JupiterResearch Analyst Weblogs - Site Technologies

New Report Demonstrates Evidence of Significant ROI from Well-integrated Email and Online Self-service

Today we published "Online Self-Service Case Study: Carfax Cuts Support Costs and Raises Quality Through E-mail Deflection" which outlines the tactics CarFax has leveraged to reduce TCO of email and online self-service by 49 percent. Since deploying this integrated offering in 2001, Carfax has experienced dramatic and sustainable improvements in response quality, agent tenure and overall operational costs, among other benefits.

Read the report to find out how CarFax has been so successful.

Multichannel Customer Service in Retail Sector � Trends, Innovations & Best Practices

Please join me for a webinar on September 23 entitled: "Multichannel Customer Service in Retail Sector � Trends, Innovations & Best Practices"

Retail sales around the world continue to grow and online commerce is growing at a faster clip. In the US alone, Forrester projects that online commerce will grow 21% to $204B in 2008, compared to 2007. European retail sales increased 58% in 2007, compared to 2006, and the trend is expected to continue in 2008. However, the retail industry is also one of the most competitive industry sectors, affected by economic cycles and cut-throat competition. The hypercompetitive business environment and the growing use of emerging communication channels such as web self-service, email, chat, SMS, web collaboration and kiosks, in tandem with the traditional phone channel and retail stores mandate that retail businesses provide superior and seamless customer service experiences within and across channels and across the customer lifecycle. And at the same time, they must do more with less in order to sustain operating margins. What are the latest trends, innovations and best practices in multichannel customer service? How can you do more with less in customer service?

Join us for a live online seminar, featuring Zach McGeary, Associate Analyst of JupiterResearch and Don Muchow, Senior Solutions Consultant of eGain Communications Corporation to learn how. Attendees will learn about:

Trends in consumer adoption of interaction channels and customer satisfaction in the retail sector
The current state of multichannel customer service, email and web self-service in the retail sector, as measured by benchmark studies conducted in North America and the UK

Innovations and best practices to provide superior multichannel customer service

For more information, or to register, click here.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Marc Andreessen Does it Again

Marc Andreessen of Netscape fame does it again. Amazing. Congratulations to Marc and the whole Opsware team.

Dial-up is slower than it was

OK, so the title is a tiny bit misleading. The spirit of the title is correct, if not the letter:

Dial-up Internet access feels slower than it used to because web site designers are used to building for the broadband-connected majority. Page sizes on existing sites have crept up and this penalizes dial-up users. Technically, of course, dial-up operates at exactly the same speeds as five years ago.

The speed that matters for PC Internet access is the experience and not the technology: subjective speed, not objective speed. It's the same concept I wrote about for mobile phones and handhelds recently (and more here).

What are the impacts?

Devices that expect dial-up speeds (e.g. including GPRS or Edge) to be good enough for consumers now, because the same objective speed was acceptable five years ago, are making a shaky assumption.

Consumers that remain on dial-up Internet access at home are experiencing an Internet that feels slower than it did. And that assumes they remain browsing the same sites they always have. If they are tempted by Youtube, Dailymotion, Flickr, or any of the real broadband sites then those parts of the Internet will either slow right down or become a no go area. ISPs have another opportunity here to communicate why that small number of consumers remaining on dial-up must switch to broadband.

Web Site Spending Continues to Rise

I recently had the opportunity to write our annual report on site operations spending trends. A few key takeaways: most sites, especially big-company sites, are expecting facing significant increases in site operations budgets--for the third year running.

My favorite counterintuitive finding: despite the reputation of open source Web stacks and apps and cheapy hardware lowering the cost of Web development, among our survey resondents, anyway, not only are costs rising, but the share of spending allocated across categories such as salaries, software, hardware, hosting, development, integration, maintenance, and content development has remained remarkably consistent (on average) over the years. This suggests that, at least among larger companies, stuff still costs money.

Clients, if you want to dig down into the data, drop us a line.

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.