Improving the Customer Experience Through Self-Service

Coveo White Paper Improving the Customer Experience Through Self-Service July 2009

Improving the Customer Experience Table of Contents Through Self-Service Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 Self-Service 4 The Value of Comprehensive Information 4 Information Sources 7 Self-Service for Contact Center Employees 8 Just-in-Time Information and First-Call Resolution 8 Managing Contact Center Operations 10 Self-Service for Customers 11 Employees as Internal Customers 12 Increase E-commerce Revenue 12 Questions to Ask a Solution Provider 13 Why Coveo 14 References 15 4 www.coveo.com

Improving the Customer Experience Executive Summary Through Self-Service Executive Summary In today’s market, service and support are becoming an increasingly important part of the overall customer experience, and can be a key differentiator in the expansion or contraction of a company’s client base. At the same time, with customers increasingly relying on web-based information sources, demand for self-service is increasing. Using enterprise search solutions, companies can improve the customer experience, reduce overhead and expenses, and provide clients and customer service representatives with rapid self-service access to comprehensive product and service information. 4 www.coveo.com Coveo White Paper - page 3 of 15

Improving the Customer Experience Self-Service Through Self-Service Self-Service In today’s economy, companies are looking to manage more efficiently and cut expenses in virtually all areas – in other words, to do more with less. One area of difficulty is managing expenses while continuing to provide high quality support and responding to the needs of customers, as less service results in decreased levels of customer satisfaction, leading to customer churn and ultimately, diminished brand value. According to the Gartner report Predicts 2009: CRM Customer Service and Support: According to Gartner: “Even with budget constraints tightening, the demand for service is not decreasing. The “Even with budget power of customer demands is increasing, as multiple sellers compete for the same constraints tightening, share of the budget. Customer service requirements are heightened, and enterprises must streamline the customer experience and curtail associated costs, while adding the demand for service value and efficiency to the service or transaction.”1 is not decreasing. The power of customer Self-service is concept that has been around for a long time, as a part of our daily lives – demands is increasing, including actions as simple as obtaining information via an automated voice messaging system or banking at an automated teller machine (ATM), and more recently evolving as multiple sellers along with the Internet to include visiting an online store and making a purchase. compete for the same share of the budget.” In the context of this white paper, we explore self-service from the perspective of users seeking and finding information via connected computer access. This includes employees seeking information from their own corporate resources – their intranet, email, knowledge bases, and file servers; and customers and prospects seeking information from a website, extranet or customer portal. As Gartner states: “The increasing demand by businesses (B2B) and consumers (B2C) to have anytime, anywhere contact requires the service provider to be present, virtually and physically, to fulfill service and sales requests through a combination of live, assisted and self-service channels.”2 The Value of Comprehensive Information Comprehensive information is a term used to describe the collective knowledge and information a company has, over the course of many years, accumulated, maintained and stored on the various IT systems in their enterprise infrastructure. It includes product information, market data, customer information, knowledge bases, etc., all of which are vital to an organization, as they serve as the basis upon which new markets are identified, products are designed, and from which customer interactions are supported. 4 www.coveo.com Coveo White Paper - page 4 of 15

