The only cases that customers care about are their own. To illustrate this point, I humbly offer my personal experience.

My wife and I recently moved to a new apartment, and because we're heavily reliant on being connected, we'd arranged with the local Internet provider for service to be ready upon our arrival.

We had received confirmation that our modem and instructions were shipped and would be ready for us to connect on arrival. This was great because "one less thing to worry about on moving day" is priceless to us.

Much to our consternation, when we arrived at our new apartment there wasn't a package from the Internet provider waiting for us.

To make a long story short, the package had been left outside our door (rather than signed for and held at the complex office) and had mysteriously disappeared. The Internet provider had no procedure for sending us a replacement modem. They finally sent one of their service guys over in person to install a modem three days later.

  • Total elapsed time on the phone for us to deal with this unanticipated hiccup? Two hours.
  • Number of calls or transfers to resolve the issue? Five.
  • Delay in getting Internet access? Three days.
  • Willingness to look for another Internet provider? Extremely likely.

This is a great example of why process automation is never enough. All of their Customer Service Reps (CSRs) were very courteous and truly wanted to help, but their systems wouldn't let them deviate from what was pre-programmed responses

When hiccups like these occur, organizations need case-by-case management.

Process automation helps your company run smoother, but when things go wrong, automation won't cut it. Inflexible procedures are the bane of customer satisfaction - no customer wants to hear that a reasonable request can't be handled by your systems. Your customer service reps (CSRs) must always be able to escape the automated procedures and deal with customers on a case-by-case basis.

That's where a dynamic case management system can help.

Dynamic case management systems (DCM) combine the best of process automation with the flexibility for your CSRs to use their own judgment to solve a customer's problem. Process automation insures that your customer's requests will be handled quickly and efficiently when all goes well. DCM steps in whenever something goes wrong.

When something goes wrong and a customer calls, your CSRs need tools that help them resolve the issue as quickly and painlessly as possible. They must be empowered to use their "case-by-case" nuanced understanding to insure that each customer gets the best outcome. DCM helps do this by delivering case information in context while orchestrating the multiple business applications that might be necessary to resolve the issue.

When looking for a DCM system to help handle hiccups, remember the following:

  • Speed of response is crucial. Customers seldom contact you when everything is going well. They will contact you because something's fouled up and are likely to be in a foul mood. CSRs who can respond quickly will improve your customer's mood. Those CSRs who respond too slowly may change the customer's foul mood into a new customer for one of your competitors.
  • Your CSRs need to be aware of all of your customer's cases and correspondence. This includes customer's emails, phone calls, chat sessions, physical letters. If your CSR isn't aware of all that has transpired between your customer and company it's a perfect storm for miscommunication.
  • Your customer has no interest in the silos within your company and what subcontractors you use. Every transfer between representatives annoys your customers. If information must be repeated after a transfer, expect anger to ensue. Don't expect your customer to let you off the hook when the problem was caused by a subcontractor. Your customers paid you for service and they simply don't care who was really to blame.
  • Resolution tracking is critical. If your customer's issue cannot be resolved immediately, then you must provide them with the ability to track progress towards the resolution. Giving your customer the ability to verify that you're taking action is the best way to rebuild a tarnished relationship.

If reading this post leaves you with the feeling that providing this level of case-by-case customer service is really hard, then I've succeeded. It's really hard to provide good customer service. Providing your CSRs with a good case management system will help make it easier.

For more information on dynamic case management, visit http://www.kofax.com/case-management

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