Technology has evened quality. Hardware is all the same.The difference is how you treat customers.

— LEE IACOCCA, FROM A SPEECH AT LEHIGH UNIVERSITY

Learning Objectives:

After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

Tell what the dimensions of customer care are.Update yourselves about the latest and effective

customer care methods.Comprehend customer care technologies.

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IntroductionCustomer care is a service that seeks to provide superior

customer satis faction to existing customers, to acquire new customers and build loyalty. It is reaching out to customers rather than waiting for them to reach the company. This nature of customer care may depend on the company's business: outbound/inbound or even blended.

Customer care focuses on customer satisfaction and loyalty which can be achieved only when the customer can reach for help at the given number without feeling any pain for the same. This means that the call centre number or e-mail address for a particular customer care function must be easy to find and a customer must deal with an agent who is knowledgeable, courteous and provides an answer or solution quickly. Follow up within a stipulated period of time is critical and resolution with the first contact is ideal.

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The following five areas are the most critical for any customer care function:

AccessibilityPersonal interaction with the customer

service representativeEffectiveness of the solution or responseFollow-upFirst-contact resolution

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Call CentreCRM is embedded into every call centre (CC). A CC is an

arrangement where the division of an organisation or its intermediary acts as a link with their customers. The typical CC is an area where several specially trained employees handle queries or complaints of products or services over telephone. Traditionally, the CC is a single-function unit limited to customer support and sometimes, sales. The contact centre is an upgraded form of the CC.

Harris (2000) says that a contact centre is a CC unit that is integrated from two perspectives: (i) media (e-mail, internet, fax and data) and (ii) functional (linkage to a central database and working in concert with other sales and service channels, such as direct sales).

The CC has great potential for improving expense ratios, standardising services and improving service quality to customers. The integrated CC can be approached through various 'touch points' such as phone, e-mail, fax and internet chat.

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Customer Service Representative

Customer Care Software

The customer service representative (CSR) of the contact centre is an active salesman. He uses a bank of telephones that are supplemented by computer terminals and high-end CRM software. The most basic customer interactions like enquiries are automated and CSR gets more time for sales or customer services with personalised care.

Typical CC software would link telecom hardware to IT databases at the back end and communicate automated information to the callers in the form of interactive voice response and screen pop-up layers through the CSR. New CC systems incorporate internet technologies and are web enabled, allowing more interactivity for their callers, while keeping the basic model for customer interaction unchanged (Haines 2000).

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Customer Service Applications

Customer service applications at the CC include helpdesks, technical support, product information, service calls, scheduling, catalogue services, reservations and other one-time needs (ITSpace 2000). CC telemarketing has been mostly used for sales prospecting, solicitations for donations, surveys and opinion polls. Most Indian CC applications are in the nature of reminders for credit card and loan outstanding, credit card telemarketing and tele surveys.

According to Shapiro (2000), an organisation has three major channels of interaction with the customer: the phone, the web and face-to-face contact. These mean different forms of complexity for the CC. The resultant technology covers sophisticated Automated Call Distributor (ACD) and telephony equipment, routing schemes. Databases and pop-ups, predictive dialling apparatus and access to a huge database at the back end. The e-CRM CC incorporates e-mail, chat, and computer telephony integration (CTI) to cover customer as over a larger territory, laptops and palmtops.

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Call Centre TechnologiesComputer telephony

integration (CTI)Automated call

distributor (ACD) It is another emerging facility of

reaching out to far-flung customers at low cost. It plays a critical role in helping call centers achieve their competitive and effective goals. CTI can be defined as the application of computer-based intelligence to telecommunication devices. It can also be defined as the process of blending the functionality of sophisticated telephone systems over an intelligent data link to gain increases in agent productivity, customer satisfaction and enterprise cost savings.

It is a computerised phone system that responds to the caller with a voice menu and connects the call to next available CSR. It answers the call in a specified order in a line of waiting calls. It makes sure the first call to arrive is the first call answered. It delivers calls to agents in a pre-specified order—who has been free the longest or to the next agent that becomes available in a call centre.

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Multimedia Contact CentreCreating strong customer relationships and maintaining them

are essential to a company's success in the internet age. Now customers have more choices not only as to how to contact a company but, with 24-hour access to companies all around the world, as to which company they should deal with. To keep up, many companies are taking their existing traditional telephone call centers and transforming them into streamlined multimedia contact centers that can handle customers through phone, fax, web, or e-mail, in a consistently and timely manner and also collect information that will help keep customers coming back.

The following are various techniques that can be used to contact customers using modern technology:

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E-mail Chat

This is an effective means, in today's wired world, of communicating with existing and prospective customers, with respect to the updates on services and products. A careful approach is suggested lest it is termed as spamming or an intrusion into someone's privacy. The e-mail growth has spurred the development of ACDs and e-mail capability of standard agents.

Putting a chat facility on the company's website may allow its clientele to chat with its salespersons as well as among themselves to discuss the product features and also to compare the services offered by its competitors.

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Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) Electronic point of sale refers to the hardware or software used

for checkouts. It is equivalent to an electronic cash register. It can mean a retail shop, a checkout counter in a shop, or the location where a transaction occurs—in supermarkets, restaurants, hotels, stadiums, etc.