Improving the Customer Experience Self-Service Through Self-Service In the context of self-service, when this comprehensive information is difficult to locate independently or is found to be inaccurate or incomplete, companies face the following According to Gartner: “In the current economic consequences: climate, renewed focus is being placed 4 Customers abandon searches after repeated difficulty getting relevant results on reducing the cost 4 Customers rely on assistance from a customer support reresentative of service, while (CSR), either via email or phone maintaining quality. As such, the use of a 4 CSRs involve and potentially disrupt colleagues to find answers, increasing knowledge base for the inquiry response time as well as the cost of resolving the issue self-service can provide immense value in the 4 Companies deliver a poor response to the customer and leaving them dissatisfied. Web search and self- This often results in a second call to have the inquiry answered, which increases service function. the cost of a single resolution, or even in customer churn For companies to maximize their ability to offer self-service capabilities for both the customer and the CSR, it is important to build and retain as much relevant information as possible. This will increase the likelihood that the right information is found at the right time. If customers are able to quickly and accurately locate answers independently, this positive experience will often encourage additional self-service usage, with the strong potential to deflect higher cost interactions, such as email and phone support. In the report, Use Contact Center Agent Knowledge for Self-Service 35 Cost Savings, Gartner states the following: “In the current economic 30 $ 33 climate, renewed focus is being placed on reducing the cost of service, 25 while maintaining quality. As such, the use of a knowledge base for 20 self-service can provide immense value in the Web search and 15 self-service function.”3 10 $ 10 According to Forrester Research, the cost of an average phone support 5 $1 incident is $33, while the average email support incident costs $10.4 0 Resolve an inquiry Resolve an Resolve an inquiry The cost breaks down as the following: when a client speaks with a over the phone inquiry via email via self-service customer service representative, the cost is calculated as a factor of Fig.1: Costs for resolving an inquiry. the employee’s salary, plus 17% benefits, plus 25% overhead. This is in stark contrast to situations where the customer is able to access the information they need via a website or extranet, as companies pay dramatically less – approximately $1 per incident5, with the costs involved limited to building and maintaining a self-service site, as well as hosting costs. As customers become more comfortable locating information themselves, they also become less reliant on calling or emailing the help desk, further reducing the load on company’s support staff. In a 2008 study, companies with well-established self-service capabilities reported that unassisted support transactions outnumbered assisted support transactions by a ratio of more than seven to one.6 4 www.coveo.com Coveo White Paper - page 5 of 15

Improving the Customer Experience Self-Service Through Self-Service Customer self-service is also appreciated when it provides the satisfaction of obtaining the information at your own convenience. For example, consumers who purchase smartphones are often busy individuals and don’t have a lot of time to spare. In this case, most users want to easily understand and compare the phone’s capabilities without having to spend too much time in-store with a sales representative or on the phone with customer support. If the manufacturer has set up a proper knowledge base, that is searchable and easily navigable, the user can go online at their own convenience and locate the specific information they need – optimizing the customer support experience by requiring minimal time investment and providing 24/7 availability. In the event that a customer requires assistance from a help desk, providing CSRs with rapid self-service access to resources that provide complete, accurate information will benefit the company by improving productivity and reducing costs, as less time is spent searching for and gathering the information required to respond to the customer. This access enables the CSRs to answer inquiries efficiently and effectively by leveraging their company’s substantial knowledge base, and extracting the precise information they need. In these situations, enterprise search solutions provide both customers and CSRs with a complete, unified view of critical information located across the disparate systems that comprise the organization’s knowledge base. It enables sorting by relevancy and contextual navigation, allowing them to obtain information they need within seconds, regardless of where it’s stored. Enterprise search provides a powerful solution that enables better customer service and brings out the true value of information stored within a company. 360-degree view of information Information Enterprise Sources Search Self-Service Agent Full-search access 360o customer view Corporate CSR Self-service knowledge Social Partner Self-service issue Search Customer portal Customer resolution Community Community (social interaction) 4 www.coveo.com Coveo White Paper - page 6 of 15

