
We ask you to ask yourself the following questions and if for some of them the answer is unclear, not known or a little hazy - or maybe it touches a bit of a raw nerve - then maybe you should give us a call and see if we can help.
Click here to download the questions
- Your staff are de-motivated?
- Attrition is too high?
- Training and development investment is reasonable but impacts are unclear?
- What are the core competencies and skills your staff require for the future?
- Is there a gap between current and future skill sets and competencies?
- Promises to customers and staff are not being kept?
- Staff communications are irregular, one-way and don't happen when things get busy?
- Back office roles are badly handled?
- Back and front office skills are not integrated?
- Systems and technology investments are not providing the right return?
- The business is not adequately focused around the end-to-end customer experience?
- Is the customer at the very centre of everything you do and breath?
- Are your business processes simple and customer-centric?
- Do your Directors and Senior Managers walk the floor?
- Do your Directors and Senior Managers talk to customer each and every day?
- Can you attract and keep exceptional staff?
- Do your front-line people have a real say in how customer service is delivered?
- Requirements and priorities for systems are cloudy?
- User involvement in system requirement definitions is limited?
- How much more business can be/will be/has been attributed to new investments (e.g. IT)?
- How much more efficient will staff and processes be by the implementation of new systems?
- Different locations show wide variations in performance and efficiency?
- Management information and reporting is inadequate, inconsistent and too late?
- Cost of service versus value provided is not understood?
- Your customer service centre performance is not where it needs to be to take the business forward?
- People believe that quantity and quality are incompatible?
- Cost of acquisition and service is too high and is eating into margins?
- First time fixes are decreasing and repeat contacts are increasing?
- Compared to other industry benchmarks you are well behind the curve?
- Self-service capabilities are not properly defined?
- Incremental gain of knowledge through various mechanisms, i.e. the web, is not in place?
- Multiple systems are poorly integrated and causing service issues and inefficiencies?
- You have heard about offshore service and back office capabilities but are unclear as to the opportunities and risks?
- Future strategic direction is threatened by an inability to provide great service?
- Fulfilment capability is poor and inconsistent?
- Physical billing is prone to errors, late despatch and inconsistency?
- Project management needs definition and resource?
- Links to the field are difficult and knowledge is not shared?
- Supplier management needs better control and integration?
- Major change is required but there are few people with real experience to implement?
- The business has few, if any, inter-SLAs and business performance metrics?
- You don't know whether to retain customer service in-house or to outsource?
- Customer complaints are up?
- Rewards are not based on customer satisfaction and retention?
- Should you/can you operate service staff remotely?
- Where are the best service locations?
- You don't know what your competitors are doing in the service area?
- You are confused - is it ROI, ABC, Benchmarking, Balanced Scorecard, NPV, CSFs...?
- Customer knowledge is a distant dream - piles of data but no knowledge and behaviours?
- Business processes have been unchallenged for at least six months?
- Marketing are increasingly concerned about he negative impact service appears to be having on the brand proposition?
- Customer satisfaction is down considerably? Customer involvement in shaping the business future is minimal?
- Product penetration and repeat purchases are well below plan?
- You need to increase pro-active sales activity but lack the skill sets and knowledge about how to set and achieve targets?
- What business value would be destroyed if services (IT, Customer Services, etc) were withdrawn?
- When considering IT investment viability have you asked if you can afford it?
- Does IT support your business strategy?
- Does IT implementation need a re-prioritisation of other key projects?
- Can/will the IT investment be able to genuinely integrate with other plans, products and projects?
- Will it's implementation result in better quality information and will knowledge, be available sooner and in a more accessible fashion?
Following your soul searching exercise, the first stage maybe a customer experience audit? Click here to find out more about how Coalesce can help you.