The Hindu Business Line : Your call's on hold again?

Before rushing over to the company, it's only human to check if the help line can resolve it but what can put you off is the detailed explaining necessary each time you call and to different people who have little idea what you are talking about.

As you grit your teeth and start your story all over again for nth time, remember you are not alone in your quest.

"All over the world, customers are reaching out. Customers are calling companies on the phone, e-mailing, chatting, and searching Web sites looking for services and products, which all translates into big business. However, long hold times, delayed responses, and uninformed customer service representatives are thwarting them. Thus companies are losing sales and customer loyalty," says Girish Krisnamurthy, Managing Director, Asia-Pacific, Talisma. Management gurus have repeatedly emphasised that efficient response to customer queries is among the best keys to increase business and expand the customer base, besides ensuring loyalty. Hence, Talisma has come up with its Customer Interaction Management (CIM) software, Talisma CIM. The software enables a company to cut response time and enable competent answers to customer queries, regardless of whether a query was made over the phone, on e-mail, through a Web form or even a letter or fax.

Krisnamurthy explains, "Imagine a customer whose TV has stopped working. He writes an e-mail to the customer service department of the manufacturer, explaining the problem in great detail. Service Agent A replies to this e-mail, explaining the steps to be taken. The customer tries but is unable to fix it. He then decides to make a phone call. Now, it is very likely that the phone call does not go to Agent A — she may be busy, absent or have left the organisation. Accordingly, the customer has to explain the problem to Agent B all over again." This repetition not only wastes everyone's time, but the already irate customer is going to be more dissatisfied, he says. It also prevents Agent B from giving considered responses, since she does not have the background to the case. The customer will speak about this poor service to his friends, damaging the company's service reputation, and ultimately, sales and market position.

Generally, many companies still work with individual e-mail IDs (such as soumya@company.com, rather than service@company.com), which is overly dependent on one individual. They lack systems to archive and retrieve customer interaction information, irrespective of the individual agents. Talisma's software helps companies shift through information, irrespective of the people involved, he says.

Krisnamurthy says, "For routine product queries, prospects could be directed towards a knowledge portal (self-service-based application) whereas a serious buyer could be interacted with through online chat to help him/her conclude the purchase." CIM, he says, enables an organisation to control costs of communication, without compromising on quality of service. Also, it can throw up interesting insights about a customer and the same customer of a certain product and service can dynamically become a prospect for some other service that the company can provide. "A customer of a financial services company who has a housing loan becomes a target for an insurance policy that the company carries under its portfolio, allowing customer retention and increasing customer life time value." The product ensures "a 360-degree view of the customer, regardless of the channel of interaction."

What users say

Tupperware says, "In the first six months using Talisma, we increased our number of `repeat' buying customers by 200 per cent. By nine months, we reached 300 per cent."

Epson says"The solutions allow us to further push the capabilities of our e-service and self-help strategy, blended with the other channels of communication."

Industry analysts such as IDC and Datamonitor expect the worldwide market for Customer Interaction Management solutions to expand to between $2.2 and $2.5 billion by 2008. Talisma's engineers, across the globe, met with Customer Service VPs and IT Heads in various corporations and determined their needs, which have been incorporated into the product.

"We were looking to completely revamp our existing CRM infrastructure. Telephonic conversations of customers and agents were not being recorded because of which there was no historic data to understand the status of repeated complaints. With Talisma, these bottlenecks are history. Talisma is really cost-effective, and we have saved at least 40-45 per cent by opting for it. Their support processes are transparent, and they allow us to monitor problem resolution time," says Kalyan Prasath,VP-IT, Prudential ICICI.

Service agents and sales people with minimal training can use the software. "Often under three days, if a person is familiar with the business process and common tools such as e-mail and Office, he can start using Talisma with even a day of training. Most Talisma deployments are completed within weeks, and companies can start seeing benefits within a month," claims Krisnamurthy.

So next time the agent puts you on hold endlessly, you could suggest some CIM software. It could make a difference to your time and temper.

paromita@thehindu.co.in

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