The Prepaid Axioms
for Optimizing
Customer Service
xioms
Introduction
After ten years helping enterprises in prepaid markets achieve superior
The Prepaid Axioms
for Optimizing
Customer Service
axioms
The Prepaid Axioms for Optimizing Customer Service
business results, Contact Solutions has developed a set of axioms for
optimizing customer service in prepaid.
When it comes to your cardholders’ satisfaction, customer experience is the
name of the game. Sustained, positive customer experience improves loyalty
and retention, increases referrals, and ultimately affects the bottom line. So
why do so many organizations ignore opportunities to improve?
These axioms will open your eyes to the possibilities. Their application can
help you generate the continuous improvement needed to achieve and
sustain a positive customer experience…and realize the benefits that follow.
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axiom
Card programs are just starting to talk abut competing
based on the Customer Experience (CX).
CX correlates with three loyalty metrics:
• Consumers’ willingness to repurchase
• Their reluctance to switch
Sharpen focus on the
1 Customer Experience you
deliver to the cardholder.
• Their likelihood to recommend
With an increased focus on delivering a better customer experience,
you can drive more purchases, less churn, and greater market buzz.
Start by identifying the cardholder’s journey. Identify pain points
and their causes, and address each of them systematically.
Then repeat the process. Transform your operation so the
decisions that caused the pain cannot happen again.
For example, if the top reason cardholders call customer
service is to learn the timing of their next deposit, streamline
the tasks needed to accomplish that goal up front so the call
is faster, easier, and more relevant to for the cardholder.
The Prepaid Axioms for Optimizing Customer Service
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axiom
Common perception is that all customers want to
speak with a live agent. And many do.
Why? Because their perception of automation is at best not
helpful, and at worst aggravating and a waste of time.
Embrace automation...
2
carefully.
Of course you want to give customers what they want, but, live agent
support is among the heaviest cost burdens in customer service.
A self-service transaction in the IVR is 10 to 20 times lower in cost than an
agent transaction. Improve the customer experience and reduce expenses
by making self-service transactions an experience callers prefer.
Put cardholders in charge of their own experience. Do it right and
you will have happier cardholders at a lower overall cost.
The Prepaid Axioms for Optimizing Customer Service
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axiom
Customer satisfaction is a tricky thing. It is only as good as the most
recent experience. Knowing what your customers are looking to get
out of their interactions is the first step toward optimizing CX.
In prepaid, cardholder segments act differently. Understand interactions.
Then design systems that allow cardholders to achieve their goals.
Understand cardholder
3
interactions and goals.
Cardholder demographics, behaviors, and reasons
they interact vary by card type:
• GPR
• Payroll
• Gift
• Healthcare
• Rebate
• Government Benefit
If you understand cardholders’ goals, interaction preferences,
and use scenarios, you can better design interactions that
are useful, easy, and enjoyable for them. Do that, and
watch your customer experience ratings improve.
The Prepaid Axioms for Optimizing Customer Service
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axiom
If you want your customers to more quickly embrace the automated
transactions you offer, tell them how. Show them that self-service
is designed with their best interests in mind, and show them how to
use it to their benefit. This can deepen the relationship you have with
the cardholder, drive retention and use, and keep costs down.
4
Educate the cardholder.
Consider a new cardholder who might not be aware of all the features
your program offers. Educating the cardholder – not all at once but
over time – on fee plans, card features, text alert options, direct
deposits savings programs, and best use of the IVR can have a
positive impact on the lifetime and the spend of your customers.
If you demonstrate value to cardholders, they will take
advantage of your self-service channels.
The Prepaid Axioms for Optimizing Customer Service
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axiom
How do you improve something that you cannot quantify?
How do you know it is improved? How can you measure
effectively against goals without numbers?
What gets measured gets done. But, the prepaid industry has precious little
benchmark data on customer experience today. This must change in order
to make a concerted and successful effort to improve customer service.
5
Quantify the subjective.
Data is critical to the continuous improvement of your customer
experience. Benchmarks enable you to recognize areas that may
be in need of improvement. By applying analytics to the customer
experience – and by quantifying CX in ways that combine data
from caller perceptions, as well as actual system performance
– your organization can make the subjective, objective.
Measure….analyze….improve…then repeat. This is
at the core of Continuous Improvement.
The Prepaid Axioms for Optimizing Customer Service
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axiom
Often, when an organization takes a one-size-fits all approach,
poor customer experience is the result. Your cardholders may have
similar interactions, but they can have unique needs. Give them the
ability to address their individual intentions.Embed personalization
to make every cardholder feel like the most important cardholder.
