The Customer Service Dilemma

Customer Management is simple. You treat every customer the way you would like to be treated as a consumer. We all preach it - but how many companies actually deliver it? The more successful a business unit grows, the more difficult it becomes to maintain.

Why? Customers v Costs - The Manager's Dilemma

"We want PERFECT Customer Management"
"We want to cut costs"

The Problem

"I want to make contact when and how I want to make contact" (Mrs B Symmonds, Milton Keynes)
• The web, email and phone have increased customer expectations
  
• We live in a 24/7 environment
  
• Even if only 20% of people want to communicate 'out of hours', that could be the difference between a 1% response and a 1.2% response!
  
• Phone out of hours - why not?
  
• Email whenever they want - why not?
  
• Communicate over the web - why not?

How do we know that they will phone back during office hours? Or write instead of email? They may simply never bother!

"I don't want to be kept waiting" (Mr S Jones, Cardiff)

• By phone or email, some people gauge 85% Grade of Service as acceptable
• How do the 15% who do NOT receive Grade of Service feel?
• If only 15% do NOT receive satisfaction, that could be the difference between a 1% response and 1.15% response!
• Whether by web, phone or post, the only acceptable Grade of Service is 100%

How do we know that they will phone back later when the queue is smaller? They may not bother!

"I don't want to be passed from pillar to post" (Ms C Willets, Wimbledon)
• A customer does not want to repeat the problem to several different people
• The staff dealing with problems must have everything at their fingertips - both knowledge and solutions
• The experience must be pleasurable
• If 10% of customers cannot be bothered to 'persevere' to seek resolution of a problem, that could be the difference between a 1% response and a 1.1% response!

How do we know that they will keep trying to resolve the problem? They may not bother!

The Response

"If only we upset the same people!" (Head of Customer Services, ABC plc)
• If we lose 20% of customers because they cannot communicate at their convenience…
• If we lose 15% of customers because they are kept waiting or receive neither prompt acknowledgement nor response…
• If we lose 10% of people because we do not quickly address their problem…
• Without overlap, we could lose as much as 45% of customers!

"Even if we 'get away with it'…" (Customer Services Manager, CRE Ltd)
• Does our response create a positive experience that the customer WANTS to repeat?
• Does our customer care encourage further purchasing?
• What impact will a customer's experience have through word of mouth?
• How badly does the customer need the product?

The Reality

"How practical is PERFECT Customer Service in a modern age?" (Response Centre Director, Heathmill Multimedia)
• It is difficult. There is so much involved…
• All communication mediums
• Large and well-trained staff

All channels

• To deliver you need WEB, PHONE and POST fully integrated
• Customers want to communicate through one or all channels whenever they choose
• This puts an immense technical burden on the project

Enormous staff resource

• To accommodate the 'peaks and troughs' of customer contact - hours within days, days within weeks, weeks within months, months within years - there must be MORE cover than can be realistically and commercially justified!

Highly trained well equipped staff

• In order to be able to deal with queries, staff must be trained to identify and analyse problems quickly
• They must also have knowledge and solutions at their fingertips
• They must have the technology to enable the effective and prompt responses
• Staff must be of a high calibre, requiring a higher wage

How can this be reconciled with the Manager's Dilemma?

Heathmill Response Services

Our Philosophy
To us, Customer Management is simple - treat every customer as we would wish to be treated ourselves.

Brand Guardians
We are the custodians of your brand; it is vital that every response we deal with represents your company's values and standards precisely.
Every single communication should provide further opportunities for customers to purchase more.

The Web-Phone-Post multi-channel approach
We are totally committed to this, whether we are handling your calls, answering your post or responding to your emails.

The Heathmill Csutomer Relationship Management Multi-Channel System (CRM)

Our proprietary CRM system has been developed over 15 years. We have a wide range of experience of Clients and customers in a broad range of sectors. We have a complete view of every single customer contact no matter what the channel. Through our advanced database we can see at a glance the complete customer profile and history. Through our impressive data analysis we can extract key trend data for our Clients and help them to understand what their data is actually telling them about their customers.

