Posts by Zachary McGeary (bio)

Zachary McGeary | February 25, 2008, 12:08 PM
The IVR Revolution Will NOT Be Televised: We Predicted it First

A recent BusinessWeek story highlights the dwindling popularity of the pro-consumer crusade established by GetHuman.com.

Page views on the site have dwindled from about 40,000 a day in the spring of 2006 to some 4,000. The discussion board, while still active, has quieted down since 2006, when thousands of comments were streaming in. And 18 months after the "standard" was announced—companies that adopted the criteria would have earned the right to use an "auditory icon," or tone, that would signal to callers they had good service—not one company has registered.

Back in November 2005 we highlighted one of the holes in this straight-to-agent methodology:

While I love the story, I don't really see much of an upside to this technique. In some cases, sure, this may help. But depending on how the business you are contacting operates, you may actually be compromising or even negating the potential for actually getting directly to the most appropriate agent or even time savings.

This ongoing story begs the question "How much and in which ways do customers really care about IVR as a service touch point?" In short, they simply don't. Yes, satisfaction has remained notoriously low, and has even experienced some erosion over the last 6 years. But consumer adoption of IVR is not "opt-in", as most consumers call customer service expecting to speak with an agent.

While getting to a live agent as quickly as possible would fit within consumers' ideals for customer servicing, I imagine most have found that they are still spending the time identifying themselves and getting bounced around from agent to agent as their particular servicing needs are made clear. So does getting to agent as quickly as possible really lower time to resolution? I'm afraid not.

I must point out, however, that most IVR systems to date are still not well-integrated with agent desktop apps. Consumers are still largely required to provide information about themselves through the automated system for routing and queuing purposes, and then required to provide the same information again to CSRs when their inquiry is ultimately handled.

As far as the failure of the GetHuman standard goes, Paul English is spot on:

English learned that no matter how effective online consumer crowds may be, full-blown change still takes the passion and energy of committed individuals. "If you're going to try to do a standard," he says, "you need someone who is really going to drive it."

JupiterResearch's take is that dismal IVR performance has left so many consumers disenchanted that they feel they are facing a losing, uphill battle. Even in a world of dissatisfaction and frustration with IVR, it appears that apathy and resignation are the more dominant consumer attitudinal characteristics. The battle for IVR improvement will continue to be one of attrition, not change or revolution.

Zachary McGeary | December 17, 2007, 07:11 AM
Holiday Customer Service: Retailers, Are You Ready?

The holidays are upon us, so by now you know the answer to this question. Good luck.

In a recently published report, we highlight the primary areas retailers addressed this year to manage a seasonal flux of inbound inquiry. Most are adding staff, either temporary or permanent. Others are bolstering existing email response management resources.

There are myriad best practices beyond staffing and new technology that can ease your holiday inbound inquiry blues. For more information, you must check out Customer Service During the Holidays: Managing Increased Inbound Inquiry Volume.

As well, in a few weeks time, I'll be able to provide you with a benchmark of exactly how well retailers did in areas concerning email response (also see here). Stay tuned.

Zachary McGeary | December 10, 2007, 07:14 PM
Holiday Customer Service Email Response Performance. Shame On You.

I am back in the midst of our Annual Customer Service & Support Webtrack, a well-vetted methodology for evaluating customer service & support availability and performance during this peak holiday season. This year we will be focusing exclusively on email response performance. Preliminary data show a continuation of well-established trends. Namely, an almost complete disregard for email response management best practices among even top organizations. This is something, that in four years, I still cannot fathom.

Such poor performance has significant impact on customer behavior. Consumers, after all, wish to be provided with the same level of service across ALL touch points.

In a world of ubiquitous "Customer Experience", "Loyalty & Retention" and "satisfaction" initiatives, how can this rightly be happening? There are several documented answers, none of which are being addressed widely: inappropriate software (e.g. Outlook, Lotus Notes, homegrown solutions), failure to adhere to best practices for managing email inquiries and poorly/rarely integrated knowledge management. This report is a must-read for all organizations exploring the possibility of approaching all three of these issues effectively.

