Customer Service And The Human Experience

Written by Rosanne D'Ausilio, Ph.D.


Historically, customer service was delivered overrepparttar phone or in person. Customers didn’t have many choices, and switching to competitors was cumbersome. Today, these methods are but two ofrepparttar 136151 many possible touch points of entry for any given interaction. With allrepparttar 136152 optionsrepparttar 136153 Internet brings, competition is literally a click away. If, as has been reported, 65% of your business comes from current customers, then in order to stay in business, you best focus on winningrepparttar 136154 satisfaction and loyalty of those customers.

With continued attention on customer service, customer retention, and lifetime value ofrepparttar 136155 customer, it is no surprise that contact center operations continue to increase in importance asrepparttar 136156 primary hub of a customer’s experience. The contact center is stillrepparttar 136157 most common way that customers get in touch with businesses. In fact, Gartner reports 92% of all contact is throughrepparttar 136158 center.

While much attention has been focused onrepparttar 136159 technology and benefits of providing multiple channels for customer contact, little consideration has been directed to handlingrepparttar 136160 human part ofrepparttar 136161 equation—training Customer and Technical Service Representatives to field more than just telephone communications. Withrepparttar 136162 explosion of e-commerce,repparttar 136163 need to reinforce keepingrepparttar 136164 human element inrepparttar 136165 equation is paramount. Certainly now more than ever before in history, customer-centric service is a necessity.

Twenty five years from now customers will still be human beings, still be driven by desires and needs. Virtual environments do not create virtual customers. Except forrepparttar 136166 simplest transactions, some customers still need to be connected with and nurtured by a live person. Amazon.com has learned this. They employ hundreds of traditional customer service representatives using phone lines to help customers with questions that cannot be dealt with online.

Withrepparttar 136167 ability to handle simple transactions available by using sophisticated, self-service technology, customer calls, faxes, and/or e-mails are more complex, more complicated, sometime even escalated, heightening stress levels.

Atrepparttar 136168 same time, research has identifiedrepparttar 136169 Customer Service and Technical Representative as one ofrepparttar 136170 ten most stressful jobs in America today, with job stress costing employers an estimated $300 billion yearly in absenteeism, lowered productivity, rising health insurance costs and other medical expenses (up from $200 billion just ten years ago.) A recent NIOSH study reported that 50% of employees view job stress as a major problem in their lives--double from a decade ago.

Lines of demarcation have blurred and change is rampant in today’s center. Why? Because of our cell phones, voice mail, faxback, PDA’s, and e-mail. We are now more available and accessible than ever before. The lines are no longer clear as to where our jobs or projects begin and end—they can follow us home again and again.

In today’s competitive marketplace there is little difference between products and services. What makesrepparttar 136171 difference--what distinguishes one company from another--is its relationship withrepparttar 136172 customer. Who hasrepparttar 136173 awesome responsibility for representing themselves, their companies, perhaps their industry in general? Front line representatives.

The ability of a company to provide human-to-human connections--back and forth live communication--continues to be critically important. The fact is voice isrepparttar 136174 most natural and powerful human interface, real time or otherwise. That isn’t going to change any time soon. Torepparttar 136175 customer, people are inseparable fromrepparttar 136176 services they provide. Actually,repparttar 136177 person onrepparttar 136178 other end ofrepparttar 136179 phone isrepparttar 136180 company. It is no wonder, then, that companies with superior people management, invest heavily in training and retraining, reinforcingrepparttar 136181 human element.

Yet customers still leave. The latest statistics on why are:

•45% because of poor service

•20% because of lack of attention.

This means that 65% of your customers leave because of something your front line is, or is not, doing.

•15% for a better product

•15% for a cheaper product and

•5% other

This isrepparttar 136182 good andrepparttar 136183 bad news. It’s bad news because that’s a high percentage. Onrepparttar 136184 other hand, it’s good news because there is something you can do about it—it resides onrepparttar 136185 human side.

It is agreed that people, process, and ‘state ofrepparttar 136186 art’ technology are what make companies work. For me,repparttar 136187 people process is most important. After all, it’srepparttar 136188 people who truly makerepparttar 136189 difference.

3 Reasons Why Medical Billing Software is Leading the Way

Written by Joe Miller


Since technology changes so quickly, it is hard to begin by saying “inrepparttar old days . . . ,” but that seems to fitrepparttar 136104 best. Inrepparttar 136105 old days, medical companies, service providers, and almost any other business which used automated billing enjoyedrepparttar 136106 convenience of logging on to a database (or several, theyrepparttar 136107 company had multiple offices) and processing their billing statements. This “old way” required IT and servers, and is actually stillrepparttar 136108 current way for most businesses.

Somewhere alongrepparttar 136109 way, medical billing software was developed to process billing without logging on to multiple databases, without having IT, and without crowdingrepparttar 136110 server. This medical billing software is not only cutting edge, but it is also a miracle because it comes without a large set-up and usage expense. Soon, all companies will be marching torepparttar 136111 beat ofrepparttar 136112 new medical billing software drummer.

Let’s explorerepparttar 136113 differences betweenrepparttar 136114 “old way” andrepparttar 136115 new by looking atrepparttar 136116 3 reasons why medical billing software is leadingrepparttar 136117 way in corporate software.

Connection

The “old way” was convenient for its time, but that time may soon be gone. It consisted of a different database for each office, which meant that if your business had 3 offices, you would have had to log on to 3 different databases to process your billing statements and close atrepparttar 136118 end of each day.

Using only a broadband connection, “the new” way connects you to an unlimited number of databases at once, allowing you to manage all of your accounts with clients, providers, etc., all in one connection.

In addition, withrepparttar 136119 same technology now available with medical billing software, you can connect to a secure server from anywhere with a broadband internet connection. You can work from home,repparttar 136120 hotel,

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use