We can even use this analysis to help Clients build a range of scripting options depending on the purchasing preferences of their customers.
Through our analysis, we will also continually update our KnowledgeBase with regular customer queries, and alert our Client so that they can change their literature or advertising messages and constantly improve the brand experience for their customers, both existing and potential.

Heathmill Powered By PROFIT Software

To deliver a high level of service to our Clients we believe in 3 key elements:

PROFIT - PEOPLE - PROCESSES

PROFIT software gives us our edge and enables us to be flexible and agile.

Our people deliver the service to our Clients' customers. We place a great deal of emphasis on motivation and training.

Our processes are flexible to be able to cope with new projects or unforeseen issues on existing projects. Our Intensive Care Unit exists both to implement new projects and to handle exceptional questions and problems - keeping the workflow constant for our Client teams.


PROFIT Software:
At The Heart Of Everything Ww Do

PROFIT Software - our proprietary application - has been growing for over 15 years. Benefiting from the latest 3-dimensional relational database, PROFIT is the most dynamic application currently available.
Since its creation, we have enhanced it and added features with every new Client. Its functionality is now vast, seamlessly linking, among others, the following features:

• Accounting
• Product servicing
• Order processing and fulfilment
• Customer service
• Subscription servicing
• Reporting
• Donations
• Product management
• Customer record maintenance
  
• Web
• Marketing
• Order input

Through PROFIT software, we are able to provide full CRM to all Clients as standard. Any contact with the customer by web, phone or post is recorded onto PROFIT, providing our Clients with invaluable marketing information. We also have the capacity to collect as much demographic information as Clients require. PROFIT affords us total flexibility to do whatever we want.
PROFIT also links all our response and fulfilment services together so, for example, any customer order received by web, phone or post will be automatically despatched by our in-house fulfilment department immediately. In fact, if a customer orders over the web, the automated processing system means that the first human contact with that order could be when the postman delivers it!
In other words, ALL information, including customer demographics, stock information and payment details, are contained on a single database. This gives us total control over the whole process, enabling us to track orders and perform audit trails. The use of a single database also means that we can offer a fast and flexible service tailored to suit your needs.

PROFIT For Marketing

Because all of our customer communications are generated through PROFIT, absolutely every piece of communication, from renewal letters to carrier sheet labels, invoices to delivery notes (to name but a few), gives you the opportunity to market to your customers and generate increased sales.
Through the PROFIT database, we can easily identify opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling.
Our demographic profiling allows you to understand your customers' purchases, habits and preferences, enabling you to target your activities extremely tightly.
Our reporting systems enable you to track and measure the success of your various campaigns.
PROFIT also handles all aspects of list management including list importing, de-duping,
cross-referencing, running against preference files such TPS, MPS etc.
We also run the latest version of QAS for up-to-date postcode information across all customer records as standard.

PROFIT For Customer Service

Our fully integrated multi-channel CRM system means that customer service is simple and efficient. Backed up by our KnowledgeBase system, our advisors can deal with customers quickly. We run 'one button' escalations, which means that in the event that the customer cannot be dealt with by the advisor, they are seamlessly transferred to someone who can.

PROFIT For Finance

PROFIT contains a comprehensive accounting package, enabling you to see where you are at a glance.
It provides full stock control and audit trails, as well as monthly banking reconciliation reports.
It also provides a system-wide sales ledger summary.
With the flexibility of PROFIT, you can set up reports on virtually any criteria to enable you to receive up-to-the-minute financial information.

Web-Enabled PROFIT

Any marketing campaign you undertake can be translated, if not replicated, for the web. Our seamless web ordering system means that any contact made via the web can be handled automatically, as it links PROFIT's e-commerce system to the customer record and to our fulfilment operation.
We have paperless direct debits and online credit card validation.
We can also handle customer service queries over the web.