Email is largely leveraged as a "reactive", not strategic, channel. This is a huge part of my theory on why companies are not dedicating appropriate resources. Yes, drastic increases in inbound email inquiry volume are challenging even the top performers. Companies who don't have the appropriate resources in place are doing a great disservice to a growing portion of their customer base. Not to mention, experiencing low customer satisfaction levels and increased customer service costs due to re-contact via relatively more expensive touch points.

Based on previous research, consumers are more likely to turn to phone more than any other touch point if their email inquiry is not resolved within their expectations. That is costly. C'mon guys. If you want to cut costs by deploying email, then commit to applying appropriate resources and best practices to preempt those expensive phone calls. There, in addition to the productivity improvements that packaged email response management software can provide, IS where cost-savings can be found.

I'll be back here to announce some high-level results from this webtrack. Clients, you may of course peruse the report when it is published, likely before year-end. I expect to be back here at that time continuing to shake my finger at the organizations that continue to neglect their email response management initiatives. Why, when organizations that ARE applying appropriate resources are actually improving performance, do you continue to choose to be sub-par? That is a challenge. If you wish to explore opportunities to discover email response management best practices and what exactly "appropriate resources" are, please don't hesitate to contact us. We are standing by. Clients. Non-clients.

Zachary McGeary | August 06, 2007, 12:05 PM
Just When You Hadn't Heard Much News About Outsourcing...

With their recent acquisitions of call centers in Reno, Ohio, Mumbai-based Tata Group now brings us "insourcing". Their 250 person call center answers calls for Expedia. The advantages of "insourcing":

Some companies feel hearing a fellow American makes callers feel more comfortable. Other foreign firms think Americans bring a more entrepreneurial attitude to their work. In Expedia's case, its call-center workers need a firm grasp on U.S. geography.

Interesting indeed. These US-based reps will cost you a rough 40 percent premium over "outsourced" reps.

Article here.

Zachary McGeary | April 03, 2007, 06:19 PM
Introducing Vovici (voh-VEE-see)

This morning, Vovici announced it's company and product re-branding (this is the merger of Perseus and WebSurveyor) as well as a new product. The new product is called EFM Reporting and is meant to provide greater insight to survey and campaign results beyond pie and bar charts. The remaining products in the Vovici suite are re-branded products from Perseus and WebSurveyor. One of the key challenges for enterprises moving forward will be extracting actionable data from the glut of data they are likely collecting via online feedback channels.

For more information on our (cautiously) optimistic take on this market, see this report.

Zachary McGeary | March 29, 2007, 05:24 PM
Text Chat: Not Just For Service Anymore

Following up on a post from October, JupiterResearch just published a report called Real-time Online Interaction Strategies: Opportunities for Managing Higher-Cost and Higher-Value Online Interactions (link here). The report details how companies are leveraging proactive outreach via either chat or click-to-call to:

* Increase Average Order Value
* Increase Conversion Rates
* Lower inquiry handle times

Proactive service is nothing new, but this is different. Proactive outreach via online real-time interaction touch points provides the opportunity to service customers within the context of an interaction (e.g. online purchase, online inquiry resolution). This is a hot topic, expect the vendors in this space (e.g. Talisma, RightNow, eStara, LivePerson, KANA, InstantService, etc.) to be making big marketing pushes for these products this year.

Naturally, JupiterResearch will have plenty more to say on this topic. Stay tuned!

Zachary McGeary | March 26, 2007, 11:15 AM
Are Service Organizations Simply Outsourcing Inefficiency?

While many companies are increasingly ceding full control of contact center operations to an outsourcer, Lillian Vernon is bringing it back in-house. In this article, representatives cite several areas of efficiency that allowed them to do this.

--Reduced call handle time by 36 seconds
--Eliminated third-party sales promotions
--Reduced IVR interaction handle time by 20 seconds
--Reduced product SKUs by 20 percent

This raises an important question for call center mangagers who are considering outsourcing operations to meet customer demand (inquiry volume): Are there existing inefficiencies that can be addressed that would eliminate the need to outsource service operations?

