The following is an excerpt from an article by Charlie Isaacs, Chief Technology Officer, KANA.  In it, he talks about the attributes of customer service and how innovative organizations are rising above the "commodity" approach to delivering service to their customers.  While this si not specifically an EDI issue, it bears on both ends of the EDI business world; those companies that produce and deliver EDI systems, and those companies that use EDI systems to interact with their trading partners.  The points made in this article are worth contemplating when evaluating how a compny (yours and one you may be contemplating doing business with) provides service and support to its customers.

We've all had the experience of sitting on hold while an inexperienced agent tries in vain to search his database for the answer to our question. This certainly doesn't instill confidence in the vendor's ability to understand us as customers or to deliver a positive customer experience. In addition, agents often aren't given pertinent information about the customer's history to add context to the conversation. Should they respond differently if they're speaking with a customer who's a longstanding "big spender"? How should they handle it if the customer is angry? What if the service problem falls outside of the norm? Typically, the agent has no choice but to respond using a rigid set of scripts, leaving the customer feeling upset and poorly treated.

Savvy businesses are overcoming these challenges with a new strategic approach to service. This includes several key elements:

+Multi-channel integration means that for the first time, customers can choose from multiple points of contact, and have confidence that they will receive the same consistent, high level of service no matter how they choose to communicate. This approach speeds resolution of escalated calls and ensures that information the customer shared via one channel is automatically conveyed through to other channels. For example, the customer no longer has to repeat the same questions with an agent that they already answered online.

Achieving this level of support involves having all points of customer contact, including knowledge bases, email responses, online chat, and call centers tightly integrated. Each channel should include the same combination of transactions and information. In addition, this integration ensures that historical customer information is shared across all support channels. Most companies collect reams of information about customer interactions. Unfortunately, this knowledge is not often shared across customer touch points, such as call centers and self-service applications. Sharing this knowledge across channels helps agents to engage in conversations that are more personalized and relevant for that customer's needs.

+User profiling and web page tracking further increase self-service success by tailoring search paths and pinpointing answers relevant to the particular customer and inquiry. Adding guidance and clarifying questions to search ensures customers receive the most relevant information. Businesses can leverage knowledge about the customer and his/her previous activity to personalize the resolution. For example, a customer enters his or her cell phone number as part of the search criteria when looking for information about renewing their service plan.

The knowledgebase compares the number to the list of phone numbers maintained in a database of profiles for each system. The system recognizes the customer's phone number and recognizes the consumer has a high usage pattern for text messaging and little use of long-distance phone service. The knowledgebase incorporates that information in the search process and guides the customer through a solution path that highlights service plans that incorporate text messaging and unlimited hours for local calling. As a result, the knowledgebase yields not only an answer, but one that is exactly matched to the customer's needs.

+Advice-driven methodologies guide customers through the process of finding the right answers by combining flexible search and retrieval with automatic recommendations of the most likely solution. Customers can select and combine the methodologies that best suit their need and level of experience with the given product, so that first-time users receive step-by-step guidance whereas experienced, highly technical repeat visitors can skip certain steps and move on to more in-depth knowledge.

+An object-oriented approach to content creation and management ensures that customers are always presented with consistent, up-to-date information. Content in enterprise systems, such as content management systems, CRM applications, and customer databases can be incorporated into the knowledgebase. The knowledgebase provides a central repository that can be repurposed for multiple audiences, including customers, contact center agents, and partners.

Each contribution can be routed through a publication approval workflow to ensure the validity of the information. With this approach, all parties are presented with the same information in the same way, regardless of channel.

This article summary appears courtesy ebizQ.net. Please Click Here to open a new window and read the complete article.