Contact Centers

Three Common Operating Mistakes in a Catalog Contact Center
August 1, 2003

Well-run catalog operations always have to balance service perform-ance with operating costs. That is, they must meet service objectives within a budgetary context of what is both doable and affordable. To that end, catalog operations managers often are forced to make compromises when it comes to both setting and satisfying service standards, with the better managers able to deliver acceptable service levels at a reasonable cost. Nowhere is this operating dialectic more evident than in the contact center. Although I might get an argument from a few warehouse managers, I believe the contact center is the most difficult fulfillment activity to manage in

Metrics in the Mix at Figi’s
July 1, 2003

Problem: Call volume that spikes from 60 calls per day during non-peak season to 60,000 calls per day during the holiday rush. Solution: Use metrics and flexible-scheduling techniques to help achieve agent efficiency without overstaffing. Results: 97-percent call center service levels and 90-percent agent-utilization rates maintained throughout most of the rush. As it is for many catalogers, the December holiday season is a booming time at Figi’s, the Marshfield, WI-based gift-giving speciality food mailer. Call volume builds from 60 calls per day during the non-peak season, to a whopping 60,000 calls per day during the holiday rush. To handle the volume, Catherine

Fulfill Inquiries Fast
June 1, 2003

At Lett Direct, we sometimes conduct studies to determine how quickly companies fulfill catalog requests (i.e., inquiries). While some catalogers do a great job turning around requests, many don’t. Unsolicited (and solicited) catalog requests can be extremely valuable, and a high percentage convert into buyers. Therefore, inquiry fulfillment needs to be monitored more closely and given a higher priority. This month, I’ll discuss the importance of inquiry fulfillment and provide results of a recent study we conducted. Unsolicited catalog requests come from many sources. We don’t always know their origins, but we do know inquiries are “diamonds in the rough.” If someone takes

Contact Centers: Keep the Hub Humming
April 1, 2003

No doubt your catalog’s customer contact center has changed dramatically in the past five years. Your employees probably now support e-commerce initiatives, respond to e-mailed correspondence, track outbound customer shipments, access digital product images via the Internet or terminal-based systems, and much more. Before you plot your contact center’s future strategies, answer these three basic questions: 1. How are you defining, measuring and improving customer service? Every cataloger preaches the gospel of customer service, but how does your corporate culture uniquely deliver it? 2. With your increased use of technology, have your productivity levels also risen? In many companies, productivity rates

Face Your Hang-ups
October 1, 2002

Your merchandisers have found the most appropriate products. Your creative team designed an eye-popping book, and your warehouse is prepped for the onslaught of orders. You’ve done everything you can to ensure the success of your next catalog drop. But if your call center doesn’t pick up customers’ calls efficiently enough, all of your work may be for naught. Abandoned calls occur when customers, for whatever reason, hang up the phone before they reach a call center agent. One operations consultant who surveys roughly 30 call centers annually says abandonment rates for catalogers can range from less than 1 percent to 40 percent of

Sell Your Reps on Upsell Programs
August 1, 2002

You don’t have to resort to enforced compliance among your customer service reps to make an upsell program successful for your catalog. In fact, you’ll probably sell a lot more incremental product if you invest the time and effort to ensure that your reps understand and support the validity of the process. Following are six important keys to an incremental sales program that your reps will accept and follow. Stress offers, not selling. Most reps in catalog operations are more comfortable with the idea of helping customers to buy than they are with selling. So soft-pedal your sales talk, and make it

Service Anyone?
May 1, 2002

While attending a recent business marketing conference, two things really struck me. First, direct mail not only lives, but thrives. Indeed, how do you drive Web traffic? Snail mail! Who wants a print catalog? Web browsers! Second, what do customers do when they want to order? They pick up the phone and call. My point isn’t that they use the phone, but rather what occurs—or at least, should occur—during the call. And it isn’t some idealized version of customer relationship management. Rather, they want simple, old fashioned customer service. Let me illustrate with an example from my own catalog-shopping experience. There’s a

High-tech Customer Service
March 1, 2002

Technological advancements within contact centers are revolutionizing the way catalogers answer and manage inbound calls. And if implemented properly, automated, inbound call programs can streamline caller-cataloger interactions and improve overall customer relations. Added bonus: By using these technologies, catalogers are saving time and money—good news in these economically challenging times. The Virtual CSR Imagine a virtual customer service representative (CSR) through which callers can place, change or check their order status. For example, officials at NetByTel (www.netbytel.com) say their NetByTel Connected system’s virtual agents recognize human colloquialisms, ask callers to repeat information the technology couldn’t initially register, and it even

Case Study: Chinaberry Catalog
September 1, 2001

Imagine for a moment that your catalog company’s main competitors are book-selling giants Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The grueling price wars—behemoths battling for market share tend to inflict that on their industries—are driving the smaller players in your space either to bankruptcy court or to the arms of consolidators. But through it all, your niche catalog company continues to enjoy annual sales growth of about 13 percent—for 10 years running. And, in all but one of those years, your company recorded healthy profit margins. Chinaberry, a cataloger specializing in books and other products for children, women and families, combines a carefully selected merchandise

CRM Solutions Can Help Cross-Sell and Upsell
August 1, 2001

Although customer relationship management (CRM), has been a buzzword for the past few years, catalogers have applied it to telemarketing on a sophisticated level only in the past year. The reason for the delay is not because catalogers lack desire to incorporate cutting-edge technology, but rather that CRM solutions can be expensive and tricky to implement effectively, say experts. But careful CRM system selection and adequate staff training can, among other benefits, help boost the cross-sell and upsell rates of your catalog’s customer service reps (CSRs). Goal: Customer Retention Kathryn Jackson of Response Design, a call center consulting firm, says cold calls and