The Perfect Customer Experience

Cincom Delivers Suite for Customer Experience Management

By Dale Wolf

If you will pardon me for bragging just a bit on one of the products that I work on, Ventana Research has just released a review of Cincom Synchrony. This is the latest in a string of positive awards and reviews that at least give me personal satisfaction that we are providing a solution that improves the experience for customers who connect with contact centers using our offering.

Ventana Research reported: At the heart of Synchrony is what Cincom calls a unified agent desktop. Its basic function is to bring all applications into a single desktop.

Cincom's Unified Agent Desktop saves agents from having to sign on separately to multiple applications and from manually navigating through menus or across applications. By hiding these interfaces, smart tabs and resource links allow agents to concentrate more on their jobs.

To read the full Ventana report on how Cincom Synchrony makes it easier for contact center agents to serve customer needs and to deliver a better customer experience -- click here.

To see first-hand how Synchrony enables agents to improve contact center productivity.

If you would like to receive some of the marketing campaigns I help create for Synchrony, send me an email and I will put you on our list. Send your request to dwolf at cincom.com.

How Long Should You Talk?

Aberdeen has found a useful insight in its most recent survey: Optimizing Your Workforce/Increasing Contact Center Agent Productivity.

The Best in Class Contact Centers spend more time on the phone with their customers than laggards -- 47% vs. 6%. It was not long ago that "average call duration" was something the best run contact centers worked hard at reducing.

But get this wrinkle! 

These same windy contact center agents who spend more time with customers have a 48% customer satisfaction rate compared to short-winded laggards who have a 17% customer satisfaction rate. The good agents take time to know the customer and to work hard at resolving customer issues. They know the value that each customer represents to their company and do their best to retain and motivate these customers.

Many of these best contact centers are also investing in technology to make it easier for agents to deliver a great customer experience -- such as what is known as a unified agent desktop -- a technology that puts the right information about each customer at each agent's fingertips. That means the agent is not wasting time tracking down information, but instead is talking and listening to the customer more attentively.

Permission to Get Dirty

By Vicki Powers / Microsoft

Imagine finding underwear in the dryer at a New York City Laundromat-with a Web address and company slogan printed right on it. That's the creativity behind an advertising campaign called "Permission to Get Dirty" that Miguel Zabludovsky developed for his "eco-luxury" laundry and dry-cleaning business, Slate NYC.

Zabludovsky, a 26-year-old budding entrepreneur, introduced his target market to Slate's services right inside the "do-it-yourself" competition. The campaign was cheap and potent, he says, realizing a nearly 10 percent response rate.

Zabludovsky is turning the 50-year-old laundry service industry upside down with his innovative approach and environmentally friendly perchloroethylene-free solvents. His eco-friendly cleaning business targets the busy, fashion-conscious professionals who want their clothes taken care of with perfection-and are willing to pay for it.

Customers in the New York City area schedule pickup online, cram as many clothes as they can into a Slate hamper, and pay a flat weekly fee for unlimited laundry service and a monthly quote of dry-cleaned items. Slate returns laundry folded and wrapped in a fashionable shopping bag.

Zabludovsky manages the 3,000 customer names in his database and scheduling system with Microsoft SQL Server. He captures contact information, scheduling requests, and any specific instructions, such as hang versus fold.

Despite a sagging economy that might prompt less luxury spending, Zabludovsky is not seeing this effect with his clients. In fact, he's seeing growth.

"I think the people who pay for convenience offerings are cutting back in other expense categories or are not feeling the impact in their wallets," Zabludovsky says. Slate NYC is diversifying its customer profile and adding new products to the mix over the next few months, he says, including partnering with area hotels, restaurants, and high-end residential units as their dry cleaner of choice.

Growth also has required Zabludovsky to find alternative delivery methods within the city. His one van is reaching capacity with current deliveries. In the next few months, he will finalize a strategic alliance with FedEx for delivery service.

"We are working with the packaging engineers on how to deliver clothes without being wrinkled," Zabludovsky says. "This not only will provide reliability and tracking but also increase our reach and capacity in the region."