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Providing a Whole New Customer Experience by Extending the Call Center to the Mobile Device

by Hetal Pandya, Director of Nuance Mobile Care at Nuance Communications - January 27, 2010

Providing a Whole New Customer Experience by Extending the Call Center to the Mobile Device

Hetal Pandya, Director of Nuance Mobile Care at Nuance Communications

 

Competition for new mobile subscribers is fierce. There are now more than 4.1 billion wireless subscribers in the world, and, according to International Telecommunication Union, worldwide mobile connections are outpacing population growth. Developed markets are embracing mobile technologies and have either reached or are nearing 100-percent saturation. Many subscribers in these markets even have multiple devices and networks. This overwhelming market saturation indicates that the time has come for mobile operators to focus on how to retain their existing subscriber base – but how?

 

Against the current economic backdrop, more than ever before, businesses need to understand the significance of delivering a satisfying -- if not great -- customer experience. With churn rate approaching 40 percent in the mobile industry, there is a new emphasis placed on retaining existing customers by fostering loyalty through satisfying interactions. The risk of not doing so exposes businesses to accelerated customer attrition and hampers efforts to grow top-line revenue.

 

Nuance Communications’ own commissioned research, focused on customer self-service preferences, found that 60 percent of respondents are less than satisfied with their interactions with customer service departments and 72 percent of those respondents will take action by telling their friends and family about the negative customer experience.  This reality places mounting pressure on subscriber retention, unless a company can achieve the perfect balance of low costs and high customer satisfaction. However, the secret to delivering a superior customer experience is actually very matter-of-fact; here are just a couple of basic truths that companies would benefit from keeping top of mind.

 

First, individuals by nature are task oriented; they just want to get a job done quickly and with minimal fuss. Those companies that give their customers the tools and flexibility to complete tasks themselves will benefit the most.

 

Second, most people do not like waiting in line; In this time-starved society, people no longer want or expect to have to wait in a queue to speak to an agent about a transaction that only takes seconds to complete. Waiting on hold is particularly frustrating when it eats up minutes on a monthly calling plan.

 

Thankfully, technology has evolved so that the majority of call center transactions can now be successfully automated to provide customers with an experience that is convenient and where it is easy to resolve problems in a timely manner. By 2010, more than 70 percent of call center interactions will be via mobile phone, making mobile self-service a more compelling proposition than ever before.

 

Enter Nuance Mobile Care. The primary goal of Nuance Mobile Care – mobile self-service – is to provide consumers with personalized tools to help resolve common problems in a convenient, easily accessible manner directly on the mobile device.  To access mobile self-service, simply dial a phone number for customer service from a mobile device, the call is captured, and a visual experience is presented to a user on his/her mobile handset. The software enables customers to automatically resolve problems directly on their mobile phones by providing intuitive real-time information that enables them to pay a bill, upgrade their account, or perform diagnostic testing – all without requiring a live customer care agent. This functionality delivers the added advantage of avoiding “agent burnout,” by freeing-up call center employees’ time to focus on more complex problems and provide customers with help in a fast and convenient manner.

 

To illustrate the increasing demand for these services, a survey by market research company, Added Value, revealed a huge demand for customer service delivered directly on a mobile device and provided evidence that empowering customers to resolve problems themselves reflected positively on the brand delivering the service. During a recent focus group, more than half of respondents (59 percent) said that mobile self-service would be their preferred channel of self-service, compared with only 34 percent who would choose to deal with a customer service agent.

 

Nuance Communications has conducted a number of trials and commercial deployments of Nuance Mobile Care in North America and Europe, and found that more than 60 percent of user problems were successfully resolved without having to speak to a live agent. Additionally, 90 percent of trial participants preferred this mobile self-service in comparison to IVR-, Web-, or WAP-based self-service. The results are promising in light of recent statistics in the Customer Experience Impact Report from Harris Interactive that states that 81 percent of all customers stop doing business with a company because of a bad service experience.

 

Because self-service software solves most tier-one problems on the handset, such as account inquiries and service upgrades, contact centers can focus more of their time on complex problems that require a human touch. Customers can still contact a call center to speak with a representative if their issue is not resolved or if they prefer this approach to problem solving. Additionally, contact centers can avoid costly “agent burnout” because the number of unnecessary calls is greatly reduced. The resulting outcome leads to higher customer satisfaction coupled with lower costs for mobile operators and contact centers. This innovative approach to self-service is a promising development for call centers, customers, and mobile operators alike.

 

Mobile operators will continue to face the challenges of tighter budgets and increased demands to provide high-quality services at a competitive price point. The secret to staying ahead in today’s mobile industry lies in understanding how customers want to engage with customer service and delivering the best possible customer experience in a convenient and timely manner.  Ultimately, mobile self-service solutions, like Nuance Mobile Care, will be the industry-standard to help lower costs, increase customer loyalty, and extend the call center experience directly to the mobile device.

 

 
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