Improving the Customer Experience Self-Service Through Self-Service Information Sources According to Gartner, self-service content can be drawn from six different models.7 Sharing this collective information serves to support the customer services environment and allows customers to help themselves. These self-service models are: 4 Agent knowledge: Each CSR is a virtual repository of information on their company’s products and services, as well as problem resolution. If this knowledge is According to Gartner, documented and stored in a repository, an enterprise search solution can be used self-service content to leverage and re-use how previous support issues were resolved. Access to this can be drawn from six knowledge can also serve as a valuable training tool for new CSRs, as they are different models. then able to see how experienced staff members have resolved previous issues. 4 Corporate knowledge: Corporate knowledge contains the total body of knowledge necessary to deliver on the strategic aims and objectives of an organization. It provides product and service information and can typically be accessed internally by employees. 4 Social knowledge: Many people belonging to social networks post information in forums or comment on blogs. By gathering, analyzing and re-purposing the information written about their products and services, companies become more aware of the public perception regarding their organization and products. Documenting this information also allows CSRs to gain a better perspective on how a product is being used as well as how it is being received. As organizations begin making the information from their knowledge bases public, they empower existing customers and prospects with information about products and services that make them less reliant on CSRs and more traditional phone and email escalations. 4 Partner knowledge: If partners make up part of a company’s supply chain, they often deal directly with customers. By collecting, storing and making information regarding customer interactions available, partners within the supply chain share common ways to resolve problems and queries. Companies can also utilize this information to bring new partners online more efficiently, and as a source of insight into the quality and content of interactions that partners have with end users of their products. 4 Search knowledge: Public search engines do not include corporate knowledge unless specific items of corporate knowledge are tagged as accessible to search engine spiders. By opening up some areas of corporate knowledge via a public self-service engine, it is possible to have your internal information listed together with public search results. 4 Community knowledge: In developing and deploying themed-based community forums, companies have access to information collected, filtered and authored by users, which is then provided back to the community. These community areas 4 www.coveo.com Coveo White Paper - page 7 of 15

Improving the Customer Experience Self-Service for Contact Through Self-Service Center Employees foster social interaction amongst users and capture knowledge in a manner that can be easily shared with other users. In addition to providing a great knowledge source for interactive self-service, this information is also gives the company additional insights of the usage of their products and services by their user community, helping them identify what is working well and what problem areas require improvement. Self-Service for Contact Center Employees Throughout most industries, customer loyalty serves as a driver for sustainable profit growth, as existing clients entail no acquisition costs and are the most likely source for future sales. Using enterprise search solutions as a self-service tool for contact center employees, companies are able to better retain clients by ensuring their satisfaction, According to research not only in the products or services they deliver, but also through delivering optimal from Strativity Group, customer service. only 40% of companies believe their employees In compiling customer satisfaction statistics, the Information Technology Services have the tools to service and resolve customer Center at University of Colorado at Boulder identifies the following as key customer problems. satisfaction indicators8: 1. Clarity of the employee’s initial understanding of the customer’s request/problem 2. Timeliness of initial response to the customer’s request/problem 3. Timeliness of the resolution 4. Completeness of the resolution The points above correlate directly to the customer service rep’s ability to access relevant information. According to research from Strativity Group, only 40% of companies believe their employees have the tools to service and resolve customer problems.9 Operating under the assumption that the CSR understands the issue at hand, a well- implemented enterprise search solution coupled with a thorough knowledge base, greatly increases the likelihood that they are able to succeed in satisfying the customer, according to the indicators above. Just-in-Time Information and First-Contact Resolution (FCR) When a customer requests support via email, the response must be relatively prompt, however, when a customer calls with an issue, or engages in an alternate web channel like live chat, time is of the essence, as along with the use of these channels comes raised expectations of rapid response and resolution. Given these expectations, and the 4 www.coveo.com Coveo White Paper - page 8 of 15

