Find the 'Cost of Quality'

Competitive times require revised attitudes toward customer service. Call handling-times should be out as a metric and the “cost of quality” should be in, according to John Vanderpool, vice president of product and industry marketing for StarTek, a Denver-based customer-care outsourcing firm. He suggests five ways service providers can improve the customer experience:

Adopt a “service-first” culture, starting at the organization's top.

Drop traditional measurements. In the competitive environment, call-handling time is not as important as first-call resolution. Also, now is the time to optimize interactive voice response software. Service managers and executives should adopt the role of the customer, calling service centers themselves to see how friendly and effective the software is. “If it doesn't work for you, it won't work for customers,” said Vanderpool.

Provide a support framework that allows the front line to “do the right thing” for customers. “Often in our zeal for optimization and cost containment, we over look the 'true measure of success,' customer satisfaction and delight,” said Vanderpool.

Define the cost of quality and understand its implications. According to Vanderpool's estimates, subscriber churn can cost a provider $4,000 per subscriber lost, per year. It's cheaper to keep a customer than find a new one.

Develop a “friend at the cable company” concept. Calls that must be referred to other agents during a transaction should be returned to the originating agent, who verifies that the customer's needs were met.