PROFIT For The Future

Through PROFIT you will be introduced to the many other services available at Heathmill. Once your project is up and running we can show you numerous opportunities to increase your return on marketing investment.

Client Chooser
Client Chooser is our front end CTI application that brings the enormous functionality of PROFIT right to the operator's fingertips. Such is its user-friendly nature, Client Chooser integrates every operator into the campaign, providing online incentives through constant performance monitoring and target setting.
Client Chooser is also the operator's one-touch link to KnowledgeBase.

KnowledgeBase
KnowledgeBase, an information bank held on the PROFIT database, is designed to contain frequently asked questions and additional information about your products and services. This enables us to answer any questions that a customer may have, accurately and without hesitation.
It serves as the ultimate customer service/call centre tool, quickly providing the solution to any external query.
It uses keywords, categories and group settings to search the possible solutions and find the required answer. This answer can then be recorded against a customer record and/or emailed to the customer. If an answer is not found the details of the call can be logged in an outstanding list or assigned by email to an individual.

KnowledgeBase Administration
KnowledgeBase can be customised on search selections and category set-ups. Managers can append the KnowledgeBase with new questions and answers as and when required. A range of reports are available to show the most queried items or categories as well as list details about outstanding items.

People

The Response Centre team is led by the Response Manager, who is dedicated to raising standards and achieving a consistently high Grade of Service through recruitment, training, motivation and incentivisation.
The Response Centre is a core part of our business and is supported by every other employee within Heathmill. It is the Heathmill Management Ethos that all staff at all levels are trained up to handle emergency or overflow work on all major campaigns.

Code Red
Because we refuse to allow Grade of Service to slip, we have a CODE RED light that goes on across our sites on every floor to indicate that we are facing call volumeor technical problems. At this point, every member of staff is advised of what is happening and is placed on standby to help in whatever capacity is appropriate. This includes senior management staff, including all directors.

Account Management
At Heathmill, our Clients' business is our business. We know that each project we take on, no matter how small, has the potential to lead to other opportunities.
Whilst we do not believe in rigid hierarchies, we do appreciate that to deliver excellent solutions for our Clients, we must carefully select teams of people who are dedicated to providing a high standard of service and expertise for each Client. We welcome Client input on the selection of these teams.

Account Teams
Each Client project has a committed Account Director and Client Director who are responsible for both driving the entire project forward and communicating with the Client.
Each project also has a multi-skilled Account Team.
The Account Director is responsible for the commercial aspects of the project and particularly for the researching, planning and developing of the project. The Client Director is the Client's champion and representative at all internal meetings. The Account Manager has a pivotal role, running the internal day-to-day operations, ensuring that everyone involved in the project has all the relevant information at their fingertips.

Client Hotline
We also have in place a team of key personnel who work on the Client Hotline - an immediate point of contact for our Clients via phone, email and the web. The Client Hotline team will ensure any queries are dealt with immediately by the appropriate Account or Client Director.

Processes

Sales Prospects

Our specialist sales teams will make initial contact with prospective Clients and get an overview of their business requirements. This information is then fed directly into Heathmill Laboratories, where a Client project specification is developed. This is a very iterative process involving sales, our prospective Client and Heathmill Labs. Through discussions, demonstrations and site visits, we are then able to develop a full specification and pricing proposal.

New Project Wins

Once we have won the project, Heathmill Labs will then develop the specification into a full Client solution. Whilst Labs is staffed by full time people, they will draft in experts from all over the company to develop the solution. Part of this process is the implementation plan. Once it has been developed and tested, it is then handed to the Intensive Care Unit for implementation.

Intensive Care Unit

The Intensive Care Unit exists to provide constant specialist care and nurturing whilst a project is being implemented. Once the project is 'bedded in' and has become part of our day-to-day operations, the project is handed to the Client Director to oversee.
The Intensive Care Unit, situated within the Response Centre, also exists to solve any issues that may arise once a project is up and running.

