By Luis Gonzalez
Busy
contact center managers often overlook their customers’ feelings. They tend to
focus on easily quantifiable metrics such as abandonment rates, service levels,
staffing levels, etc. While these metrics are important to the bottom line,
there is also tremendous value in focusing on the consumers’ experience. This
is where behavioral science comes into the picture. Businesses can leverage
psychology to improve customer service in contact centers.
In
2001, Richard B. Chase and Sriram Dasu published the Harvard Business Review
article “Want to Perfect Your Company’s Service? Use Behavioral Science”. They
detailed a study that examined encounters between customers and service
providers to understand how these experiences make customers feel. It was the
first look into how behavioral science principle can advise customer service
operations.
In
2010, John DeVine and Keith Gilson built upon this research with the McKinsey
Quarterly article, “Using behavioral science to improve the customer
experience”. These articles provide a roadmap for contact center professionals
to improve customer satisfaction at low costs.
Perception is Reality
Applying
behavioral science to customer service means remembering the old adage that
perception equals reality. In any service encounter – from simple request for
information, to strategic contact center outsourcing partnership – what really
matters is how the customer feels during the encounter, since those feelings
will shape their perception of your brand. Contrary to popular belief, these
perceptions are principally emotional. Behavioral science can use this insight
to help managers understand how customers respond to experiences, and how they
rationalize experiences after the fact.
“When dealing with people, remember you
are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion.” – Dale
Carnegie.
Many
behavioral scientists research how people process time. Though much remains a
mystery there have been breakthroughs. As chronicled in “Flow: The Psychology
of Optimal Experience,” when people are mentally engaged in a task, they lose
track of time. Another study found that segmentation makes time feel slower.
For example, six 30-seconds commercials will feel longer than three one-minute
commercials.
Research
also confirms that people perceive time in terms of reference point; therefore,
unless an activity is much longer or shorter than expected, a people do not
notice its duration.
Psychologists
generally agree that people remember only a few significant moments of an
experience. They remember those moments
clearly and overlook the rest. Behavioral scientists have also observed that
people desperately want things to make sense.
Humans
have an innate desire for explanations, and are willing to make them up if
necessary. Psychologists further observe that people attribute a deviation from
the room as the reason for an unexpected outcome. Additionally, people are more
likely to attribute blame or credit to individuals than systems, since humans
prefer to put a face on a problem. All these discoveries have the potential to
impact the customer service industry.
Behavioral Science: Application to
Contact Centers.
The
seminal 2001 Harvard Business Review article laid out principles for managers
to consider when designing customer service programs: segment the pleasure,
combine the pain, give people rituals and stick to them, finish strong, get the
bad experiences out of the way early, and build commitment through choice.
In
2010, McKinsey Quarterly took a deep dive into the implications of these
principles. In their aforementioned article, DeVine and Gilson chronicled a
leading North American health insurer’s experience testing the return on investment
of creating a customer service environment based on behavioral science. This
inspired Inktel Direct to conduct a study examining the effects of implementing
behavioral science in the contact center environment.
Principle 1: Segment Pleasure, Combine Pain
The
number and sequence of painful and pleasurable incidents affects people’s
perception of an experience.
Winning
$100 is typically not as satisfying as winning $50 twice. Conversely, someone
who loses $100 is usually less distraught than someone who loses $50 twice.
Despite that the amount of money is equal; an experience’s emotional impact is
magnified by the number of incidents. The lesson learned from gamblers is that,
to maximize customer satisfaction, we should isolate unpleasant experiences while
separating pleasure ones, where possible.
Despite
the remarkable implications of this behavior, most businesses have not taken
advantage of this knowledge. The Department of Motor Vehicles, for example,
usually has people wait in multiple lines. This compounds frustration and
contributes to the negative perception of the DMV’s customer service. In the
insurance industry, and the various industries that Inktel Direct services,
customer care teams identified the most uncomfortable parts of a conversation
and moved them to the beginning of the call. Teams also identified
conversations that customers enjoyed, such as discount opportunities, and
touched on them throughout the call. Both studies saw an improvement in
customer satisfaction.
Principle 2: Give People Rituals and
Stick to Them
People
have fixed habits, and typically experience discomfort when behaving
differently. When creating customer service experiences, it is important to
understand this distinction: Any part of the service process that causes people
to break a ritual will decrease satisfaction. Changing call scripts or
implementing new interactive calls can often cause discomfort, despite the
intent to improve the customer experience.
Principle 3: Finish Strong
We
have all heard about the power of a first impression, and it is certainly
important in customer service. However, while a terrible start can ruin a call,
it is better to start weak and end strong than the other way around. People
judge interactions by whether they progress or deteriorate.
Principle 4: Get Bad Experiences Out of
the Way Early
In
customer service interactions, there will inevitably be negative experiences.
It is important for contact center to develop a system that quickly identifies
and addresses these issues. According to behavioral psychology, people prefer
to have bad experiences early on, so that they can stop worrying and look
forward to desired outcomes. When people experience displeasure, the feeling is
mitigated if it occurred at the beginning of an interaction.
Principle 5: Build Commitment through
Choice
Empowerment
is a buzz word around businesses, and for good reason. Empowered employees are
generally more motivated, productive and satisfied. While most companies
understand the importance of empowering employees, contact centers generally
overlook the benefits of empowering customers. People’s level of happiness is
correlated with the level of control they feel.
The
aforementioned insurance company gave customers a choice on there critical
elements: the type of treatment plans, which facilities doctors they preferred,
and the follow-up schedule. Inktel Direct identified specific choice to give
customers, relative to the program. Both cases saw a higher rate of customer
satisfaction with a minimal cost increase.
Contact Center Takeaways
Contact
center have the ability to improve customer satisfaction by using the knowledge
accumulated by behavioral science. These changes have a low monetary barrier,
but require knowledge and a conscious decision to move forward. The increased
customer satisfaction, as a result of utilizing these principles, can increase
brand equity, customer loyalty and result in more sales. As a bonus, greater
customer satisfaction benefits contact center employees. When your customer
service representatives are empowered with tools and methods to better improve
interactions with customers, employee satisfaction and motivation increases,
which can revolutionize your workplace.
Luis Gonzalez is executive vice
president of operations for contact center outsourcer Inktel Direct
20180802 junda
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