http://customerservicezone.com Customer Service Zone - Dedicated to Helping Companies Improve Customer Service - Recent Free Library Additions en http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1091 http://customerservicezone.com/1091.html People who want a problem fixed, don't want it fixed, initially. They want to be heard. They want to be respected. Then, and only then, do they want the problem fixed http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1087 http://customerservicezone.com/1087.html A report published today reinforces the message about the significance of employee engagement initiatives across the private and public sectors. Creating an Engaged Workforce, written for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) by Kingston University, defines employee engagement as: "being positively present during the performance of work by willingly contributing intellectual effort, experiencing positive emotions and meaningful connections to others". Drawing from eight case study organisations, the report confirms that engaged employees: - perform better - are more innovative than others - are more likely to want to stay with their employer - enjoy greater levels of personal well-being - perceive their workload to be more sustainable than others http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1090 http://customerservicezone.com/1090.html The first large-scale survey of the impact on revenue through bad customer service levels has estimated that a total of $338.5 billion is lost per year when consumers move to competitors or abandon altogether their purchases. http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1065 http://customerservicezone.com/1065.html Why are call centers failing? We asked Ron Skea from change management consultancy Vanguard Scotland about the reasons for failure of contact centers and how to measure good customer service. Why are call centers failing? Their design is based on outdated scientific management principles that are rooted in manufacturing organisations. They are not designed to reflect the needs of customers in modern service organisations and as a result they generally fail to deliver what matters to customers. A recent survey of UK call centre customers, widely reported in the press, found that up to 60 percent of customers had switched companies because of poor levels of customer service. The problem is that many organisations are unaware of this because their traditional call centre metrics don't tell them what is really happening. http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1066 http://customerservicezone.com/1066.html From Manila comes the news that the contact center industry "needs to increase its focus on customer acquisition and delivering customer experience with people, processes and technology." That's the assessment of Frost and Sullivan officials at the recently-concluded Customer Contact Philippines summit 2009. Kevin Panozza, CEO of engagement matters, said that companies today no longer compete with one another to make sales, instead, "they compete for opportunities." http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1064 http://customerservicezone.com/1064.html Schedule adherence is one of the main ways call center managers achieve labor efficiencies and improve customer service. Not only must call center managers ensure that agents aren’t showing up late or clocking out early, they also must ensure that each agent is staying on schedule for “intra-shift” activities, such as scheduled breaks and training or coaching sessions. The reason this is so important is that every minute counts when it comes to customer service. Many organizations have cut their call center staffing to the bone, as a result of the recession, therefore they must ensure that each agent’s time is being used as efficiently as possible. http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1071 http://customerservicezone.com/1071.html It is not an easy time to be an insurance company. Cultural, operational andgeneral market challenges are converging, shifting the overall market landscapeand forcing insurers to take a long, hard look at their traditional ways ofconducting business. Given that the top priorities for today’s insurers are toincrease customer retention, loyalty and company growth, insurers mustprioritize the task of improving customer experience across all channels, butparticularly in the contact center. How important is the customers’ experience with insurance contact centers?Consider the following http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1068 http://customerservicezone.com/1068.html Page 1 White Paper InsuranceIndustry Turning Service Into Sales:An Insurance Industry View IBM Global Business Services Page 2 IBM Global Business ServicesPage Page 3 IBM Global Business ServicesPage Overview The insurance industry is experiencing increasing pressure to develop strategic,customer-centric service organizations that move beyond traditional types ofcustomer services.The key to making that transition is turning service into sales. Within thiswhitepaper we explore the evolution from traditional customer service to strategiccustomer service, and ultimately to breakthrough customer service. We alsoexamine how that evolution is enabled by both technology and organizationalchange.Three insurance industry-specific case studies, including affinity to cross-sell,premium service for premium customers and policy conservation, are reviewedand solution principles are developed as the foundation for defining necessarycapabilities to enable the service transformation.Finally, we discuss significant challenges in enabling