Cliintel: Why are Customer Service Metrics so Important?

Why worry about customer service and the metrics needed?
http://www.clientintelligence.blogspot.com/2015/03/why-are-customer-service-metrics-so.html

Data Talk Show? – It’s About Time | Data Talk Show

This engaging talk show discusses the relationship between sales and big data.
http://datatalkshow.com/2015/06/03/data-talk/

Where is the Future of Data and Analytics Heading?

Data is not going anywhere anytime soon. As long as you have analysts who can keep a fresh perspective, the things that you can do with analytics are limitless. What makes analytics so rewarding is that you are able to find trends which lead to causation, correlation, and ultimately the beginning of a whole new cycle. It truly is an infinite loop; the more you discover, the more you know, the more you can investigate, and that cycle continues.

In the next year, you may see some trends reverting toward more traditional data stores as people are exploring this new world of “big data”. Predictive analytics is another buzzword that is constantly growing, and while it could help us immensely, it could also turn to be quite dangerous. Statistics would say that you cannot predict anything unless you have the probability range that you are basing your prediction on. With that being said, as long as you have the human species involved, there is an element of chaos that will inevitably be introduced. If people rely too heavily on analytics, they can lose the ability to interpret situations and use their own intuition to make decisions. What I do not want to see is decisions go entirely to the hardcore data analytics model, as people could lose their human reasoning skills. As long as statistics are married with common sense in the future, then we will be OK and see positive progression.

From a customer service perspective, we have the ability to greatly improve customer service with predictive analytics. Imagine that you are given the ability to accurately predict customer demand. With these predictions, you would be able to adjust all services based on the demand, adjust costs, time, and so much more. The prediction of buying trends is nothing new, but I do see it becoming much more accurate. The key component in all of this is going to be correlation and figuring out what is truly influencing particular patterns.

Employee Engagement

What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement is the intersection of maximum contribution for the business and maximum satisfaction for the employees.  It is a scalable, repeatable, and sustainable level of high performance that benefits both the company and the employee. 

Employee engagement is obtained by having engaged leadership providing a strategic direction;  engaged managers providing scope and treating their resources as individuals and coaching their people to help them reach their potential; an engaged employee voice throughout the organization enabling candid conversations to occur that drive employee based solutions; and a set of engagement values that provides the rules of the road for the company and employees.

Why are Customer Service Metrics so Important?

Put quite simply, you can’t fix it if you don’t know it’s broken. Customer service metrics are important from a few different perspectives, the first being customer satisfaction. I’m sure you have heard the notion that if someone has a bad experience with a company they may tell 100 people, while if they have a positive experience, they may only tell 1. You really want to make sure that you have a good reputation in the industry and the ability hold up that reputation throughout your practices. So how do you maintain that good reputation? To protect your brand, it is critical that you gather information and act on it. Without acting, you find yourself wasting time, resources, and energy.

Aside from customer satisfaction, customer service metrics are extremely important when it comes to sales and marketing. Take, for example, a replacement of a customer’s current data plan with a new promotion plan on a wireless device. What the company may categorize as improved services, could actually result in decreased customer satisfaction from you- the customer. By using the correct metrics, companies can align their sales and marketing strategies with customer input to result in the best possible customer experience.

Want to learn more? Check out Cliintel’s business solutions and philosophy.

How To Right-Size Your Technicians

What is right-sizing?

• Technician right-sizing is the process of geographically aligning a workforce with the workload they’re responsible for in any given area. 

Why doesn't right-sizing happen naturally?

• There are two forces at play while trying to provide service appointments to customers – quota (workload) and routing (workforce).
• During quota management, service appointment windows are generated to specific geographical regions.
• Routing occurs when technicians are dispatched to complete the work within their areas.
• Many different factors lead to a poor alignment of technicians to service appointments.  Some of which are as follows:
  • Size of both the quota and routing areas
  • Incorrect configuration of automatic routing software
  • Lack of communication between quota team and field operations
  • Business processes resulting in arbitrary technician borders

How to identify the need for right-sizing?

• Symptoms of poor right-sizing can be seen through various key performance indicators (KPIs) when granularly viewed.
  • ‘Average Time to Repair/Install’ (ATTR/ATTI) is the time it takes between when a customer requests an appointment and when that customer has a technician at his/her residence.
  • ‘Met Rate’ is the % of appointments where the technician arrived at the customer’s residence within the promised timeframe.
  • ‘Productivity’ is a reflection of how much work is being accomplished by each technician.

• Right-sizing is likely (yet not necessarily) the culprit when a particular area is over-performing and a geographically adjacent area is under-performing in the KPIs listed above.

Why is right-sizing important? What are the impacts of a lack of right-sizing?

