Improving performance through eMarketing Intelligence

Introduction to Email marketing (inbound email marketing) (Part 2)

Introduction - inbound customer email

This month we look at strategies, techniques and tools for managing the ever-increasing volume of inbound customer e-mail. The challenge is to select the best process to achieve a good level of customer service while at the same time minimising cost.

For large organisations, e-mail volumes are already significant. For example, the Nationwide web contact centre receives nearly 20,000 emails each month. According to Mark Cromack, Nationwide's senior operations manager, customer contacts by e-mail have increased fourfold within the last year, but through choosing the right process and tools, it has only been necessary to double the number of operators.

Successful management of inbound communications is also important to service quality as perceived by customers. While other aspects of e-marketing management such as online pricing, site design and privacy may gain much of the media attention, ask the customers of online services what is important, and it’s a different story. A 2000 survey of e-tail customers by JP Morgan showed that customer support was the number one concern (65% of respondents) while pricing (18%) and ease of ordering (22%) were mentioned by far fewer customers.

In this month’s column we start by reviewing the options for customer contact strategies and then explore the tools and techniques that can be deployed to streamline the e-mail management process.
Customer contact strategies

Customer contact strategies are a compromise of delivering quality customer service with the emphasis on customer choice and minimising the cost of customer contacts. Typical operational objectives that should drive the strategies and measure their effectiveness are:

  • Minimise average response time per e-mail and range of response time from slowest to fastest. This should form the basis of an advertised service quality level.
  • Minimise clear-up (resolution) time – e.g. number of contacts and elapsed time to resolution.
  • Maximise customer satisfaction ratings with response.
  • Minimise average staff time and cost per e-mail response.

Alternative contact management strategies

Customer contact strategies for integrating web and e-mail support into existing contact centre operations usually incorporate elements of both of the following options:

1. Customer preferred channel.

Here the company uses a customer-led approach where customers use their preferred channel for enquiry whether it is phone callback, e-mail or live-chat. There is little attempt made to influence the customer as to which is the preferable channel. Note that while this approach may give good customer satisfaction ratings, it is not usually the most cost-effective approach, since the cost of phone support will be higher than customer self-service on the web, or an e-mail enquiry.

2. Company preferred channel.

Here the company will seek to influence the customer on the medium used for contact. For example, easyJet encourages customers to use online channels rather than using voice contact to the call centre for both ordering and customer service. Customer choice is still available, but the company uses the web site to influence the choice of channel. Visit the easyJet web site (www.easyjet.com) to see how this is achieved. If a customer selects the ‘Contact Us’ option, rather than listing phone numbers and e-mail addresses the customer is led through 3 steps intended to reduce the need for them to call the contact centre:

  • Step 1 Links or ‘Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)’. These are based on careful analysis of phone calls and e-mails received by the contact centre. Examples include questions concerning use of the site and booking online, fares, availability, and pricing, airports, check-in, travel information.
  • Step 2 E-mail enquiry through web form completion. Examples include technical queries relating to the site, customer service, route feedback and general feedback - for comments and suggestions’ (These e-mails are categorised to help prioritisation and routeing to the right person).
  • Step 3 Telephone numbers. Phone contact is only encouraged at the final stage. As easyJet explain ‘We've tried to make the FAQ and email service as simple and efficient as possible in order to keep the cost down and provide you with a good service, but if you're really stuck then, of course, you can call us’.
    Resourcing

Other options for contact management strategy that concern resourcing include:

  • Call centre staff multi-skilling or separate web contact centre. Many companies start with a separate web contact centre and then move to multi-skilling. Multi-skilling is the best way of effectively answering queries from customers whose support query may refer to a combination of online or offline activities. Multi-skilling also reduces hand-offs and can increase variety for contact centre staff.
  • Balance between automation and manual processes. Automated responses, intelligent routeing and auto-suggestion are all techniques described in the next section which can be used to reduce the number of queries handled by human operators. If the automated approach fails, however, then inappropriate responses may be received by customers.
  • Insourcing or outsourcing. Software, hardware and staff can be deployed internally or can be outsourced to an application service provider who will work according to a service level agreement to achieve quality standards.

Managing the inbound e-mail response process

In this section we look at the tools and techniques that can be used to improve the e-mail management process. To help you review best practice against your organisation, the recommendations are structured around the sequential stages or activities that need to be completed when a new e-mail is received. You can test actions needed at each stage for different types of scenario e.g. enquiry from a new or existing customer, enquiry about the web site or e-mails from different stages in the buying process such as pre-sales, sales or post-sales.

Stage 0: Customer defines support query

Before we look at how the company responds to an enquiry, consider how easily the customer can find and compose an e-mail on site.