Based on their expectation of a 30 percent increase in inquiry volume in it's Virginia Beach-based contact center, just 23 percent of inquiry volume was being handled in their Philippines-based call center.

Zachary McGeary | October 18, 2006, 11:00 AM
Lots of Chat Chatter

We've been talking about the growing popularity of chat (and click-to-call) as a service tool for several years now, based largely on more flexible and targeted deployments. Chat is not a one-size-fits-all solution, folks. Recent news is lending some proof to our speculation and vindicating the value of automation as well.

Colleague Diane Clarkson is right, proactive service is a big deal.
Early adopters of real-time interaction technology are capitalizing on this more intimate level of service as a (at the very least, short-term) differentiator. And deploying chat strategically via business rules allows companies to engage consumers as they wish, typically at the point where a business transaction or relationship is at risk. While proactive service via chat/click-to-call is certainly a concept worth exploring, companies should be warned that as business rules become more granular the concept begins morphing away from "proactive service" and more towards "proactive sales". For more on this idea, see Customer Service Through Text Chat: Balancing Availability and Value for Consumers.

Zachary McGeary | August 21, 2006, 08:48 AM
Online Self-service Webinar

Join me tomorrow, 2pm EDT/11am PDT, for a webinar on next-generation online self-service. I will be discussing the current shortcomings of online self-service deployments and the simple, practical investments companies must make to provide satisfactory online self-service. Hope to see you there!

Zachary McGeary | August 01, 2006, 04:00 PM
Research Alert: Online Self-service Metrics

"Online Self-service Search Metrics: Evaluating Opportunities for Failed- Search Recovery in Last Mile" has been published. This report examines how well companies are managing the effectiveness of their onlne self-service search investments. Bottom line, adherence to best practices for search result display and failed search recovery is minimal. Even companies attempting best practices are failing to execute in the last mile.

For more insight into best practices for online self-service search and failed search recovery in the last mile, check out the report.

Zachary McGeary | June 08, 2006, 10:00 AM
Apple Re-thinks India Call Center Strategy

There is not much in the way of available facts at this point, beyond:

:: Apple announces plans to launch Bangalore-based call center (March 9, 2006)
:: Apple announces plans to scrap Bangalore-based call center plans (June 5, 2006)

It's unclear exactly which factors influenced Apple's decision, but one comment may lend validation to the growth of viable contact center outsourcing locations outside of India:

Apple spokesperson: "We have re-evaluated our plans and have decided to put our planned support center growth in other countries."

According to an unverified news source, Apple had already hired 30 Bangalore-based support staffers, now likely laid off. There were no other details provided.

Zachary McGeary | May 23, 2006, 08:46 AM
RightNow Technologies Bolsters CRM Offering With $9 Million SalesNet Acquisition

Press Release here.

The acquisition will add:
--26 employees
--12 offshore development contractors
--deployments of up to 2500 users (several hundred total clients)

Interesting, the news is less about SFA and more about experience management. Regardless, the acquisition will accelerate RightNow's Sales product roadmap.

RightNow Technologies
Salesnet

Zachary McGeary | March 06, 2006, 01:00 PM
Coverage Area Launch: Customer Service and Support (formerly CRM)

We have officially launched Customer Service and Support, the re-branded coverage area formerly known as Customer Relationship Management. This change is meant only to better reflect the nature and scope of our coverage. In fact, actual research and analysis will remain unchanged.

This is going to be a very exciting year for Customer Service & Support research. Clients wishing to discuss our upcoming research agenda with me should reach out via their client services manager. For non-clients, if you don't wish to miss the boat, become a client.

For more information on JupiterResearch's overall research architecture enhancements, click here.

Zachary McGeary | February 27, 2006, 04:41 PM
OnDemand Performance Transparency

Not new(s), but Salesforce released Trust, a portal which provides some transparency into the performance of their (of late) beleaguered network. Cool dashboard design, green and red lights, pop-up windows for more information. And if stuff like this makes any sense to you, you'll even find value in the information.

Detail Complications in our recovery process from NA1 hardware failure caused a brief disruption for SSL.