those capabilities, both froma technical and organizational perspectiv http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1067 http://customerservicezone.com/1067.html Reducing duplication and improving customer service could save the industry considerable sums finds new research London 30 April 2009: New research from the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) and Ernst and Young finds strong consensus that the insurance industry is not providing good enough customer service to its mid-corporate customers. This is according to 69% of brokers and 87% of insurers that were interviewed. The report, %u201CDelivering World Class Service%u201D, which polled senior insurers and brokers and 732 CII members, found that the insurance industry spends £1.3bn a year servicing the mid-market %u2013 those businesses with turnovers between £5m and £250m. It also identified the need for a new agenda between brokers and insurers to deliver good customer service and address the inefficiencies found prevalent in the market. A combination of factors appears to be causing poor service levels http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1089 http://customerservicezone.com/1089.html It may not be as amusing as, "On the internet nobody knows you're a dog," but there must be millions of websites and endless amounts of content based on that premise. Setting aside phishing, there's a lot of online skim milk masquerading as cream. That isn't new. "Image enhancement" goes back long before the internet or even DARPA. But it's easier when we're represented digitally. Do you know whether Big Web Consulting Corp. really has 10,000 employees in a state-of-the-art headquarters-or could it be two clowns operating out of their parents' basement? http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1088 http://customerservicezone.com/1088.html We are living in the conversation age, where one-way communication is no longer enough. Savvy consumers with infinite choices across the web expect interaction and engagement, and those who can't deliver will find themselves at the end of the line. What that means is the days of broadcasting your message to the masses and reaping huge benefits are fading fast. The deepest pockets once delivered the biggest audience, but the audience can no longer be bought. It must be earned. http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1073 http://customerservicezone.com/1073.html This paper draws on empirical data, generated from an in-depth case study of job centres in a regional employment service to explore the role of customer sovereignty in the context of customer violence. This paper combines insights from both the customer service and organisational violence literature to assert that the ideology of customer sovreignity is used as a control mechanism to induce frontliners to take responsibility for violence whilst limiting the ways in which frontliners can cope. This paper is split into six broad sections. The first considers the literature relevant to this paper including writings on violence within organisations, violence and customer service work, and the culture of the customer in the Employment Service. The second part introduces my methodological approach, the third section is empirical, presenting data on how violence was constructed within the Employment Service and the final section considers some implications of these findings. http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1077 http://customerservicezone.com/1077.html Thank goodness customers don't often take to violence en masse, but it happens: Violent disturbances have broken out at a number of Courts stores, preventing the stricken furniture group's administrators from reopening its 88 UK sites. Violent disturbances have broken out at a number of Courts stores, preventing the stricken furniture group's administrators from reopening its 88 UK sites. Furious customers, who are being denied instant access to their goods, have smashed windows and threatened staff, KPMG said yesterday. http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1076 http://customerservicezone.com/1076.html I am working with a focus group on a policy to address customer violence. Our nurses have encountered covert acts of violence from family members which have increased over the past few months. Our organization prides itself in customer service but we need to be supportive off our staff and excellent patient care by implementing a zero-tolerance policy for violence. Does anyone have a policy (that you would be willing to share) that addresses customer violence. Thank you in advance http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1085 http://customerservicezone.com/1085.html We fool ourselves into thinking such things could never happen where we work, and we often ignore behaviors that represent warning signs for an accident or an act of violence. Ignorance remains blissful only until the undesirable event occurs. The nature of prevention requires we anticipate and protect against even the most unlikely of occurrences, especially when the consequences are so severe. There are things employers and facilities can do to protect against acts of violence, and many of them involve a tremendous amount of common sense. The only real challenge is translating common sense into a plan that everyone knows and understands. http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1084 http://customerservicezone.com/1084.html Violence and anti-social behaviour is a widespread phenomenon affecting a large proportion of the working population across many sectors and occupations (Bishop, Korczynski and Cohen 2005, Boyd; 2002; Di