By Tim Ferguson, 22 August 2007 14:42
NEWS
BT is to roll out an upgraded system for its online customer service after signing a multimillion dollar contract with CRM software company, RightNow.
The five year deal will see RightNow provide BT with a knowledge management system for 10,000 contact centre staff, to use when dealing with customer queries.
It will also include a system to respond to email queries more quickly and a live IM-style service for customers to have queries answered by support staff.
Information on the database can be updated in response to the kinds of questions being submitted and the answers that are given.
David Thomson, senior business director at BT Retail, said the technology means the company can offer a "superb customer experience" and keeps it ahead of the competition.
Thomson said: "The technology point is important in its own right but really the reason we're doing this is that it improves customer service for our end users."
Among the benefits of the new system will be giving call centre staff better access to customer and product information when answering queries.
The system will also improve call handling times - as information will be easier to locate - as well as increasing the rate of call queries resolved on the first call and improving customer self-help on the group's websites.
Previously, the email management and knowledge database were managed by two separate companies. RightNow provided the latter but will now take on the email management side as well.
Thomson said: "Really we want to bring [the two elements] together."
He added the bulk of the knowledge base is already in place and the migration of the email systems over to RightNow is due to be completed by the new year.
Comments
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1. Nick Cole
10,000 contact centre staff!
Do they not realise that if they didn't create problems for customers potential and existing, with their dismissive and unhelpful attitudes; produced less faults that created complaints, etc, etc, that they wouldn't need so many people?
2. anonymous
This sounds like a classic "know-nothing" manager bodge (cf Peter Cochrane's recent article). You can't fix customer service simply by buying a new CRM system. Rather you have to painstakingly scrutinise all the underlying end-to-end processes, identify the root causes of the problems, and fix them. To name but one: how is the new CRM system going to fix the classic home mover problem, wherein broadband service can only be moved a week after the PSTN line has moved?
3. Steven Courtney-Crowe
After an hour in a queue on Sunday evening, trying to report a fault on a line that their automated checker said was okay... this is not a day too soon.
To add insult to injury, I was forced to listen to a recorded message telling me to check my fault status online. Pretty difficult with no telephone line !
4. Dave Brown
A responsive and quick customer service for email access is great - but doesn't address the problems that occur when the customer service from personal telephone contact is abysmal (personal experience).
5. Roger Huffadine
Will we have English speaking agents who have a clue about UK geography and can actually commit resources to an appointment without it being broken? ---- Answer NO -- oh yeh -- I am one of the inventors of the call centre industry [been there seen it got the patents pissed off with hype & magic bullets] search the web for "huffadine crm" if you want to know more
6. Brian Bolton
What would also help was if the customer service staff where based in the UK and spoke good English. Have had several runs in recently and found the CS staff struggling with our language and having no clear idea of the frustration levels felt when help is needed and it comes across as if they haven't got a clue what you are talking about. (Main issue here is the current rip off put in place if you pay the bill as received - and you loose your paperless bill discount: try getting your bill back to paper!)
7. anonymous
BT have no clue what customer service is!
Boy do they need something! Having spent over 5 hours on hold over 3 calls trying to order a new line and then sort out an appointment to install the thing I cannot find words to describe what I think of BT.