Engaging with customer facing employees

What are we going to cover?

• Why bother?• Some of the issues• Archetypes exercise• Tips

Why bother?

Some of the reasons we came up with

• Competition is fierce• It’s a buyers market• The weakest link• Market intelligence• We have a psychological contract

Some of the issues

• Segmentation• Assumptions around channels• Promiscuity• Getting their voice heard• Tension of being a channel to market and an

audience in itself• Prescriptive behaviours vs. empowerment

Archetypes

Amrita

•Age 23•Graduate, in her second call centre role in 2 years•Now working for a UK mobile phone company•Based in Bangalore•Part of a team of 50 who handle customer billing enquiries•Works shifts•Interfaces with the collections team based in UK•Has access to the internet and intranet but never has time to do so as needs to achieve the very tight SLA’S on call management

Bob

•Bus driver for 30 years•Been with the same company for 40 years•Works shifts•Typically arrives at the depot about 15 minutes before his shift starts to catch up with his mates•Gets a 45 minute break for lunch that he spends reading The Daily Mail, eating his homemade sandwiches and playing pool with his best mate Trevor•Clocks off and heads to his local for a pint straight after work

Anna

•A mum with 3 children at school•Works 4 days a week at her local supermarket•Her hours are 8 til 3 which fits in with school hours•Her role is to make sure that fruit and veg shelves are well stocked for customers•Loves working there as the people are really friendly. Some of her friends and neighbours work there too and she gets a good discount which makes a difference when you have a growing family •Has a mobile phone and uses it mainly to keep in touch with her children

Keith

•Service engineer•Been with the same company since he left college•Field based•Gets his appointments for each day from the central customer services team whom he has never met•Always more appointments than there are hours in the day•Has web access at home which he uses mainly to keep track on his football team and buy and sell a few items on ebay

Sharon

•Works in a High St. retail bank•She is an assistant manager at the branch having moved from another branch in the city•She is on a career path and if she does well here there is a managers job she has her eye on for 18 months time•She likes the security of the bank, the prospects are good and there is an excellent remuneration structure•She is enjoying the challenge of managing a team for the first time

Your brief

• You have 3 minutes in your group to discuss what are the challenges in communicating with them?

• Another 3 minutes to debate how best to engage them and ensure it is a two way process?

• 5 Minutes to explore how we will know if we are successful?

Your best practice tips