Customer Retention: Keep ’Em And Hold ’Em
Training CSRs to consistently deliver a high level of customer service is paramount to customer retention. Meanwhile, to Bensalem, Pa.-based hosiery cataloger and continuity marketer HCI Direct, getting feedback from reps’ interactions with customers may be just as important.
While HCI Direct employs an outsourced call center, a team leader at the call center conducts a thorough debriefing at the start of every workday. Director of Customer Retention and Service Alysia Caccuro notes that she’s looking for anything out of the ordinary from the prior business day, such as common customer complaints or service problems. “If we have six agents saying they had customer calls regarding problems with the color of their shipments not matching their orders, we can then go to fulfillment and operations and let them know we’re having a problem,” she says.
In addition to the daily debriefings, Caccuro and her marketing team listen in on customer calls at least once a week. While part of the exercise is designed to provide feedback to the CSRs regarding their scripts as well as upselling and cross-selling opportunities, Caccuro adds that she wants to make sure the marketing team literally hears and connects with the voice of HCI Direct’s customers.
Fulfillment
Another potential chance to wow or lose customers comes during the fulfillment process. “In terms of preventing attrition, one of the big hidden leakages out of businesses is the tolerance for poor quality coming out of the distribution center,” says Paal Gisholt, co-founder and president of SmartPak Equine, a Plymouth, Mass.-based multichannel merchant of horse and dog nutritional supplements and supplies.
He notes that 99 percent accuracy in order fulfillment is considered good for many marketers. But because his continuity business ships up to 13 times a year to some customers, he’s quick to add that a 99 percent accuracy rate actually means up to 15 percent of his customer base has had a problem in the past year. “So we’ve put in place a bunch of systems to get our quality level up to about the 99.9 percent range,” he says, “and that takes a lot of commitment.”
