No matter what industry or business
you’re in, everyone knows the customer comes first. But have you ever noticed that, with every touch point, there
are multiple opportunities for mistakes —
and the chance to add in customer dissatisfaction? Building a truly fantastic customer experience means managing everything in this value chain well, says Steve
Boyazis, executive vice president at
InfoCision Management Corp., Akron,
Ohio.
One way to make the customer happy is
to respond quickly to basic requests for
information. It would seem to be a nobrainer that a business should get the information to potential customers quickly. But,
to some businesses, “quickly” may mean a
week or several days.
Smart Business asked Boyazis for more
insight into some research by InfoCision
that proves how vital a speedy response is
to customer satisfaction as well as purchasing.
You recently did a study that addressed customer buying response. What were some of
the study’s significant results?
The study we did was to determine the
effect of time lag on customer response
when the customer is requesting information. The hypothesis was that, when people
were considering a buying decision but sitting on the fence and had only requested
additional information, the timeliness of
when they received that information really
affected their intent to purchase.
When a call center’s fulfillment process is
streamlined for quick turn, variable lot and fully customized mailing that guarantee the lowest
postage costs, it is able to provide
a cost-effective daily mailing/shipping solution without having to
stockpile requests until bulk limits
are reached. Our test theory was
that quicker turnaround time
would lead to increased conversion and an increase in the average spending per prospect.
To test the effect of timing on the fulfillment of collateral material for noncommittal prospects who wanted more information, a controlled test was organized at our
fulfillment center to compare sending the
materials: 1) within 24 hours of the phone
call, 2) at the 72-hour mark — deliveries
batched twice weekly, and 3) at the 168-hour mark — deliveries batched once per
week.
What did you find out?
The table below summarizes our results
and it’s clear that the speed of collateral fulfillment delivery is a key driver in the success of converting ‘fence-sitting’ prospects
to sale. We found that the group that sent
its collateral packages within 24 hours converted at a 3 percent higher rate than those
who were mailed twice weekly. On top of
that, those who had their information sent
within 24 hours also had an amazing 14
percent high average spending rate than
those who were mailed twice weekly. We
also found that they converted at a 22 percent higher rate than those mailed weekly.
Was this a one-time test?
No. We’ve tested this theory time and
again, across commercial clients and nonprofit ‘maybe’ donation responses alike,
and the results are always similar. Specifically, you get a better return by responding
to your clients quickly and personally.
For example, let’s say you are a Direct TV
infomercial company that sells 100 products a day at an average price of $23 and
have another 100 leads a day that are
‘fence-sitters’ that need more time to make
a buying decision. Personalized fulfillment
in one day versus seven days leads to more
than a 20 percent increase in response rate
and 14 percent increase in spending. This
translates into a 6 percent overall revenue
gain. Identifying all these potential points
of leakage and managing them as close as
possible will help you create the best overall client experience.
STEVE BOYAZIS is executive vice president at InfoCision
Management Corp. in Akron. Reach him at (330) 670-5877 or
[email protected]. In business for 25 years, Info-Cision Management Corporation is the second
largest privately held teleservices company and a
leading provider of customer care services, commercial sales and marketing for a variety of Fortune 500
companies and smaller businesses. InfoCision is
also a leader of inbound and outbound marketing for
nonprofit, religious and political organizations.
InfoCision operates 31 call centers at 12 locations
throughout Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
For more information, visit www.infocision.com.