Customer service goes online

BEIJING - Imagine this: You post a micro blog complaining about a company's service and,although normally only your family and friends would pay attention to it, the company replies toyour micro blog and apologizes in just 10 minutes.

With the appearance of new media, more companies are finding that their customer services should not be limited to stores or call centers, but should also expand online. The Internet hassignificantly changed how the world does business, even how a company carries out itscustomer services.

"Twelve years ago, if you wanted to complain to a company about its poor customer service,you even couldn't find a place or person to complain to until the emergence of the customercall center," said Li Nong, vice-president of the US-based business communications systemsprovider Avaya Inc (China), which was the first group of companies to bring call centers intoChina in the 1990s.

The Industry and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Ltd, the country's biggest lender by marketvalue, was the first company to establish a call center in China, in 1998.

The revolution in customer service has begun anew, moving the stage online. ICBC is stillproviding customer services by phone but has also opened a micro blog on Sina Weibo, whichhas attracted more than 7,000 followers.

"Customers are expecting the same quality service online and offline," Li said. "As a result,companies need higher awareness of complaints and faster reaction time."

The new technology and trend require companies to keep an eye on the Internet at all times.

Zeng Zhihui, general manager of a consulting company in Beijing, purchased 12 months ofbroadband service costing more than 1,000 yuan ($156.25) from telecommunication companyChina Telecom in March. However, he found his broadband service was abruptly disconnectedin April.

He called China Telecom, which replied that because his account owed China Telecom 0.1yuan, his broadband was disconnected. In order to re-establish his Internet service, he wouldhave to pay the 0.1 yuan online, which was impossible, or buy a charging card offline.

Zeng was unhappy about this and posted a message on his micro blog complaining about this.In just a few hours, he received many replies and comments. Shortly after, he found that hisbroadband was re-connected.

The company said they had seen his micro blog and temporarily reconnected his Internet forone hour so that he could pay his bill.

According to the company, China Telecom used Zeng's situation as a case study in its internalmeetings and signed a cooperation agreement with Sina Weibo to provide online customerservice.

"Companies are only beginning to notice the influence of new media and they will face morechallenges later on," said Li from Avaya. In order to adapt to changing trends, Li said Avayahas developed its old call center platform into a multimedia connection center.

China's Internet user numbers reached 485 million, of which 195 million subscribe to a microblog service, according to statistics from China Internet Network Information Center in July.

China Daily

Avaya Spotlights Personalized Customer Experiences at ICMI's ACCE Conference & Expo

NEW ORLEANS, La. – ACCE Conference & Expo— Contact centers are evolving as customers increase their demands for more responsive, higher quality customer service in an 'always on,' multimedia world. Avaya Inc., a global provider of business communications and collaboration solutions and services, spotlights these changes at ICMI's ACCE 2011 Conference & Expo—the annual global gathering for the contact center community—and shares new strategies and research to address emerging trends towards personalized customer experiences.

At this year's ACCE event (Avaya Booth #501, June 13 – 15th) in New Orleans, La., Avaya demonstrates its contact center innovations, including Avaya Aura Contact Center, a multimedia work assignment application connecting customers to the right agent or expert via any communications mode, and Social Media Manager, an application that automates the process of scanning social media content, and analyzes it for relevance and ability to take action. Additionally, the company's vice president of product marketing for contact centers, Jorge Blanco, delivers a keynote address (June 15th, 12:30 pm CT) discussing best practices for multimedia contact centers, and the importance of understanding a customer’s context to drive personalized experiences.

Avaya Contact Center Consumer Preference Study
Blanco's address will include results of a new global Avaya Contact Center Consumer Preference Study, commissioned by Avaya and conducted by callcentres.net. The study asked more than 5,000 contact center consumers from around the world their thoughts on customer service topics. Key global results include:
40% of global consumers prefer alternate methods of contact—including web chat, self-service, and text messaging—to phone-based customer service.
55% of consumers said that in 1 to 2 years, email is what they will use regularly to reach customer service centers. This is compared to 15% who said email is their most often used method today.
18% said web chat will be their preferred regularly-used contact method in 1 to 2 years, vs. just 2 percent who said it’s their most often used method today.
86 percent of consumers said that they are likely to tell friends, family or colleagues about a poor customer service center experience.
Results were also measured for U.S.-based consumers. Key U.S. findings include:
Half of U.S. consumers surveyed are likely to opt to use an automated voice response system when offered.
90% of U.S. consumers will tell friends, family or colleagues about a poor customer service experience.
Just 20% said they receive excellent customer service from call centers.
Quick query resolution is the top rated reason U.S. consumers will rate a customer experience as excellent.