Improving Customer Service: Taking a Strategic Approach to Measuring Contact Center Performance Export

@article{citeulike:735073, abstract = {For health management organizations, the business environment, programs and customer needs are constantly changing and the contact center must respond accordingly. While most contact centers have risen to the challenge of supporting volume of calls or containing costs, few have yet taken a strategic approach to measuring performance. Instead, most rely on metrics better suited to speed and efficiency than customer satisfaction and retention, revenue or other business goals. While virtually everyone agrees that measuring performance is important, the issue essentially boils down to: What should be measured and how? As contact centers have become more sophisticated, significant opportunities to transform the customer experience, add value and multiply returns are available. Most contact centers in the healthcare industry, however, continue to concentrate primarily on managing incoming interactions, with their focus on counting out time. "Speed of answer" remains a core quality metric for many organizations even though answering the phone quickly is only part of the equation. If the agent answering the phone lacks the necessary knowledge and skill level to solve the customer's issue, then the only thing the company has accomplished is frustrating its customer 20 seconds sooner. Efficiency is still critical, but as a singular goal, it is not effective at leveraging the intimacy of regular customer interaction to proactively add value to customer relationships and build loyalty.}, author = {Heinen, Joe}, citeulike-article-id = {735073}, comment = {Retrieved July 3, 2006 from the Business Source Complete database.}, journal = {Health Management Technology}, keywords = {customer\_service, lis404}, number = {5}, pages = {34--37}, posted-at = {2006-07-03 22:28:50}, priority = {2}, title = {Improving Customer Service: Taking a Strategic Approach to Measuring Contact Center Performance}, volume = {27}, year = {2006} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:735073 L3 - citeulike-article-id:735073 N2 - For health management organizations, the business environment, programs and customer needs are constantly changing and the contact center must respond accordingly. While most contact centers have risen to the challenge of supporting volume of calls or containing costs, few have yet taken a strategic approach to measuring performance. Instead, most rely on metrics better suited to speed and efficiency than customer satisfaction and retention, revenue or other business goals. While virtually everyone agrees that measuring performance is important, the issue essentially boils down to: What should be measured and how? As contact centers have become more sophisticated, significant opportunities to transform the customer experience, add value and multiply returns are available. Most contact centers in the healthcare industry, however, continue to concentrate primarily on managing incoming interactions, with their focus on counting out time. "Speed of answer" remains a core quality metric for many organizations even though answering the phone quickly is only part of the equation. If the agent answering the phone lacks the necessary knowledge and skill level to solve the customer's issue, then the only thing the company has accomplished is frustrating its customer 20 seconds sooner. Efficiency is still critical, but as a singular goal, it is not effective at leveraging the intimacy of regular customer interaction to proactively add value to customer relationships and build loyalty. IS - 5 JF - Health Management Technology EP - 37 TI - Improving Customer Service: Taking a Strategic Approach to Measuring Contact Center Performance VL - 27 SP - 34 KW - customer_service KW - lis404 N1 - Retrieved July 3, 2006 from the Business Source Complete database. AU - Heinen, Joe PY - 2006/// ER -