Root Cause At 7:12pm PST, the SSL instance experienced a brief disruption in service following the manual restart of our NA1 database. Availability was restored at 7:19pm PST.

What I'd like to see is an RSS feed, for proactive notification of network status. Also, would like to see aggregate uptime performance metrics in real-time.

DISCLAIMER: This resource doesn't actually improve network performance! It is only meant to build "trust".

Zachary McGeary | February 01, 2006, 04:14 PM
Meet Me At Call Center Demo and Conference, Austin, TX, February 7

I will be in Austin, TX, on February 7 speaking at the Call Center Demo and Conference. The session is titled "Prepare Today for Tomorrow's Customer Care Technology". My presentation will focus on consumer behavior and attitudes towards emerging consumer-facing voice technology (e.g VoIP, Voice-enabled IVR) and how investments in such technologies should fit into larger multichannel service initiatives.

As well, I would love to spend some face time with you some time Tuesday afternoon after 2:30 pm. If you are interested, reach me at zmcgeary at jupitermedia dot com by Monday evening.

Zachary McGeary | February 01, 2006, 01:58 PM
(Updated) The OnDemand Uptime Battle Plays Out

Another related story here folks.

RightNow Technologies today released the following press release touting their uptime for 2005. What a "coincidence"!

UPDATED
The folks over at CRMAdvocate have been covering this story for a few weeks now. They featured my first blog post on this topic on January 23. In that post, I first forwarded the notion of Service Level Agreements for Hosted partnerships. Today's story (February 1) mentions that such agreements do in fact already exist, although only one vendor came forward to expose the terms of theirs. Check it out.

Zachary McGeary | February 01, 2006, 12:54 PM
Salesforce Outage, Again

It rained again on the OnDemand honeymoon.

Some Salesforce.com customers experienced another outage reportedly ranging from 30 minutes to several hours. A few accounts laid out intermittent access throughout the day. More details here.

Regardless, this still doesn't change my view. OnDemand is here to stay. And so are such outages. Again, I encourage companies to be more realistic about their expectations with regards to availability, and most importantly, work terms into their contracts surrounding these types of occurrences.

In short, this "news" is getting old already. This marriage is going to last.

Zachary McGeary | January 23, 2006, 03:12 PM
Amazon Makes Real-time Phone Service Available, For Real This Time

Have you ever needed to call Amazon.com for customer service? I bet you found that there was no 800 number on their website. Except that they do have both a call center AND an 800 number: try typing "Amazon 800 number" into Google.

Well, in a very strategic move, Amazon now offers callback functionality on their "Contact Amazon" page. Consumers may leave their phone number and a timeframe within which they would like to receive a call (in 5 minute increments from 0-15 minutes).

This move is strategic because it doesn't open the flood gates for inbound customer service phone calls, many of which are likely to be basic and informational in nature (e.g. billing, order status) and the solutions for which are already provided by their very robust account and order management functionality. Instead, this service delivery paradigm also allows Amazon to manage their own service levels more efficiently.

So, to me the move is ultimately a concession on Amazon's part that phone service is simply required, even for online businesses. Of course, we've long maintained that the phone has and will remain the most preferred customer service channel for consumers.

I think this is a great move, both for Amazon and for consumers. In some senses, with the ubiquity of their 800 number on the internet, it was just a matter of time before they opted for a more formal phone offering.

Just one word of advice for the folks over at Amazon. Try allowing consumers to type in their question before submitting the callback request. Run that question through the knowledge base and give consumers one more chance to self-serve before finally escalating to live phone. This has been proven successful with email, as companies have seen drops in inbound email on the scale of up to 40%. See Optimizing Knowledge Management: Extending Investments Across Service Channels for more on this topic.

Zachary McGeary | December 24, 2005, 09:55 AM
Salesforce.com: OnDemand...Um...When Available

A database crash at one of Salesforce.com's global hosting sites left many customers with intermittent access to their critical data for six hours yesterday. This is definitely a strike against the software-as-a-service revolution but I don't foresee long-term consequences.

