Table of Contents:

Definition and Overview

1. An Environment without a Customer Care System

2. Develop or Buy

3. Needs of Consumers

4. Needs of Service Providers

5. Technology for Customer Care

6. Functional Requirements of a Customer Care System

7. Customer Service

8. Telemarketing

9. Repair

10. Implementation

Self-Test

Glossary

PDF of this tutorial

All telecommunications service providers have customer services. A customer service that does not have a customer care system is characterized by the following:

• multiple applications for a customer service representative—Without a customer care system, customer service representatives (CSRs) must use many applications to service a customer. Billing, provisioning, ordering, credit validation, and event tracking are examples of these applications. Sometimes the CSRs need two or three workstations or terminals. A CSR without a customer care system will use all of these mentioned systems to handle even a simple customer request for a new telephone line. As these are usually independent applications, the CSR must enter the same information many times. There is always the possibility of mistyping and forgetting to enter some information in an application as a result of human error. With errors, the customer is not likely to get his/her requested service as promised by the CSR. With multiple applications, there is an increased possibility of human error. In contrast, with a customer care system, the CSR must only use one application.

Figure 2. User Must Multitask
• no procedure—Because of multiple applications, or applications that provide too much flexibility, each CSR develops his or her own procedure. The services that a customer receives depends on the CSR. Some services may be good, while others may not be so good. The customer will perceive this unevenness as poor customer service. A good customer care system, in contrast, implements CSR procedures and forces them to follow company-approved procedures.
• long training times—Customer service departments have relatively high staff turnovers. As there are many applications and procedures that CSRs must learn, the training time is lengthy and costly to service providers. A good customer care system is easy to learn and use and, therefore, has a shorter training time.
• many hand-offs—Because of a lack of automation, a great deal of handing tasks off to other people or departments manually is required. Each one of these manual hand-offs means waiting time, more data entry, and increased possibility of human error. A customer care system reduces the number of hand-offs by automating these manual tasks.
• poor morale—Poor customer service due to inadequate infrastructure results in poor CSR job satisfaction. Consequently, the customer service department will experience high turnover and poor customer service. With a customer care system, customer services will be better, and CSRs will be more satisfied with their work.