Improving the Customer Experience Self-Service for Contact Through Self-Service Center Employees close correlation to the customer’s satisfaction in having them met, CSRs don’t have an hour to find the information, they need rapid access to remedy the issue and keep the customer satisfied. As an example, in the investment banking field, customers often require prompt information about their portfolio, such as the amount of money in their accounts, how their investments are faring, trades they have made, etc. In one case, a leading investment bank in Europe worked as follows prior to deploying an enterprise search solution: the CSR would receive a phone inquiry and end the call in order to search for the information required to respond to the customer. Once this information was tracked down, as it typically resided in a variety of separate, non-integrated systems, they would call the customer back to resolve their inquiry. Not only was this method time-consuming and costly for the company, but it often resulted in poor customer satisfaction, due to de- First Call Resolution layed and incomplete responses. Resolution Providing responses effectively and efficiently also reduces support costs dramatically, Time as the call times are reduced, which in turn has a similar affect on related metrics such as hold-time, call abandons, escalations and callbacks. Particularly important is the Resolution notion of first contact resolution, as benefits to both the company, in terms of cost sav- Quality ings, and to the customer, from a satisfaction perspective, are inherent when the issue can be successfully resolved during first contact. Reduction in Calls through Self-service According to a recent study from the Service Quality Management Group, if a customer helpdesk has a 68% FCR rating, which is the call center industry benchmark average, then 32% of their total call volume comes from customers who have to call back because their issue wasn’t resolved the first time. In other words, the inability to answer queries on the first call accounts for 32% of the help desk’s operating cost.10 The value of an enterprise search solution comes through clearly in these cases, providing CSR’s with unified access to enterprise-wide information, from what would otherwise be disparate, disconnected systems that would each require manual exploration. This valuable, timely information includes case history, product information, tech-sheets and even identifies related cases, to enable re-use of existing solutions to similar issues. In the context of the key indicators referenced above, the just-in-time information access and ability to improve first contact resolution, enabled via an enterprise search solution, will have a direct impact on: 4 Timeliness of the initial response and resolution – because access to relevant information is literally at the fingertips of the CSR, the ability to respond rapidly to and resolve customer issues is greatly enhanced 4 www.coveo.com Coveo White Paper - page 9 of 15

Improving the Customer Experience Self-Service for Contact Through Self-Service Center Employees 4 Completeness of the resolution – because of the unified access to a broad range of information resources, the CSR is more likely to have access to the most complete, relevant information required to properly resolve the user’s inquiry, rather than providing a partial, incomplete solution As an additional benefit, in cases when the CSR is unable to find a solution from existing information, the enterprise search solution allows them to easily identify in-house expertise that can provide the right information, ensuring that they can still respond in a timely fashion. Managing Contact Center Operations Maximizing efficiencies, with a strong bias towards cost effectiveness, is a key goal for managing customer service operations. Enterprise search solutions provide help desk managers with a dashboard view of case status, issue priority, and other analytics that allow them to better manage team priorities, improve efficiency and ensure customer satisfaction. They can also track search trends and identify particular queries that lack the proper information to resolve them, and continuously improve their knowledge base and reduce the total cost of support. Moreover, executives can gain insights into additional service and support metrics that offer opportunities to reduce overall costs, and improve business value and end-user productivity. As self-service adoption grows, companies will be able to refine and optimize the skill-set requirements for helpdesk employees, given the type of inquiries that will be addressed via self-service means vs. those that continue to escalate to the contact center. By utiliz- ing self-service knowledge enablement internally within the support teams, the reduction in training required for support representatives will ease costs and improve productivity. This is particularly true for costs associated with attrition, as support centers are high- turnover environments. In the U.K., annual attrition has risen steadily over the past five years, surpassing 30 percent.11 For a company, this means significant expenses for recruiting and training new employees. According to Leapfrog!, Response Design Corporation’s metric database, it costs $4,800 to train a contact center employee.12 By giving employees an intuitive search interface where they can easily access the information they need, companies are able to train new employees in less time, which can lead to dramatically lower costs. 4 www.coveo.com Coveo White Paper - page 10 of 15

