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

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From the service provider's point of view, the major business needs of a customer care system are as follows:

• capability to proactively acquire new sales and customers—The customer care system should be capable of targeting new sales, as well as matching customers and products, and should offer this information to CSRs when contacting the customer.
• capability to provide prompt service to existing customers—The customer care system should include automation to provide prompt service to customers; the system should be designed in such a way that the interaction with the customer is of a high quality (e.g., there should be minimum waiting time and no holding time); the ultimate objective is to provide the customer with the required service by the time the session ends (i.e., "Thanks for calling. You should be able to use your service now.").
• reduce costly human errors—The customer care system should be easy to use, incorporate procedures, reduce information being typed, and verify entered information.
• capability to acquire additional marketing information—Any contact with a customer is valuable and should be viewed as an excellent opportunity to acquire future marketing information; as part of each contact, marketing information should be captured in an easy and consistent manner by CSRs.