To get personal, consider implementing user-centric design.
Here are some questions to consider:
• What are the cardholder goals for the interaction;
6
Get personal.
what are they trying to accomplish?
• What are the scenarios and use cases when are
they interacting? What are they doing during the
interaction? What kinds of device are using?
• What are the common behaviors and expectations?
• What life cycle stage are they in? Is the cardholder new?
Or, has the cardholder been with the program for some time?
• What are the cardholder’s preferences?
Interaction preferences? Language preferences?
• What is the cardholder history and profile of prior use?
Do they always want the card balance?
The Prepaid Axioms for Optimizing Customer Service
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axiom
When a new, sexy technology comes along, that’s what everyone
wants to talk about. In the meantime, other critical things can
get overlooked. A great example today is mobile technologies.
Focus on technology...
7
second.
Everybody is talking about mobile strategy with such gusto,
you’d think they were in the mobile technology business!
The smarter move is to focus on driving a well-thought-out customer
and business strategy first….and only then focus on the technology
as a means to implement your customer and business strategy.
Ask yourself, what might we be ignoring that is not necessarily so sexy?
The Prepaid Axioms for Optimizing Customer Service
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axiom
The prepaid industry is complex and very dynamic. So are
the customers we’re serving. Yet, too many organizations set
their customer service strategy and then forget about it.
8
Reject the status quo.
The key to achieving and sustaining a high customer experience
rating is continuous improvement. A proactive, quantitative
focus on improving customer satisfaction can drive loyalty,
retention, and growth across your customer base.
Never stand still. Remember, measure…analyze…improve...then repeat.
The Prepaid Axioms for Optimizing Customer Service
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axiom
A complement to “Reject the Status Quo,” adhering to this axiom will keep you
aligned with cardholder needs as the market and competition evolve.
Right now, the future is close…and the future is mobile. With the quick
adoption of smartphones, it’s believed that mobile devices will become the
dominant platform over the next five years. Considering that mobile devices
have become the screen closest to the customer, it makes sense.
“Neither disruption nor product innovation are new, but let us be clear:
Your company is about to be disrupted like never before. Consumers are
adopting disruptive technology — namely connected devices — at an
unprecedented rate, and these are permanently changing the way in which
your customers interact and engage with your products and services.”
̶ excerpt from “An Empowered Report: How To Drive Transformational
9
Keep an eye on the future.
Product Innovation in Your Organization” Forrester, N
­ ovember 2010
Consider these trends:
• Smartphone adoption reached 42 percent of mobile subscribers for the three-month
average period ending December 2011, increasing 15 percentage points during 2011
and representing an additional 35 million smartphone device owners over 2010.
• In July 2011, smartphones accounted for the majority of new mobile phone
purchases for the first time, quite a change from the beginning of 2009 when
smartphones accounted for just 18 percent of new device purchases.
• At the end of 2011 there were more than 400 smartphone devices on the market
in the U.S., giving consumers a myriad of options when choosing a device.
You have a view into the future right now. Consider how mobile adoption will change the
way customers will interact with your organization—and adapt your customer and business
strategy to the changing market. Then consider technology options that will help you deliver.
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10
axiom
Call on Contact Solutions
10 and join the customer selfservice revolution.
The Prepaid Axioms for Optimizing Customer Service
Institutionalizing continuous improvement methodology in your
customer service can improve your customer experience, operations,
and business results year over year. The market is fluid. NOW
is the time to optimize your customer service to improve the
cardholder’s experience and lower your operating expenses.
Contact Solutions provides customer self-service for
more than 17 million active prepaid cardholders.
We provide customer self-service automation solutions for prepaid across
multiple communications channels that continuously improve the customer
experience and transform call center processes, while reducing customer
service expenses. And, when you work with us, we guarantee your results.
Call on us today to learn how you can improve your cardholders’
experience while increasing your average margin per card.
www.ContactSolutions.com
703.480.1620
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About Contact Solutions
Contact Solutions LLC provides solutions that continuously improve the customer experience
and transform call center processes while reducing operational expenses. Guaranteed.
Our clients achieve superior lifetime ROI and higher customer experience ratings for their
automated solutions because, for years after initial deployment, our unique
Continuous Improvement Practice keeps raising the bar on performance.
Contact Solutions is one of the top five largest hosted IVR providers in North
America, and received a 2011 Product Differentiation Excellence Award
from Frost & Sullivan for our Customer Experience (CX) Framework.
www.ContactSolutions.com
© 2012 Contact Solutions, LLC. All rights reserved.