There's no denying that the customer experience is the most vital function of any business. Keeping customers happy, particularly in environments that depend on ROI, ensures a stable cash flow and a business that continues to function for years.
But Fidelity decided to get a little edge on the competition by being a lot more helpful in the customer contact environment, and focused its call center agents on decreasing hold times and improving relationships with customers.
Such a move would not prove simple, of course; Fidelity gets between 2,500 and 3,000 calls every day, which is a pretty hefty volume of calls for most any call center environment – especially a smaller one like Fidelity was likely using. But Fidelity turned to the Zeacom Communications Center, which provided some important extra tools for things like effective, skills-based routing and real-time monitoring and reporting.
The improvements not only allow for better overall customer contact, but it also allows Fidelity to stay within government regulations that require at least 80 percent of all customer calls be answered in 20 seconds or less.
Thanks to Fidelity's changes and the Zeacom Communications Center, Fidelity has brought its numbers up to impressive levels. Where before, Fidelity could only reach 70 percent of callers within 20 seconds, they can now reach 88 percent. Fidelity even adopted a pro-active approach that was proved to be well-received; a power outage recently struck their call center, and reduced its capability greatly. Rather than risk customer calls going unanswered in a situation clearly beyond their control, they seized the initiative and sent notices to their customers that the contact center was running at suboptimal capability in light of the power outage.
This measure put out a clear message: though they wouldn't be much help for a while, they cared enough to let their customers know that there was going to be a problem, instead of letting customers already in need find out there would be little help for them for a while.
These kinds of measures go a long way toward securing customer perception among users; if the product is good, and any problems are quickly handled or at least responded to, it reduces the chances that customers will have a problem with the company itself. Satisfied customers tend not to look for alternatives, and that ensures a solid customer base, and a solid cash flow.
Fidelity's example is clearly a useful one for any business, large or small, looking to preserve and expand upon its customer base.