My first article in Print...

My first article in print.....has been published in a magazine called Businessgyan, exclusively on pages 45 and 46.
(About BusinessGyan)

I called it "The CRM Backoffice Story".

Hopefully this will spur me on to write more on a variety of topics that are dear to me. Watch this space for more.

And yeah, feel free to post your comments on this post/article :)

Here's the story I wrote...
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The CRM BackOffice Story…

Today’s CRM systems have a long way transitioning from just being a database to an intelligent Decision Support System. Here are a few views in this era of an ever increasing share of electronic support.

To ensure a high customer satisfaction, customer service departments perform a lot of analysis that forms the basis of day to day operational decisions. Unfortunately most CRM tools starting from those that cater to the middle level to even the enterprise level CRM installations lack the capability to provide the basic functionality for analyses.

Now, let me quote a few examples of what the CRM tool can easily be programmed to do, rather than users having to export raw data and trying to get the desired results using Excel.

First, there isn’t one CRM tool I can think of, that has an outlook on Quality.

Imagine the benefits if:

a. The tool had the capability to generate a random list of cases that need to be audited.
This will ensure a truly random sample representative of the whole volume, given an acceptable margin of error.

This way, even if the company had to outsource support to another vendor, they’re one step ahead in making sure that the quality indicators are representative of the overall service quality.
b. The feedback on cases audited is integrated with the case history.
Imagine how easier tracking progress of an agent this would make, not to mention, the ease of training new recruits on mock incidents.

Here’s another perspective, that of the Operations Team. Given the premise that more the real time analyses the tool can provide, the better the managers can have control over overall quality of service.

Provide basic analyses and data points such as:

1. Incoming volume trends
a. This unfortunately has been the forte of the phone based suites, but not of the e-mail management suites.

2. Average response time of all cases

3. Average minutes taken per resolved case, by a specific agent and the team as a whole.

All these would be small steps towards moving to an intelligent system that can achieve measurability against an SLA.

Yes, some companies have taken concerted steps to ensure the tool becomes quality and operations aware, but at an enormous cost of engaging professional services; all ending up in a custom, one time installation.

Having a fluid toolset that can be configured to capture and provide basic analyses followed by providing users with in built templates they can choose from, is by far the best solution.

Most CRM Tool Product teams need to do more in-depth on-site research rather than only talking to execs whose priorities rarely allow them to do justice to the effort and time this requires. They’re better off with feedback from the middle management level, and then align them with the feedback of the execs.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are that of the author and not that of the magazine. Any of the above content does not intend to tarnish any party directly or indirectly and is just an opinion. No damage is intended to any company or party whatsoever. The author shall not be liable for any penalty or claim whatsoever.
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