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Profit from Us: How Customer Service

Protects and Grows Revenue

Ben ColletZendeskDirector of Customer Advocacy

@IkarusKid

62%have stopped doing business with a brand because of poor customer service

The Influence of Support

97%say customer service is important to their choice of or loyalty to a brand

*Source: 2015 Microsoft Global State of Multichannel Customer Service Report

“If a customer contacts you with a problem and no one picks up the phone to solve it, which way is your revenue going to go?”

- Greg Collins, Vice President of Global Advocacy, Zendesk

When Companies View Support as a Cost Center

• Focus on cost, not value

• Raises risk of churn

• Missed opportunity for revenue generation

• Leads to underinvestment

The Cost of Underinvestment

How do you shift the conversation from ‘cost’ to ‘value’?

• Build a clear picture of your current support operation

• Grow the value of support to your company

• Show support’s contributions to revenue

Demand

- Track your annual support demand over time. What are the current trends?- Plan for future events (product releases, marketing campaigns, sales projections)

- Factor in service issues that spike demand- Segment your data to reveal key

customer interactions

Throughput

- Track your productivity. How many tickets are solved by support every hour?

- How can you improve? Explore ways to optimize productivity, such as chat

Cost

- Calculate your cost per unit

- Re-evaluate every year- Don’t have this

conversation on its own

Grow Value: Prioritize

• Identify which ‘slices’ of support are the most crucial • Prioritize external requests• Prioritize internal support projects designed to help you improve

Grow Value: Improve Self-Service

With self-service:• Better customer experience

• Fewer tickets save costs, reduce headcount

What is your current self-service ratio?

How can you improve?

Grow Value: Organize Hiring & Job Structure

• Build guidelines for roles and skill sets

• Get buy-in on your recruiting needs

• Hire in advance to protect the customer - and agent - experience

Show Support’s Contribution to Sales

– = +

Revenue Protection

Revenue Attribution

RevenueAttribution

- Take credit for support-only conversions

The goal isn’t to establish a revenue quota - it’s to highlight value and encourage more investment

- Be data-driven, but examples help

RevenueProtection

- Measure churn of customers with recent support touches

- How much revenue did your company lose from customers who also had interactions with support? What were the CSAT scores?

The Goals

It is about: Showing your team’s value so you can advocate for your support agents.

It is about: Building a case for your contributions so you grow investment in support.

It isn’t about: Making your CFO happy or diverting budget from other departments.

It is about: Introducing customer service into the conversation about overall business growth.

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thank you

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