The main benefit of EPOS and retail scanner systems is the amount of timely and accurate information they deliver. Advances in the technology have significantly aided the scope for data analysis. In addition to the original scanner-related data on sales rate, stock levels, stock turn, price and margin, retailers can now have the information about the demographic, socio-economic and life style characteristics of consumers.

They can, in addition, assess the impact of a host of variables—price, promotion, advertising, position in store, shelf position, number of facings and so on. This information drives their choice of product mix, allocation of shelf space and promotional tactics.

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Customer Service Helpdesk

Customer care applications help the company in automating the customer support processes. They enable it to deliver high quality service to the customer problems, enquiries, suggestions etc.

They also help in directing these queries to appropriate employees within the company. They maintain information regarding status of customer inquiries and store all support calls and related communications to final resolution, continually updating the database accordingly.

With an automated customer service, a company can reduce the cost of maintaining its customer service department while improving the level and quality of customer service. Customer service using the web provides more information and tools in the hands of customers by further allowing them to learn about the product and improving their skills in using the product.

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System Integration While CRM solutions are front-office automation solutions, an ERP

helps in automating business functions of production, finance, inventory, order fulfillment and human resource giving an integrated view of business. CRM automates the relationship with a customer covering contact and opportunity management, marketing and product knowledge, sales forecasting, sales force management, customer order processing and fulfillment, delivery installation, pre-sale and post-sale services, and complaint handling by providing an integrated view of the customer. It is necessary that the two systems (CRM and ERP) integrate with each other and complement information as well as business workflow. This integration helps companies provide faster customer service through an effective network, which can direct all customer queries and issues through appropriate channels to the right place for speedy resolution. This also enables the company in tracking and correcting the product problems reported by customers by feeding the information into the R&D operation via ERP.

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Sales Force AutomationCustomer care systems help in automating and optimising

sales processes to shorten the sales cycle and increase sales productivity. They enable the company to track and manage all qualified leads, contacts and opportunities throughout the sales cycle including customer support. They improve the effectiveness of marketing communication programmes for generating quality leads as well as greater accuracy in sales forecasting. The internet can be used by the company in imparting proper training to its sales force. In-depth product information, specialised database of solutions, sales force support queries and a set of internal information on the internet can improve the productivity of the sales force and better and prompt service to the customers.

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Leveraging Internet Internet is widely used by banks and other financial service

providers to disseminate information to customers about their products and services through their websites and e-mails. The banking services are provided through net with convenience of ease and accessibility. Internet banking offers many benefits to the banks, viz. vast reach, reduced transaction costs, direct marketing and cross-selling, and building bank's brand. It also offers benefits to customers, viz. reduced cost, convenience, banking with a bank and not the branch, speed, and better cash management.

Computer Networking: Networking between the branches of divisional, regional, zonal, and head office of banks provides access to customer database from the executive desk. This will integrate the front-office application with back-office requirements, thus generating Management Information System (MIS) for branch manager and executives at different controlling offices including head office for accurate, speedy and cost-effective customer service.

Computer Smart Cards: These cards, issued to key customers, carry all relevant information, and details of previous and repeat purchases, to make it convenient for the customers to recall and for the banks to keep a track of the behavioural and purchase trends.

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Automated Teller Machine An automated teller machine

(ATM) is a computerised telecommunication device that provides the customers of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public space without the need for a human clerk or a bank teller.

On most modern ATMs, a customer is identified by inserting a plastic ATM card with a magnetic stripe or a plastic smart card with a chip that contains a unique card number and some security information such as an expiration date or CVC (CVV)*.

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Figure 7.2

Wi-Fi Banking Most banks today offer net,

phone and mobile banking so as to let customers have a more convenient experience with the bank without visiting the branch. However, a few banks do see a trend of footfalls increasing in their branches and thus they want to provide better services in their branches, and one such service is Wi-Fi banking. Companies like Intel are providing their expertise to unwire banking branches so that secure, wireless banking is available to staff and customers.

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Figure 7.3

Conclusion

Managing customers with care is a key in Customer Relationship Management. With the development in technology, this has become a lot more easy, effective and less costly. From call centres and other multimedia contact centres to web-based virtual customer representatives, all these tech-based initiatives are intended to provide superior customer service and the companies can leverage these information for furthering the business interests. The CRM softwares have made the job easier for the implementers of CRM.

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Project Assignment

Design a Customer Care management system for a restaurant in Connaught Place, Delhi that presently has only one outlet but intends to open a chain of restaurants across the country.

REVIEW QUESTIONS1. What should be the essentials of an effective

customer care function?2. What do you mean by call centre? How does it

work?3. How far do the contact centres effective in

bridging the gap between the buyer and the seller? Answer in light of the technological options available with the companies.

4. "Automated teller machine (ATM) has been the single most fruitful invention in the direction of customer care management in banking Industry." Comment from the perspective of banking industry.

5. Discuss the working of ATMs.6. What do you mean by Electronic Point of Sale?

How is this different from the regular Point of Sale?

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