Efficiency Unit

The Efficiency Unit carries out constant quality checking to ensure we continue to maintain a high standard of service throughout the Supply Chain. Our commitment to our Clients' brands means that regular call monitoring, ongoing training and 'mystery shopping' become an integral part of each team member's ongoing appraisal.
Every single manager at Heathmill spends a few hours a month in the Efficiency Unit, monitoring calls and giving constructive feedback.

Overview Of Our Services

Our response handling services provide Clients with a complete approach to customer communications across a wide range of services. The following lists introduce the services we offer to Clients. Each solution we create for our Clients is tailored to their precise needs.
Our aim is to provide our Clients and their customers with choice. Therefore, we can handle enquiries from any communication channel - by web, phone or post or in combination.
We can simply do exactly what you tell us, or we can help you get the most out of your outsourcing by advising you and helping you to get the best out of us.
We will provide advice on opening hours, scripting, telephone numbers and websites. We will help you with tracking codes for you to assess the success of your advertising. We can report on anything at any time and in any format. Our data analysts will help you make sense of the data you have about your Clients to help you make informed business decisions.

Our full range of services include:

The sales channel - full sales order processing from enquiry through to sales, payment process and despatch and follow up customer services

• Cross-selling, up-selling and incentives
• Demographics collection
• Subscription services
  
• Back office administration - all through PROFIT software
  
• Payment processes and banking services straight to client back accounts
  
• Help desks, including technical help desks
  
• Information services
  
• Retention strategies
  
• Dedicated prospecting team (telemarketing)
  
• Overflow call services to support your own call centre
  
• Market research surveys

Data File Set Up

Our fully comprehensive data file set-up capabilities enable us to meet all Client database needs, including:

• Prospects file/demographic set-up
  
• Transactions file/banking details
  
• Product query file
  
• Marketing initiative file

The highly flexible nature of our software means we can adapt to any database format and provide wide-ranging, real-time reporting and analysis.
We can either set up from scratch or convert pre-existing Client data.

Customer (Telephone) Response

• Below is a taster of the wide range of telephone response services we offer:
  
• Enquiries
  
• Orders
  
• Payment processing
  
  • Direct debits
    
  • Credit/debit cards
    
  • Continuous credit cards
    
• Customer services
  
• Help lines
  
• Technical help desks
  
• Multi-lingual services
  
• Subscriptions
  
  • Subscription stop-starts
    
  • Renewals
    
  • Cancellations
    
• Address changes
  
• Web enquiry telephone help desk
  
• Emails
  
• Online enquiries/orders
  
• Fax

Postal Response Services

Any services we offer via phone can be provided via post, too. We also offer:

• Post-opening and sorting
• Batching - manual or electronic
• Coupons
• Returns processing
• Correspondence/white mail
• Banking

Web Response Services

As PROFIT's e-commerce system is fully integrated with everything we do, orders entered directly on to our Client's website or website link (which we can build) are automatically entered directly on to PROFIT to ensure a seamless and fast service for customers responding using the web.
We can offer the same services that we offer by phone and post over the web, and more besides!

• Automated ordering
• Automated reply
• Personalised reply
• Email form auto processing

Scripting is a key tool when it comes to selling, up-selling and cross-selling. Our experts will provide you with scripts to help uplift your sales percentages.

• Full scripting facilities
• Different scripts for different callers
• Data mining - response predicting - script type

Hours

With our vast experience of working with a wide range of Clients on a variety of campaigns, we are well placed to advise on the best working hours to operate within in order to maximise the efficiency of campaigns.
For example, as part of our subscriptions management campaign for The Times, after analysing demographic data we had collected, we advised them to extend call centre hours to the weekends and until 8pm on weekdays. This was to increase the number of renewals from subscribers under 45, who failed to renew because they previously could not make enquiries out of normal office hours. With the extended operation hours, we succeeded in increasing the number of younger subscribers.
We operate on a 24/7 basis and have staff available for all shifts. We use live operators at all times.

