COM-20162-XK188 Customer Service Strategies

In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following competency:

Develop strategies to anticipate, prevent, and solve customer service problems and complaints

Scenario

Company Overview
You are in a team lead position in the customer service department for Electronic Resolution, a company that develops computer hardware, including desktop and laptop computers. It sells its products to businesses and individual customers. In addition to manufacturing and selling its products, it also provides technical support as well as general customer support. Susan Sharpe, who is your direct manager and the executive who oversees your department, has asked you to develop a business case study document to anticipate and address customer service problems and complaints for the company. This information will be provided to the senior leadership team, who will use it to support a company-wide customer service strategy. In the five-year strategic plan, the company introduced revised company strategic objectives. In your presentation, you will develop and support customer service objectives that will help the company reach its strategic objectives.
Company Strategic Objectives

Increase the company’s employee Net Promoter Score to above 90% quarterly
Improve customer satisfaction and reduce customer complaints
Reduce employee turnover rate to below 3% annually
Introduce an employee training program to improve customer communications

Issues have been identified in both technical service areas and general customer support, the company’s two major customer support areas. In addition to providing a customer service scorecard, Susan has provided some information about the existing issues in customer service departments across the company. Each department (technical department, general customer service) has a department executive that oversees its area, including various subdivisions within that area. Subdivisions have a team lead who oversees 10 to 12 employees. The department executive has a responsibility to ensure that employees have the resources and training they need to effectively support customers. Each department executive reports to the service division senior leadership team.
Various customer service divisions are complaining that the training and resources are inadequate for them to be effective in their roles. Some examples are that their customer relationship management (CRM) software is slow, and there is a lack of training on the software. The slow response time causes delays on calls with customers, which often leaves customers more upset. In addition, some representatives enter call notes and information, while others do not know how, or do not know what the expectation is.
These frontline employees are distressed because they work so hard and feel unappreciated. They feel as though the senior leadership team does not care about the issues they face. Overall, morale is at a medium level. Several of the outstanding performers have already begun exploring other work opportunities. Cooperation among different levels and departments in the organization is low, as everyone is troubled about their own future. Senior leadership has recognized that in order to have happy customers, they need to have happy employees.
Susan has also presented you with some examples of customer complaints that were widely represented in a recent customer satisfaction survey:
Technical Support
“My experience working with Electronic Resolution resulted in anything but a resolution. I called in for technical support, and I was directed to three different people before finally being told that I needed to spend more money to order a new part that I just received three months ago. Each time I was directed to yet another representative, I was asked the same series of questions: ‘Have you tried turning it off and turning it back on?’ I was bounced around on the phone for over an hour and a half. Next time, I will save myself the time and order from another company!”
“When I spoke with a technical support representative, I felt very unsupported. I called in due to an issue I was having while installing the software that came with the computer. The representative used terms that I did not understand and audibly sighed on the other line continuously when I asked him to explain what he meant. At one point, he even said ‘I can’t explain this more simply,’ and the issue was never resolved. I will be the first to admit that I am not a technology expert, that’s why I was calling you! I did not appreciate being belittled and treated poorly.”
General Customer Support
“I called into the customer support line to check on the status of a large order of computers that I placed for my company. I was on the phone with the representative for at least five minutes just while she pulled my information up (mind you, this was after I already waited on hold for several minutes). I had to answer a series of questions for her to find me in the system, then when she did, it took a long time to load. She said she would send me a receipt with the information that I needed. Two days later, I still didn’t have an email. I called in again, and the representative told me that there was a ticket in to send me an email! Sending an email takes seconds! I know that this is not the representative’s fault. You would think a technology company would not be using such an outdated system! This certainly does not lend credibility to the company.”
“I called in to the customer support line during my lunch break to discuss a billing issue, and I had to wait on hold for about ten minutes to connect with a representative, then, not once, but twice, the call was ‘disconnected’ as I began explaining my issue to the representative. I guess it was time for their lunch too! I went back to the queue, waited on hold, and my lunch was over before I could even connect with someone who was willing to listen.”
“My business is a major customer for Electronic Resolutions. We have ordered thousands of custom laptops from the company to support our growing needs over the past two years. I was told that I would have a ‘personal consultant’ to work with who would be familiar with our company and meet our needs. The first consultant we had was wonderful. She was attentive, checked in with me, and always returned our calls. After she left, we have been assigned ten consultants over just two years! As soon as I get used to one person, a new person starts, and the new person is not familiar with our company or our needs. They are not as attentive, and I have been much less satisfied with the level of service.”

Directions
Your manager, Susan, values your expertise in the field and is relying on you to develop a business case study for the senior leadership team. In this business case study, develop strategies to anticipate and address customer service problems and complaints. Include practices that should be implemented and how these will be measured to determine if they successfully meet the goals outlined in the objectives. Senior leadership will use this information to inform the organization’s customer service approaches moving forward. Use the metrics on the customer service support card, when applicable to support your ideas. Your business case study should address issues that span both technical and general customer support areas and should include the following elements:

Create measurable customer service objectives that align to the organization’s strategic goals for addressing customer service problems and complaints. Include the following in your response:

How will the objectives anticipate, prevent, and solve customer service problems and complaints?

Describe the current opportunities for improvement in relation to the company’s current customer service approaches. Use information from the scenario and from the customer service scorecard to support your response. Include the following in your response:

What trends do you notice in the company’s internal operations that, if addressed, would allow employees to better support customers?
What types of employee training could be implemented to improve customer support?

Analyze metrics from customer service scorecard for identifying opportunities for improvement in the organization’s current approach. Include the following in your response:

How does the existing data support company strategic objectives?
How would you forecast future complaints or problems based on the existing metrics?

Determine additional metrics needed on the customer service scorecard for preventing and solving customer service problems and complaints. Include the following in your response:

How will these metrics strategically measure the customer service objectives you identified?
What additional metrics will help deter possible customer complaints?
How will using these metrics increase value for the organization, or drive down costs for the organization?

Describe technology improvements related to organizational systems for improving the customer experience and increasing value for the organization. Note that it is not necessary to describe a specific brand of software or hardware. Your response should focus on broad technology strategies that will enhance the customer experience. Include the following in your response:

How will the identified technology improve the customer experience?
In turn, how will the improved customer experience increase the organization’s value?

Describe technology improvements related to social media management for improving the customer service experience and increasing value for the organization. Include the following in your response:

Why is it important for organizations to be involved in social media, such as maintaining up-to-date information and responding to customer complaints and inquiries?
Would it be a valuable strategy for the company to have a dedicated social media response team? Why or why not?
Support with examples.

Based on the identified objectives and metrics, suggest adjustments to customer service practices to support the identified customer service objectives. Include the following in your response:

How will the suggested practices align with each organizational goal?
How will the proposed adjustments prevent and address current customer service problems?
Should these changes be communicated to customers? If so, how?
How should these changes be presented to employees to empower them to be effective in their roles?
What types of adverse reactions might occur if this information is not carefully communicated to employees? How would that impact customers?

What to Submit
Every project has a deliverable or deliverables, which are the files that must be submitted before your project can be assessed. For this project, you must submit the following:
Business Case StudyYou will develop a business case study for upper management in your organization. This should be approximately 5 to 7 pages in length and written in 12-point Times New Roman font, with one-inch margins and double spacing.

Supporting Materials
The following resource(s) may help support your work on the project:
Citation HelpNeed help citing your sources? Use the CfA Citation Guide and Citation Maker.
Supporting Information: Customer Service ScorecardThe customer service scorecard includes information about the business that should be used to support responses in the project. Note that the data on the scorecard is represented as percentages.