As the eCommerce industry matures, customer expectations from e-commerce sites continue to rise and hence some online companies struggle to keep up with the industry leaders (Source: American Society of Customer Satisfaction Improvement - ASCI).
Online retail sales are increasing and it is critical to have a very high customer satisfaction and loyalty for every company to continue to beat the competition. Over the course of time, the eCommerce industry has become extremely individual customer centric as well as quality focused. Organizations and departments providing customer support need to use a combination of qualitative and quantitative measures to analyze and develop strategies to achieve higher customer satisfaction. Quantitative measures are primarily used for trending, analyzing and coaching, while qualitative attributes are used to measure ones’ contribution to customer satisfaction. The implicit/explicit needs or requirements of the customers also known as the ‘Voice of Customers’ (VoC) must be used to:
- identify additional or new quality attributes/features that need to be incorporated in the service
- identify the defects in the current service delivered
Here’s an example of how Motif implemented Six Sigma practice to ensure a smooth transition of new Customer Support staff to the production environment without impacting customer satisfaction and other operations metrics.
There are several factors of an email response such as reading, comprehension, sentence structure, empathy, proactive communication, etc. which are critical for an effective and satisfactory email response. Using Six Sigma, Motif created specific training modules for each of these factors which were measurable. Historical data was collected for these factors and the performance of Customer Support Representatives was measured for each of these sessions. Continuous monitoring helped identify individual areas of improvement. Job aids were created based on module results to provide effective coaching to individuals to maintain effective delivery from every team member.
This helped them improve their overall skills as listed below:
- Process knowledge
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- Comprehension
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- Providing accurate responses
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- Usage of language
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- Customer care skills
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- First time resolution
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- Multi tasking
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- Computer skills
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With the help of root cause analysis tools, further analysis on the performance data was conducted to identify the areas impacting customer satisfaction for every individual. Critical to Quality (CTQ) parameters such as timeliness of response, accuracy, etc. were identified and historical performance information was collected and carefully analyzed to set proper target levels. This helped Motif to define performance measurement criteria for an effective result.
Continuous delivery of customer satisfaction was ensured through data analysis and customer feedback to the team members after they transitioned to the production environment. Weekly trend analysis was conducted through run charts and any deviations in the service standards that impacted the customer satisfaction were identified.
Another concurrent process was put in practice with daily reporting cyles that provided actionable tracking information, which was used by the team managers in monitoring performance on a daily basis. This helped highlight the immediate areas of improvement and any key factors that impacted customer satisfaction such as number of contacts, accurate response, tone, interpretation, etc.
Based upon the identification of factor(s) that affected the customer satisfaction and considering current performance as baseline, the team managers helped the team members overcome the identified areas thorough workshops, skills based customized training, closed feedback loops that addressed issues such as cultural change and impact of ethnography, and other efficiency tools.
Using Six Sigma methodologies, Motif was able to link the customer’s needs, processes, financial benefits and demonstrate reduced learning curve while maintaining the same level of customer satisfaction scores.
Client Benefits
Implementation of this process ensured a focused approach towards the areas of improvements and resulted in:
- Reducing the learning curve by 3 weeks
- Lowering average response time of Customer Care Representatives by 50%
"Continuous improvement is the key to success”. Six Sigma is a concept that concentrates on the customers rather than the service. In the process, Six Sigma leads to a cultural change in the organization (that supports continuous improvement.), a paradigm shift toward highest quality, and then drives a passion for continuous improvement by everyone involved."
Navneet Singh Suryavanshi
The author is the Manager, Quality & Six Sigma Black Belt at Motif, Inc., a specialized BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) company providing rules based and decision intensive back office transaction processing services, customized email response services and internet research & analysis.
(www.motifinc.com)
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