If companies want to provide the highest customer service possible, they must begin from the proper starting point: accurate data. One important channel for marketers and organizations to consider around customer services is the call center. They need accurate information and intelligence to better serve clients and provide relevant offers while the customer is still engaged.
At present, many businesses are worried about their customer data quality. There’s definitely room for improvement, as many companies have poor data capturing and information management strategies. Luckily, there are clear ways to shore up these problems.
The alarming numbers
First of all, it’s important to understand that data quality is a widespread concern across businesses and marketers. According to a recent Experian Data Quality study, 89 percent of organizations believe their consumer and prospect data might be inaccurate in some way.
This level of inaccurate data is affecting many areas of business. According to the same study, 41 percent of organizations say they have difficulty maintaining accurate information for daily operations.
Having poor data quality wastes time. It prevents call center representatives from finding an individual’s account or forces them to take too long to collect needed consumer data. This not only wastes organizational time, but it also affects the consumer. Seventy-one percent of American adult consumers say that valuing their time is the most important way to provide customer service.
It’s clear that businesses want to address this problem. In fact, they see it as one of the keys to gaining a competitive advantage. Eighty percent of companies want to use the customer service experience to differentiate themselves from their competition.
One way to drive that excellent customer services is through better data.
The four-step process
Getting rid of every error in a company’s database is a complicated process, but there are four main steps that have proven effective.
1. Companies need to validate and standardize all data they collect at its origin, by checking it at the point of capture. This is especially important in the call center, were some validation software can actually speed up data entry, saving the customer and the call center representative time.
2. Businesses need to periodically cleanse their existing data, looking at deterioration of the data over time or potential instances of human error. This will ensure data is accurate for continued use and allow existing account information to be found more easily.
3. Organizations need to achieve a single-customer view. This will help keep customer records in one place, allowing them to be located more easily. In addition, any customer facing channel, including the call center, should use sophisticated matching tools to help find customer records more easily and reduce call handle time in the call center.
4. Improve engagement by enhancing customer information at the point of capture. Marketers want to provide customers with relevant offers that promote action, some of those are generated in a call center. Create algorithms or real-time data enhancement to generate offers specific to the individual that call center representatives can make while the customer is still on the phone.
High-quality data is the key to a superior call center, which should in turn lead to better business. Paying attention to these best practices should pay dividends.
Check-out this new infographic that shows the building blocks of customer satisfaction.
