Resolve customer service inquiries from start to finish
January 26, 2012Providing exceptional customer service is an activity that most organizations must achieve to grow and retain their client base. For firms that need functionality going “above and beyond” what their CRM platforms offer, Info-Tech recommends adopting a best-of-breed point solution for Customer Service Management (CSM).
Info-Tech evaluated a number of key vendors in the Customer Service Management space. Although the market for CSM products is well established, it is rapidly undergoing a period of change – the rise of SaaS solutions, social media integration, and a wave of recent consolidations are changing the landscape. Features that were evaluated included resolution workflow tools (such as case management and ticketing), knowledge tools, social support and mobile options. Oracle Siebel and Salesforce.com Service Cloud gained our Champion rating for their extremely strong feature sets and multi-channel integration capabilities. However, these two were rated as champions at a cost – the pricing structure of these vendors was prohibitive for smaller organizations. For small to mid-sized companies looking for a best-of-breed solution, we recommend looking at Assistly (recently acquired by Salesforce) – a lower-cost solution that also gained our Champion rating. ZenDesk and TeamSupport are also good options for SMBs.
Implementation of a CSM platform is a critical step that should have a well-managed process behind it. Begin by establishing a cross-functional implementation team that has representation from both IT and the business. Next, establish points-of-integration between other enterprise applications and customer service channels. In most cases, contact records will be pulled from a CRM system, so linking your CSM platform and CRM suite is particularly important. Most CSM vendors offer out-of-the-box connectors to popular CRM suites, like Salesforce.com. After POIs have been established, train relevant end users. Each group of end users will have different needs – for example, agents will require training on features like resolution workflow management, while customer service managers need to know more about reporting and analytics modules. Segment training efforts according to these user groups. Finally, test the deployment by rolling out a pilot project to a small customer service team and gather feedback. This will highlight deficiencies in architecture and process before the platform is deployed to the entire customer service organization.
For more information, please see Info-Tech’s recently released solution set on selecting a CSM suite.
This entry was posted in Applications, Research, What's New in Research and tagged Assistly, crm, CSM, customer service, Customer Service Management, customer-relationship-management, Dynamics, microsoft, mobile, Oracle, Parature, rightnow, salesforce, Service Cloud, Siebel, social-media, SugarCRM, Team Support, ZenDesk. Bookmark the permalink.
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