If anything, this will cause short-term panic and only encourage companies (and vendors) to seek more comprehensive service level agreements. While the situation underscores a slightly different side of the concern that many companies have about placing their business intelligence completely in the hands of a third party, skeptics of OnDemand must weigh the potential bad with the proven good.

OnPremise installations are not immune to service outages either. Many companies with Salesforce.com (or most other hosted CRM providers) deployed cannot (or do not want to) afford the responsibility of owning and maintaining software or afford the measures that must be taken to ensure redundancy on their own. Redundancy is most importantly about preserving vital data, not necessarily maintaining service on a seamless basis, anyway.

Even with six hours downtime over one year, Salesforce.com is still looking at 99.9% uptime. Sorry folks, this is not the end of OnDemand.

Zachary McGeary | December 19, 2005, 11:30 AM
Webinar: The Costs of Failed Customer Service

Please join me tomorrow, December 20, at 2pm EST for a webcast on "The Costs of Failed Customer Service." I'll be indentifying key trends in customer service attitudes and behavior as well as how service organizations continue to contribute to poor service levels. It's not too late to register!

See details below.

******************************************************

Register today for this upcoming Jupiter Webcast:
The Costs of Failed Customer Service
December 20, 2005 2:00pm EST, 11:00am PST

Registration is FREE for qualified attendees. This Webcast is sponsored by ATG. For more information and to sign up today visit http://www.jupiterwebevents.com/webcasts/atg_dec20.html

Speakers:
Zachary McGeary, Associate Analyst, JupiterResearch
Erik Hille, Product Marketing Director, ATG

Challenged with year-over-year increases in online and offline contact volume, service organizations are seeking to deflect live contacts to self-service and asynchronous channels; however, organizations are largely failing to meet customer needs in these channels. This failure contains hidden costs for an organization and results in significant brand erosion as customers seek contacts via other touch points and tell peers of poor experiences.

Join JupiterResearch Associate Analyst Zachary McGeary and ATG Product Marketing Director, Erik Hille for a frank discussion of the underlying causes and effects of poor service and the strategies for mitigating this poor customer service risk.

This Webcast will help you to optimize your contact deflection, right-channeling and inquiry resolution initiatives.

Registration is FREE for qualified attendees. To sign up visit http://cp.jupiterweb.com/index.php/1956_default/

Jupiter Webcasts are educational Web conferences focusing on IT and Internet related business issues. Each Webcast runs approximately 45 to 60 minutes in total, and integrates a PowerPoint presentation with audio.

After registering for the event through our Web site, if you qualify you will receive an e-mail providing instructions on how to access the presentation prior to the event.

This webcast is sponsored by ATG. ATG makes the software that the world's most customer-conscious companies use to: create a more relevant and profitable customer experience throughout the marketing, commerce, and service lifecycle; and to ensure that customer interactions are treated holistically across the Web, e-mail, call center, and mobile channels. ATG offers an alternative to the traditional silo-based approach to customer-facing applications, helping companies integrate information across functional areas todeliver a more compelling and profitable experience to every unique customer and segment. For more information visit www.atg.com

For additional information about sponsoring a Jupiter Webinar, please contact Mary Warley at webeventsales@jupitermedia.com or call 508-660-1404.

Zachary McGeary | November 24, 2005, 12:18 PM
IVR Cheatsheet: Cool, With a Catch

There was a great story on NPR yesterday about a gentlemen who appears to fancy himself the IVR Customer Experience martyr. One by one, he is working his way through the IVR systems of major businesses and finding the most direct route to a live human being. See his IVR cheatsheet.

More than anything this story highlights the frustration that consumers have with these automated systems, particularly in the offline channel where consumers expect to speak with a human being. Unfortunately, IVR deployments are on the rise: continued investment in Touchtone deployments will be coupled with the emergence of Voice-enabled systems.

The purpose of these IVR applications is to collect information about consumers to make the eventual live interaction most efficient. Not, as many consumers believe, to buffer the hold time that we are all more than accustomed to. So do these shortcuts actually save time? Well, yes, if all you want to do is speak to a live representative. But if you skip the information input steps and escalate directly to a live agent, you risk being routed to an agent that is not the most appropriate to handle the nature of the inquiry you have, and you have to take the time to give them the information that identifies you (e.g. credit card number, acct. number, etc.).

