hype for FCR is only partially justfified. “It’s powerful, but you cannot jump on the bandwagon blindfolded,” he stressed. He added that you must know what the metric really means to your organization, how to measure it, and the impact the results will have.

One portion of the study that really seemed to bother Grace was how contact centers measured FCR–more specifically, the fact that in all the channels mentioned, agents have a large amount of control in how their own success is measured. For phone calls, 18.4 percent of respondents said “agent judgment” was the method used for measuring FCR. For email that number rose to 26.8 percent, and the 20 percent of the miniscule number of companies measuring FCR in chat say “agent judgment” was the way FCR was calculated.

Grace left the crowd of approximately 70 attending his session with some quick tips for those who want to incorporate FCR measurements into their contact center repertoire. Many involve empowering agents–surprise, surprise. The top three of these are:

• train agents on the importance of FCR and its impact to customer satisfaction;
• provide agents with tips to resolve each contact type (this can be channel or issue-related); and
• provide agents with the right tools and allow access to the information needed to achieve FCR.

What do you think is holding back more contact centers from measuring FCR?