Multiple Language Availability

PROFIT is set up to handle multi-lingual scripting. We have people within Heathmill who speak a range of languages. Depending on our Clients' requirements, we also have a pool of people we call on for linguistic expertise.

IVR

We normally prefer to handle all calls live. However, our extensive IVR can be useful to filter calls to different groups or to enable callers to hear pre-recorded information, and to handle unexpected spikes.

Voice

Based on IVR technology, we have created a 'voice announcement' programme that enables us to provide automatic information on a call, thereby freeing up operator time.
For example, on a Postcode call, once a postcode has been found, it can be automatically announced to the caller, enabling the operator to move on to the next call.

IVM

Where a Client requests set hours for a campaign, we can offer a 24-hour IVM facility to either direct callers elsewhere, advise them of addresses/numbers/ websites, or offer an answering machine service. These messages are then transcribed, dealt with and archived to ensure full quality control.

Escalations

Our automatic escalation system enables queries to be automatically escalated to supervisors and directly on to the Client, depending on their nature.

Data Entry

Our experienced data entry staff are trained to capture data with the utmost speed and accuracy. ·Data entry - manual or electronic

• Electronic data entry - barcodes and/or optical character recognition
• Batching by any category - manual or electronic
• Renewals
• Order coupons
• Survey forms
• Gone aways
• Change of address

Document Scanning

We possess full transparency and document scanning and archiving capability, using
state-of-the-art scanning technology to deliver quality results.

• 100 forms per minuteForms/letters/cheques etc.
• Document archiving
• Automatic indexing
• Secure, high volume storage capacity
• Letter trails and audit trails
• Transparency/film/print scanning

We provide full banking and reconciliation facilities for Clients:

• Payment processing
• Direct debit processing (forms or paperless)
• Cheques
• Postal orders
• Payment cards including continuous credit card payments
• Multiple currencies
• Online credit card validation
• Reconciliation
• BACS
• System banking
• Money transfers
• Audit trails
• Donation processing
• One-off gifts
• Committed gifts
• Tax-efficient gifts

Reporting

PROFIT has enormous reporting capabilities and can provide ad-hoc or standard financial, marketing and response handling reports, 24-hour online access, with real time information, allows you to tweak campaigns as they happen.

Access to Reports

• Remote access through own office
• Real time information
• Printed reports
• Email reports
• Daily, weekly, monthly or annual reports

Financial Reports

• Income received
• BACS reporting
• Audit trails
• Payment method analysis
• Summary reporting
• Claims reports
• Refunds reports
• Sales reports

Response Handling Reports

• Calls/mail/email handling reports
• Volume of calls/mail/emails received
• No calls/mail/emails answered
• Speed of answer
• Grade of Service
• Complaints received
• Data entry reports
• Data entered per period

Data Analysis

Our highly experienced data analysts extract key data for Clients and advise them on what it means for their business.

• Marketing reports
• Segment analysis
• Acquisition analysis
• Campaign response analysis
• Pricing analysis
• Demographic analysis
• Data mining
• Trend analysis
• Customer profiling
• Forecasting
• List analysis

Flexible Client Pricing Policy

We offer extremely flexible pricing and payment methods. Clients can choose the method that suits them best:

• Flat rate per call
• Hourly rate
• Success rate
• Percentage of turnover achieved

OR a combination of all four!

The greater the incentive for our mutual success, the happier we are!

Reporting and Analysis

All reports are developed and tested with Heathmill Laboratories, some of whose staff have financial backgrounds and are able to reconcile a wide variety of reports.

Call Reports have been developed usign SQL and ODBC technologies, which can process large data sets quickly and efficiently.

Bespoke models and simulations for a wide variety of scenarios are developed and sense tested within Heathmill Laboratories. Once their representation is believed to be accurate they are rolled out to clients or client teams for ongoing use.

In some cases, where a client is unsure of the response that a new campaign can expect, Heathmill Laboratories will develop a model to anticipate response, which will be used within our client presentation.