Improving the Customer Experience Self-Service Through Self-Service for Customers Self-Service for Customers When a customer encounters a problem with a product or service, rapid resolution is often required to ensure customer satisfaction. Self-service empowers customers by providing them the means to discover the information they need in the shortest timeframe, without having to wait for a contact center representative. It also allows customers to access the information they need 24 hours a day, at a time convenient for them, regardless of whether or not the help desk is open. Furthermore, this quick, flexible access allows customers to be more productive, while it improves a company’s ability to fine-tune their contact center resources, as discussed in the previous section, to optimize both their operational costs, efficiencies and ability to respond rapidly to escalated incidents. The increased adoption of self-service by customers is becoming more harmonious with According to Service time. In the information age, people are becoming more accustomed to going online and Excellence Group, self- instantly finding the information they need. According to Service Excellence Group, self- service has increased by 80% since 2004, service has increased by 80% since 2004, with 61% of consumers believing they are with 61% of consumers capable of finding the information they need.13 believing they are capable of finding the As the demand for self-service is growing, the customer service environment is also information they need evolving, with people now beginning to go beyond their computer and use interfaces on their mobile phones to access the information they need. With these changes, companies face a growing responsibility of making the information they need available. According to Gartner, “Organizations deploying web-based service channels want to increase their customers’ attention. They hope that customers — after navigating an ocean of bits — will discover an island of content, community and service. The customer is presumably looking for specific material that is not available on a general web site, and is ready to give time and attention to retrieve it. As the customer seeks something more specific, there is greater opportunity to engage the customer with an e-service offering of high-value content — content that is delivered in context.”14 Once a company absorbs the initial costs to set-up proper “public” access to the company’s knowledge base, it enables a reduced cost to respond to customer inquiries, which results in a promising return on investment. Despite its acceptance as a delivery medium, providing an adequate self-service platform is not as easy as it sounds. Organizations that have achieved success with knowledge base self-service deployments all rely on two key metrics — an 85% or higher relevance of response on all queries, and a dedicated individual or team respon- sible for handling unresolved self-service queries, which means implementing powerful, accurate self-service tools. 4 www.coveo.com Coveo White Paper - page 11 of 15

Improving the Customer Experience Self-Service Through Self-Service for Customers The key to providing a strong self-service platform is building an extensive knowledge base that can be easily searched and navigated intuitively by users. By implementing an enterprise search solution on a customer-facing site, in support of self-service initia- tives, accurate information can be obtained and put to use in seconds – faster and more productively than speaking with a CSR or emailing an inquiry to a help desk. The result is satisfying to customers, and encourages re-use of the site, as an alternative to direct contact with a support center. Additionally, when the knowledge base allows customers to contribute answers in a community fashion, as well as perform queries, there is the potential to reach superior rates for customer satisfaction and self-service adoption. Employees as Internal Customers Within the workplace, an employee can be seen as an internal customer, with the same needs for quick, efficient access to information. Whether an employee is looking for information regarding HR benefits or how to setup and access their voicemail, provid- Relying entirely on ing self-service access to precise information allows them to find answers with minimal the user’s ability to disruption to their daily workload, as well as that of co-workers. search and locate the media they would like Implementing an enterprise search solution internally, a company also benefits from a to purchase, iTunes’ reduced training time for new or re-tasked employees, as they are provided access to revenue has grown to all of the information they need to become more productive in quick fashion. $3.3 billion per year. Increase E-commerce Revenue Enterprise search solutions can also play an instrumental role in increasing e-commerce revenue by helping customers (and potential customers) find the product and service information they require. Furthermore, through customization and tuning of relevancy ranking, an enterprise search solution can be optimized to meet the merchandising requirements of the company. The search functionality on an e-commerce site is critical when aiming to provide a high- quality user experience for customers, as it can greatly affect a company’s revenues. For example, by implementing an intuitive search tool, customers are given a better view of the products and services that a company offers, which generally cause sales to increase. In numerous cases, B2B e-commerce sites can attribute millions of dollars in revenue to the implementation of an enterprise search solution on their site. As people continue to become more comfortable with the online shopping, associated e-commerce revenue will continue to grow. If visitors to an e-commerce website are unable to locate the information they need, it will likely result in frustration, moving on to a competitor’s website, and ultimately lost revenue. With an enterprise search solution, existing and potential customers are able to find the precise information they need regarding products and services, which improves satisfaction rates as well as the strength of the brand. 4 www.coveo.com Coveo White Paper - page 12 of 15

