• by Lynn Russo Whylly , November 29, 2007

They may always be right, but that doesn't make them easy to deal with

Customer service is more important than ever - now that any bozo can vent on Yelp or any number of other online forums. As consumers find more ways to publicly display dissatisfaction (aka rant), support models will have to keep up. "Companies are beginning to realize a correlation between customer satisfaction and revenue and loyalty," says Zachary McGeary, lead analyst on the JupiterResearch report, "The Customer Service Landscape."

E-mail is the leading customer touchpoint, with 87 percent of survey respondents using e-mail as a service tool, Jupiter says, followed by live phone support (71 percent), fax (68 percent) and online self service (44 percent). Niche touchpoints include callback (25 percent), interactive voice response (14 percent for touch and 8 percent for speech-enabled), static FAQs (18 percent), WAP-enabled mobile support (8 percent), click to call (4 percent) and automated chat (2 percent), among others.

"I think technology has played a huge role in customer service in that it has sped service up in some industries, so the expectation of the customer is a lot higher," explains Lise D'Andrea, president and CEO of service consultancy Customer Service Experts, Inc. "There's an immediacy that keeps increasing, and that leaves the customer feeling like [companies] are falling short with some services."

Who takes charge of the service center depends entirely on the size of the company and the budget. "If they spend less than $25,000 annually on customer service technology, the CEO is the primary decision-maker," says McGeary, while the CEO is only responsible in 20 percent of companies that spend $1 million or more. The customer service manager is in charge among just 11 percent of respondents who spend $25,000 or less, while "smaller organizations may not even have a customer service manager," McGeary says. Marketing controls the customer service budget in 5 percent of companies.

As companies' overall expenditures increase, the role of the CEO in the service center declines, while the role of it grows. "That's because, as the service organization grows, their needs are growing," explains McGeary. "They're supporting an increasing number of touchpoints and a larger workforce. Also, larger companies tend to buy more technology and applications in an on-premise fashion, and that requires an IT department."

D'Andrea feels companies are realizing that developing the right service culture - driven by the right employee culture - is a huge factor in business today. "They're starting to look at themselves from the inside out." Retailers are a good example. She says they're using technology to meet the demands of customer "impatience" through headset technology on the retail floor, which is resulting in getting answers more quickly than in the past.

As we continue to evolve into a culture where the customer is in control, "service organizations need to focus on perfecting the touchpoints they have deployed currently," McGeary says.