Best practice is clear to find e-mail support options. Often finding contact and support information on a web site is surprisingly difficult. Standardised terminology on site is ‘Contact Us’ or ‘Support’. Options should be available for the customer to specify the type of query on a web form or provide alternative e-mail addresses such as products@company.com or returns@company.com on site, or in offline communications such as a catalogue. Utilities provider Servista (www.servista.com) provides a good example of such a form.

Providing FAQ or automated diagnostic tools should be considered at this stage to reduce the number of inbound enquiries. Epson (www.epson.co.uk) provide an online tool to diagnose problems with printers and suggest solutions.

Finally the web site should determine expectations about the level of service quality. For example, inform the customer that ‘your enquiry will be responded to within 24 hours’.

Stage 1 Receipt of e-mail

Best practice is that automatic message acknowledgement occurs. This is usually provided by autoresponder software. While many autoresponders only provide a simple acknowledgement, more sophisticated responses can reassure the customer about when the response will occur and highlight other sources of information. Blackstar (www.blackstar.co.uk) provide a good example of best practice here:

Thanks for emailing blackstar.co.uk.

There are currently 51 emails in the queue in front of yours,

so our expected response time is approximately 1 hour, 10 minutes.

Don't forget that you can track your order status on line at:

http://www.blackstar.co.uk/circle/order_status - company no longer available

(where you can also cancel your order if you've made a mistake, or

have just changed your mind)

Many other common questions are also answered in our help section: click on the big

question mark in the header bar or go direct to http://www.blackstar.co.uk/help/

Stage 2 Routeing of e-mail

Best practice involves automated routeing or workflow. Routeing the e-mail to the right person is made easier if the type of query has been identified through the techniques described for Stage 0. It is also possible to use pattern recognition to identify the type of enquiry. For example, Nationwide (www.nationwide.co.uk) use Brightware’s ‘skill-based message routeing’ so that messages are sent to a specialist adviser where specific enquiries are made. Such software can also be used at Stage 1 to give an autoresponse appropriate for the enquiry. Using this approach, Mark Cromack says 40% of messages no longer reach our advisors.

Stage 3 Composing response

Best practice is to use a library of pre-prepared templates for different types of query. These can then be tailored and personalised by the contact centre employee as appropriate. The right type of template can again be selected automatically using the software referred to in Stage 2. Through using such auto-suggestion, the Nationwide has seen email handling times reduced by 25% for messages requiring advisor intervention. Sony Europe identifies all new support issues and adds them with the appropriate response to a central knowledge base.

Stage 4 Follow-up

Best practice is that if the employee does not successfully answer the first response, then the e-mail should suggest that callback from employee or a live-chat. Indeed to avoid the problem of ‘e-mail ping-pong’ where several e-mails may be exchanged, the company may want to proactively ring the customer to increase the speed of problem resolution, and so solve the problem.

Finally the e-mail follow-up may provide the opportunity for outbound contact and marketing, perhaps enquiring whether there are any further queries while advising about complementary products or offers.
Measuring and optimising contact management effectiveness

New processes for responding to customer e-mails should also incorporate methods, preferably automated, for reporting the level of service quality and the cost. These metrics should close the loop on the objectives mentioned at the start of the article. As well as data on response times, e-mail handling times and costs, we also need customer feedback on their experience. A straightforward option is to build questions on online customer service into customer satisfaction surveys. Companies such as Epson (www.epson.co.uk) give customers the option of completing an online questionnaire on their satisfaction after online support. Other companies use mystery shoppers to assess and improve support quality. In a survey conducted for Trainline.com by eMysteryShopper.com mystery shoppers not only commented on the web site, but also on the quality of phone and e-mail service from Trainline staff.
Summary

With an ever-increasing volume of inbound customer e-mail, clearly defined contact strategies and efficient e-mail handling processes are needed. These approaches should ensure a good level of customer service while minimising the cost of service delivery. The two main strategies reviewed were customer preferred channel and company preferred channel. Reviewing your process for responding to e-mail can be based on these stages:

0: Customer defines support query

1 Receipt of e-mail

2 Routeing of e-mail

3 Composing response

4 Follow-up

Links

MyCustomer (www.mycustomer.com) contains articles from CRM vendors and consultants including those specialising in customer contact management.

European Centre for Customer Strategies (www.eccs.uk.com) contains case studies and best practice for CRM strategy and implementation including contact management.

Peppers and Rogers site (www.1to1.com) has a review of the main suppliers of customer contact management software.

Note: This article is one of a series originally written between 2000 and 2003 for The Chartered Institute of Marketing What's New in Marketing Newsletter. Many of the concepts remain valid, but some more recent concepts such as Web 2.0 and social networks aren't referenced.

For the latest on these concepts search my DaveChaffey.com blog site for Email marketing articles.