Customer Service

[daveak]

http://www.techrockies.com/story/0022650.html

"RightNow Signs TiVo

Bozeman, Montana-based RightNow Technologies, publisher of hosted customer relationship management software, revealed today that digital video recorder manufacturer TiVo Inc. has adopted the firm's CRM platform. The financial impact of the customer win was not disclosed. According to RightNow, its product will help TiVo better serve its customers while lowering customer support costs by keeping customers informed and by providing agents with essential information and real-time feedback."

So... a better customer service experience?

[stevel]

CRM software does not make for a better experience. Hiring competent CSRs, training them properly and allowing them to "own the problem" does.

[jrgutknecht]

CRM software does not make for a better experience. Hiring competent CSRs, training them properly and allowing them to "own the problem" does.

:up: :rolleyes:

Amen!

[djwilso]

CRM software does not make for a better experience. Hiring competent CSRs, training them properly and allowing them to "own the problem" does.Truer words were never spoken.

Dennis

[shady]

I thought TiVo was an SAP shop!

[Enrique]

Hiring competent CSRs, training them properly and allowing them to "own the problem" does.With what most Level one CSRs are getting I think that's going to be a little hard to do.

[stevel]

It can be done - I have dealt with quite a few companies where it clearly has been done. Unfortunately, a lot of other companies simply look at costs and "productivity" and the incentive for the CSR is to get you off the phone as quickly as possible, not to solve your problem. This is much more likely to happen when customer service is outsourced.

I know that TiVo has gone through several different customer support solutions over the years, and the last time I had any insight into it, they were using an external vendor for the bulk of their customer support service. That was several years ago, so things may have changed since then.

[rainwater]

CRM software does not make for a better experience. Hiring competent CSRs, training them properly and allowing them to "own the problem" does.

CRM does help with lots of account management issues. Having a crappy CRM system will give CSRs nightmares trying to deal with certain issues.

[Enrique]

It can be done - I have dealt with quite a few companies where it clearly has been done.OK, let me get this... You've dealt with companies that Are "Hiring competent CSRs, training them properly and allowing them to "own the problem" and still paying them $9-$10hr?(Which is what most level one CSRs start out as) Wow, poor people.

[stevel]

I have no idea what the competent CSRs are being paid. I just know the end results. I will agree that low-paid CSRs tend to be working for outsourcing firms and thus deliver poor results.

I recently had an encounter with poor service from a well-known software company that was clearly due to the CSR being either VERY new or improperly trained. He was polite and stayed with me a long time, but it was clear from the delays at each step and his responses to my questions that he was reading from a script and blindly following resolution steps that had no relevance to the problem at hand. I know this company has good upper-tier people, but the front-line staff (outsourced to India) is poor.

I will also agree that a poor CRM system will make matters worse, but a good CRM system, on its own, won't improve customer service. The people and management attitude is more important than anything else.

Outsourcing doesn't have to mean bad service, either. I've had quite good results from Dell, for example. I do software tech support, and while our product is not a "consumer" product and we don't do phone support, we have in the past tried using outsourcing to fill in some coverage gaps. We trained and trained, but the turnover was so high it didn't do any good and eventually we just gave up and kept it all in-house.