Martino, Hoel and Cooper, 2003). In addition to its detrimental effects on employee health and well-being (Chappell and Di Martino 2000), such behaviours also carry a substantial cost to employers in terms of absenteeism, turnover, litigation and negative impact on public reputation (Hoel, Sparks and Cooper, 2001). However, in order for organisations to put adequate responses and resources in place, it is vital to have an accurate picture in terms of the size or magnitude of the problem (Di Martino et al., 2003; Essenberg, 2003). Although internal reporting systems can provide organisations with this necessary information, where employees regularly fail to use it to violent and abusive behaviour and where such underreporting is endemic, any effort to address the problem is likely to fail. Given this importance of reporting, an understanding of the factors affecting widespread underreporting is essential. http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1082 http://customerservicezone.com/1082.html Some good stuff here on how railway company wants staff to handle difficult and perhaps violent customers. http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1074 http://customerservicezone.com/1074.html Excellent powerpoint presentation on violence in the workplace. http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1081 http://customerservicezone.com/1081.html ccording to a recent Society for Human Resource Management violence survey, approximately 40 percent of organizations either have no set procedure or "don't know" how they would respond to situations of workplace violence. (17) Using a survey of a municipal government workforce, we call attention to the problem of multiple types of workplace violence occurring simultaneously in an organization and the disturbing frequency of experiencing and observing violent episodes. Given the negative consequences of these episodes, managers who report a lack of preparation for workplace violence is worrisome. Our data suggest that organizations need sound policies and programs to address multiple violence issues, and that they be expanded to include customer violence control. As one respondent succinctly commented, "our bosses need to recognize the potential for workplace violence and develop programs and training to address it." It appears that frontline workers understand the problem and even its potential solutions, yet human resources and management personnel are slow to recognize current HR policies are not adequately addressing this social problem. http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1075 http://customerservicezone.com/1075.html Another worthwhile powerpoint presentation on workplace and classroom violence. http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1086 http://customerservicezone.com/1086.html A Guide for Employers and Employees on Dealing With at work http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1080 http://customerservicezone.com/1080.html Mona Shaw, a 75-year old woman from Manassas Virginia, received a three-month suspended sentence, was fined $345, and was issued a year-long restraining order for going at her local Comcast payment center with a hammer. In August, she and her husband waited all day for a Comcast technician to come to their home and install the Triple Play phone, Internet, and cable service. The Technician came two days later and failed to complete the job — and they waited two hours to speak to a manager before being told the manager had left for the day. http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1072 http://customerservicezone.com/1072.html People who deal directly with the public may face aggressive or violent behaviour. They may be sworn at, threatened or even attacked. This document gives practical advice to help you find out if violence is a problem for your employees, and if it is, how to tackle it. The advice is aimed at employers, but should also interest employees and safety representatives. http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1079 http://customerservicezone.com/1079.html Customer aggression is a form of workplace violence including any unacceptable hostile behaviors towards front line staff that creates an intimidating, frightening or offensive situation, and adversely affects work performance and well-being. Several studies of client abuse have revealed some characteristics of victims. The purpose of this paper is to present the main findings on the profile of customer victimization from a survey among the front-line call-center and retail workers, which was undertaken between January 2006 and December 2007 in Istanbul, Turkey. In brief, the present study yielded two main findings. Firstly, with regard to demographic profile, it seems that female, young, and single workers are more likely to suffer from customer violence. Secondly, with relationship to the professional profile, the call-center operators, part time workers, and employees with less experience are at greater risk for client abuse incident http://customerservicezone.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=1083 http://customerservicezone.com/1083.html South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) is one of a number of passenger transport executives that operate throughout the UK. SYPTE manages the infrastructure of the transport system, including the bus stations, bus shelters and other on-street fixtures. The Executive issues travel tickets and travel passes, provides information about transport routes and timetables, and subsidises travel services for isolated communities that are not otherwise commercially viable. It employs around 350 staff.