Improving the Customer Experience Questions to Ask Through Self-Service a Solution Provider Questions to Ask an Enterprise Search Solution Provider When speaking with a solution provider, it is important to understand their product, capabilities and how they can meet your needs. The following are questions you may want to ask when conducting your research. 4 How flexible is the solution? Can it be customized to meet your particular needs? Is it available as a mobile solution? 4 Is a proof of concept rapidly provided to minimize risk and meet a high level of assurance? 4 Is the Enterprise Search company easy is to do business with? Can they adapt to your needs? Are they responsive? 4 What is the amount of time required to deploy the solution? 4 What kind of hardware is required to implement the solution? 4 Is your supplier providing you the means to calculate the total cost of ownership? 4 What is the ramp up time associated with a solution? 4 How long does it take to train employees on the solution? 4 www.coveo.com Coveo White Paper - page 13 of 15

Improving the Customer Experience Through Self-Service Why Coveo Why Coveo Coveo has created a new paradigm in enterprise search by delivering the unique combination of enterprise-grade scalability, connectivity and security. Coveo’s award-winning solutions and first-rate professional services empower managers to drive higher business results. Coveo offers a better user experience that is both faster and cheaper to deploy than any other enterprise search solution on the market, and offers proof-of-concept through a risk-free trial. Designed by veterans in the search industry, Coveo Enterprise Search provides instant access, from anywhere, to valuable information by indexing all relevant material found on intranets, e-mail servers and archives, customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise-wide systems, databases, web content and multimedia voice content. With a secure unified interface so companies can manage information access privileges, their Enterprise Search solutions offer a simplified deployment process which makes it easier to use, allowing you to do more with less and receive superior results. Unified Enterprise Information Access Discovery Personal digital archives Compliance monitoring People & Expertise Search Internal investigations Collaborative repositories access From Smartphones From Workstations Early case assessment Information publishing Litigation support Customer self-service Information governance alerts eCommerce applications Enterprise dashboards My Emails | My Files | Intranet | People | CRM | Support Advanced Search | Preferences | Help Secure Unified Search Search Email & Intranet & Social CRM & Web Site Content Archives Documents Networking ERP Databases /Search Multimedia And More... 4 www.coveo.com Coveo White Paper - page 14 of 15

Improving the Customer Experience References Through Self-Service References 1 Michael Maoz et al. Predicts 2009: CRM Customer Service and Support, Gartner, November 2008. 2 Michael Maoz et al. Predicts 2009: CRM Customer Service and Support, Gartner, November 2008. 3 Johan Jacobs, Use Contact Center Agent Knowledge for Self-Service Cost Savings, Gartner, March 2009. 4 SearchCRM.com definitions, SearchCRM.com, 2007. 5 SearchCRM.com definitions, SearchCRM.com, 2007. 6 Balancing Customer Intimacy with Self-Sufficiency, Service Excellence Research Group, 2008. 7 Johan Jacobs, Use Contact Center Agent Knowledge for Self-Service Cost Savings, Gartner, March 2009. 8 IT Service Center—Customer Satisfaction Statistics 2009, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2009. 9 2009 Customer Experience Management Benchmark Study, Strativity Group, 2009. 10 First-Call Resolution: Revisited, Service Quality Measurement Group, 2007. 11 McCue, Andy. Staff Deserting UK Call Centres, Silicon.com, 2007. 12 Kathryn E, Jackson, Overturn the High Cost of Employee Turnover, Multichannel Merchant, 2006. 13 Balancing Customer Intimacy with Self-Sufficiency, Service Excellence Research Group, 2008. 14 Johan Jacobs, Not All Customer Service Channels Are Created Equal, Gartner, January 2009. Copyright © 2009 Coveo. All Rights Reserved. US Headquarters: 945 Lakeview Parkway, Vernon Hills, IL 60061 4 www.coveo.com Coveo White Paper - page 15 of 15

Improving the Customer Experience Through Self-Service

0 comments

Notes on slide 1

1 Favorite