Have you ever called an organization and been shuffled from one department to another? Or, have you called one toll free number and then been given another toll free number to call because you got the wrong support group? How about the call you made to a customer support line where the person gives you a technically correct, but utterly useless, answer. Frustrating? Are your customers having the same frustration? If so, your organization is ignoring the first principle of Lean Management: Understand Your Value Proposition. Your customer’s time is valuable and you should not waste it.
Single Point Of Contact Service, as the name may suggest, is the implementation of a collaborative workflow that includes technology and knowledge. The outcome of the implementation of SPOCS is that a customer only has to make one contact with your business to accomplish one or more tasks.
For instance, one call allows the customer to:
Inquire on availability and price of products or services;
Place, change, inquire about or cancel an order for products or services;
Set up, or inquire about, an account with your organization;
Request information about employment, investment or public relations;
Engage in concurrent engineering activities with your organization.
SPOCS is designed to overcome the frustration factors. Essentially, the person that picks up a call on the customer service telephone line needs to have the information available to give to the caller or access immediately to the person that can give the information and conference them into the conversation with the caller.
The successful implementation of SPOCS is dependent upon first determining, and acknowledging, the frustration factors of your current and potential customers.
You also need to determine the best communication strategy for use. Some customers are very comfortable with Internet-based communication and this is the long-term lowest cost alternative for implementing SPOCS. However, if the product or service being provided is not compatible with this type of communication then the risk of failure is great.
Determining Frustration Factors
There are a number of methods available to determine the current and potential frustration factors that your customers and prospects are encountering and how they want them corrected. You could send out a customer satisfaction survey in which your organization gives a laundry list of potential issues and leaves space for commentary on issues not covered. You can also publish the survey on your company website. The problem with this survey is that you may not get a large enough response from the customer base to accurately define or rate the issues.
The best method that we have found to work is the formation of a customer focus group that will meet with your company’s SPOCS team to determine the frustration factors and assist in the development of the solution.
Solution Requirements
The first step in developing the solution is to define the scope. For instance, will investor relations be part of the scope? In many organizations, because of the nature of the topic, the SPOCS operator would only forward the call to a person that specifically handles the situation and would then disconnect. Once the scope of the solution is defined, an internal team must be nominated. This team should include as a minimum:
A management sponsor;
Marketing and/or sales personnel;
Customer service personnel;
Personnel from various operational departments;
Finance personnel; and,
Information technology.
Any people from departments impacted by the scope (e.g. human resources) should be added to the team.
Developing the solution
Once the internal team is commissioned, then bring in the customer focus group (CFG) or results from the survey. The method of preferred communication should be obvious from the survey or initial discussion with the CFG. This is the point where a decision will be made on the type of technology that is required and the information technology people start their research (web tools and/or telephone system capabilities and/or wireless capabilities).
The SPOCS team (now including the CFG) now begins to develop a prioritized list of issues to be dealt with in the project. Once the priorities are set, root causes of the frustration are uncovered. Categorize the root causes into these sections:
Causes the customer to call and can be eliminated;
Causes the customer to call and cannot be eliminated and are deemed to require an immediate response; and,
Causes the customer to call and cannot be eliminated and are deemed to not require an immediate response.
This allows you to focus resources effectively. If the cause of the call can be eliminated then it should be a high priority of the organization to eliminate it.
Once the work flow is developed to respond in a timely manner, then implement by first testing the work flow and technology and then by educating everyone on their role and the importance of fulfilling the role effectively.
Most importantly, hold people accountable for their effectiveness in fulfilling their SPOCS roles. The customer’s satisfaction level is only as good as the last contact that they had with your organization. Make it a good one.
About the author
Ken Cowman is Managing Director of Emercomm Business Consultants Inc. of Mississauga, Ontario ( www.emercomm.com ) . Ken has over 40 years of business experience with over 25 years in C-level positions. He can be reached via email kcowman@emercomm.com and his career profile can be found on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=13440900&trk=tab_pro
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