• If an area isn't right-sized, it typically results in more sporadic and inefficient technician routing.
  • Some technicians will be assigned very tight routes while others will spend a majority of their day driving to appointments.
  • The technicians with the tighter routes will reflect higher productivity for the day than the technicians that had long drive times and were unable to complete as many jobs.

• It also creates more work for the Dispatch team.
  • Dispatchers will need to have more manual interventions to ensure all the service appointments are met.
  • Instead of the automatic router being able to fill technicians with productive routes, dispatchers are left to do it.
  • Finding jobs to fill technician routes is a reactive task which leaves less time for their proactive duties such as looking ahead and managing jobs that are in jeopardy of being late or altogether missed.

• Negative customer experiences are created.
  • Quota availability is perceived as unfair.
    • “I called my cable provider and they said it’d be a week before they could come out and one of my friends called around the same time and was told it’d only be four days.”
  • Routing complexities and lack of available technicians for an area lead to late or missed appointments.
    • “I took off work and waited for two hours, only to be informed that they couldn't make it and would have to come out another time.”

Welcome the New Year 2015!

To our Customers, Partners, Neighbors and Friends,

It’s been an eventful year for all of us here at Cliintel, as we continue to invest in the solutions we provide and in the communities where we live and work, 2014 has been a busy and rewarding year with many achievements and milestones along the way. In the coming year, we’ll continue to partner with businesses and magnificent non-profits that make Cliintel vibrant, dynamic, and impactful to everyone.

Here are some of the highlights from 2014:

Solution Delivery

• Delivered 14 projects on time and under budget since June
• Created and Implemented a front-end debugging library
• Adhered to software development lifecycle with success

Partnering for Success

• Cliintel worked with Midcontinent Communications and reduced scheduling windows to an industry best, re-designed dispatch operations with heightened focus on customer-impacting metrics in a real-time environment, and demonstrated to the customer community an unrelenting commitment to delivering product and service excellence. “Although never satisfied, this partnership maintained consistent on-time arrival rates of 97.75% with over 93.8% of all jobs scheduled in 15 minute windows, providing more customer choice,” commented Midcontinent Communications Vice President of Operations, Brad Schoenfelder.
• Cliintel and Spectralliance partner to serve the small Multi-System Operator (MSO) community with actionable analytics and data visualization that enhance the support systems offered.
• Cliintel integrates with GLDS for expanded broadband reporting and metrics to allow businesses to drive strategic, operational, and tactical initiatives while precisely measuring impact and demonstrating return-on-investment (ROI).

Presence in the Cable Industry

• Cliintel was an active participant and sponsor of many programs within the cable industry in 2014.

RMCA (Rocky Mountain Cable Association)

• Sponsor of the Turkey Hunt
• Golf Tournament participants

WICT (Women in Cable Telecommunications)

• Sponsor of the Rocky Mountain Tech It Out
• Sponsor of the Rocky Mountain Walk of Fame
• Sponsor of the Carolinas Annual Conference

SCTE (Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers)

• Sponsor of The International Cable-Tec Games
• Tradeshow Exhibitor

NCTA (National Cable & Telecommunications Association)

• Attended The Cable Show in Los Angeles, CA

NCTC (National Cable Television Cooperative)

• Attended The Independent Show in Kansas City, KS

Adaptive Spirit (SkiTam)

• Active board participation
• Attended and volunteered
• Brad Parobek sponsored his time as an active Board member, as well as led the silent auction and assisted with the kids race. Crystal Allen volunteered her time greeting and guiding attendees to the events, check-in for the Brain Trust panel, and assisted at the silent auction.

Impact in the Community

• First Cliintel Cares Day

• Cliintel participated in Hunger Action Month at Food Bank of the Rockies by contributing to the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, filling 600 boxes – over 2.5 tons – with food supplied by USDA for seniors in need throughout the Rocky Mountain service area. In addition, the Cliintel resources fulfilled 16 Mobile Pantry distribution orders to be delivered to program participants.

Connecting for Cancer

• Cliintel cares about making an impact in our community and touching the lives of many individuals, but taking part in Connecting for Cancer is near to our hearts. MyLifeline.org has provided an outlet for Kris (a retired employee) that allows her to connect with all of us, but also other family and friends that want to stay current with how she is feeling, doctors’ visits, and the many sail direction changes the wind of cancer can carry. The ability to connect and provide to as many affected individuals in unfortunate circumstances is embedded in our values and employees and we are honored to be a sponsor for Connecting for Cancer and the life of Kris. Cliintel was able to sponsor Dream Dinners for Kris and her family while she was undergoing treatment, and provided a family portrait session to capture the bright moments of the Pogue family.

Platinum Sponsor: Children’s Hospital Colorado Burn Camps Program- Creating Ties Dinner

• The 2014 Creating Ties dinner raised a total of $80,000 in donations and support ensures that young burn survivors will continue to have opportunities to be defined by their dreams, goals, and their future.