While I love the story, I don't really see much of an upside to this technique. In some cases, sure, this may help. But depending on how the business you are contacting operates, you may actually be compromising or even negating the potential for actually getting directly to the most appropriate agent or even time savings.

Zachary McGeary | November 02, 2005, 04:24 PM
IBM Purchases iPhrase Technologies

IBM announced yesterday afternoon that it acquired iPhrase Technologies, a provider of self-service search technology and applications, for an undisclosed sum. It seems the acquisition was more for the underlying search technology and not necessarily the applications built on top of search. However, IBM seems to have madea committment to existing iPhrase customers as well as to continue the development of iPhrase's core technology and applications...as well as sell the applications through their existing sales channels.

iPhrase's underlying search technology lends itself nicely to IBM's Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) initiative, not to mention is already WebSphere compliant. How convenient.

What does this mean for the self-service search space? Well, now iPhrase's products now have a more robust and focused distribution channel. Nonetheless, IBM is not traditionally an application company so it will be interesting to see how much they invest in continued development of the product. IBM has promised existing iPhrase customers that their investments will continue to be supported. WARNING: if you are an existing iPhrase customer and not on the WebSphere platform, expect a huge migraiton push come contract renewal time. Apparently you don't need to migrate, but just know that the option will be pushed hard by your new vendor. And that the iPhrase name and product functionality will be phased into an IBM offering some time next year.

Does this mean less competition in the self-service search space? Well, yes. It sounds like the technology, after being incorporated into an IBM offering will be more enterprise focused. I believe there will continue to be some competition in larger enterprises where self-service search is integrated into larger CRM or contact center applications (e.g. Siebel, Onyx). Interestingly, InQuira (a competitor of iPhrase in self-service search) is also an IBM partner.

Overall, this is a great move for iPhrase Technologies whose product functionality far exceeded the capabilities of iPhrase to actually deliver and profit from it. IBM is far better positioned to capitalize on the search technology, but my guess is an eventual move away from self-service search application competency.

Zachary McGeary | September 29, 2005, 12:30 PM
Scratch One Up for Nano Owners

NEWS: Apparently hordes of Nano owners have taken to the Internet to announce and commiserate the scratches that all too easily appear on their screens, making photo viewing and just about everything else very difficult.

A quick glance at the Discussion section of the Apple website reveals numerous threads on this exact topic. A few websites (example here, now apparently offline) have sprung up to promote the cause as well.

Score one for consumers and consumer generated media: Apple announced yesterday that they would repair or replace defective Nanos. They stated the problem is a "vendor quality problem" that affects "less than one-10th of 1 percent" of Nanos that have already shipped. Even if that sounds low, listen to them roar!

Here is another site. Embarrassing for Apple. Check out CGM at its finest here.

On a similar note, have you seen the black Nano? Very sharp.

Zachary McGeary | September 15, 2005, 12:44 PM
RSS Makes CRM Debut

Two announcements of note in this space.

First, Spanning Partners last month developed an RSS product, Spanning Salesforce 2.0, that integrates with Salesforce. Any Salesforce Enterprise user can subscribe to the feeds, which deliver information to users such as new leads through a user's RSS reader of choice.

Second, Microsoft yesterday announced at PDC the availability of RSS in their 3.0 CRM product. One of the interesting differentiators in the promotion of these two products is the capability to deliver sales information to partners, not necessarily MS CRM end-users themselves.

Salesforce hasn't announced plans to incorporate their own RSS functionality into their product, but Microsoft's move in to the space may spark some competition.

We've still yet to see much of a push for consumer-oriented RSS functionality. Some things i'd like to see are delivery of (targeted) updated knowledge base content, updated order and delivery information and of course updated service request information. Perhaps the biggest inhibitor to the deployment of such solutions is RSS reader penetration among Interenet users, currently only at 12 percent of internet users.