Reducing costs and improving performance at the same time - what sounds like a silver bullet is definitely possible for SMEs. However, a comprehensive analysis of structures and processes is a prerequisite. From this, measures can be derived that are coordinated in such a way that synergies and win-win effects are created. The following procedure is advisable:
1. adopt the customer perspective.
Adopt the customer perspective from the outset when you put your customer-relevant processes to the test. At a strategic level, this can be done using the value proposition model according to Osterwalder:
- What benefits do the products and services offer your customers?
- And what "pains" can you relieve them of through good customer service?
2. align your customer service processes with the ideal customer experience.
Knowing what this ideal customer experience looks like forms the basis for consistently aligning your customer service processes accordingly. All work steps that do not directly benefit the customer should therefore be minimized. Two methods help to identify such non-value-adding activities.
The continuous improvement process: structured dialog with your team
The continuous improvement process (CIP or "CIP" in English, based on the Japanese Kaizen method) thrives on structured dialog with your team, which gives you indications at an operational level of where
- unnecessary manual activities,
- system breaks,
- fehlende Daten,
- fehleranfällige Arbeitsschritte oder
- unklare Verantwortlichkeiten auftreten,
in other words, all aspects that stand in the way of both efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Multi-snapshots: Categorizing time expenditure
These impressions can be confirmed and quantified in a second step using so-called multi-snapshots: This involves randomly and anonymously recording the time spent on activities on a typical working day in prepared categories.
These show you the proportions
- of desired, value-adding work steps (for example, advising customers directly or preparing a customized offer)
in contrast to
- the activities that need to be minimized, that need to be minimized, such as waiting for an appointment confirmation or specialist information from a colleague, searching for relevant data in various systems, or manually digitizing paper-based correspondence.
3. Derive measures to increase efficiency.
This analysis can be used to derive various measures to increase efficiency and thus also reduce costs.
Improving the customer approach
The customer approach can always be improved at the various customer touchpoints from quotation to aftersales: Frequent inquiries on the same topic show where the product or service has not yet been explained clearly enough.
Eliminating system breaks
The ideal solution for this, a holistic CRM system, is often a long way off. When looking at sub-processes between interfaces and departments, however, efficiency gains can be achieved even with little IT effort by reducing manual data transfer between different systems.
Automation of simple, redundant steps
The implementation of chatbots for typical, recurring customer questions and the introduction of digital self-service solutions such as a web portal, in which customers can pre-enter relevant data themselves or resolve their concerns independently, such as ordering spare parts, can help here.
Transferring work steps to a shared service center
At a certain point, it also becomes necessary for a shared service center or a call center service provider (first-level support) to take over work steps - especially if you want to scale quickly or offer 24/7 customer service.
Establishing KPI-based control
The framework for sustainable process optimization is KPI-based control. It is therefore important to track the KPIs relevant to your service team:
- Waiting time on the phone, email processing time and the recovery rate or case handling time provide information on how well your service team is managing capacity, as well as the extent to which the above-mentioned measures to reduce workload are already taking effect.
- NPS or CSAT are important KPIs for measuring your customer satisfaction, especially in B2C industries. All customer feedback at all your customer touchpoints, including social media, should be systematically recorded and discussed in order to derive the necessary decisions.
- Tailored evaluation according to customer contact reasons is particularly important. It often turns out that the standard categories provided by the CRM are not appropriate for your own service business. If you adapt these individually, you have a good tool for quickly recognizing which problems customers mainly contact the service department about and can work on these in a targeted manner. Repetitive customer requirements on a specific topic can be identified and minimized with the aforementioned automation. In addition, trends and the demand for additional service offerings can be derived that were not previously recognized: a potential lever for higher customer profitability. Artificial intelligence (topic prediction) can help to identify the relevant topics by keyword and assign them to the appropriate categories.
How to give your employees more time
All these measures not only increase efficiency and therefore response time, i.e. how quickly you can resolve a customer issue. They also free up your employees from tedious work steps and give them more time for their actual expertise: providing individual advice to customers with their own expert knowledge.
Process optimization in service will therefore be very welcome in your team and thus increase employee satisfaction. This is an important factor for customer satisfaction, but also for service costs.
4. Make employee satisfaction a positive cost factor.
Employee satisfaction is a positive cost factor. This is because happy employees reduce staff turnover and the associated costly hiring and onboarding processes. There are further starting points here: Customer service tends to be at a low salary level across all industries. However, there are many department-specific options here to show your employees interesting development prospects. Training to become
- service experts for specific product areas
was mentioned. Further examples:
- managers for service provider management or social media channels,
- key users for the new CRM or
- first management roles as team leaders.
Not least: Customer service is an area that can work well when employees work from home - the coronavirus pandemic has quickly disproved previous concerns in many industries. The prerequisite is adequate technical equipment including a monitor and ergonomic furniture. Employers who offer these options automatically increase their search region when recruiting and thus the selection of qualified candidates - an important factor, especially in rural regions.
While process optimizations are generally met with approval, changes to your organization may initially be viewed with a certain amount of scepticism and must therefore be embedded in a balanced change and communication process. Nevertheless, they are often unavoidable.
5. Align the service organization with your corporate strategy.
Your service organization should have a clear focus and be aligned with your corporate strategy. If your company is growing rapidly or new target markets, products and solutions are coming into focus, it is important that your customer service is prepared for this promptly - not only with the relevant knowledge on typical issues, but also with the necessary strategic focus.
Then changes to the organizational structure may also become necessary, such as aligning the team by region instead of by product or setting up a dedicated team for a particularly popular service. It is always important to clearly define the relevant roles, work out transitions of responsibility with other areas and ensure qualification.
Conclusion: Optimized service costs are compatible with customer satisfaction and employee motivation
Satisfied customers, motivated employees and optimized service costs do not have to be a contradiction in terms.
Where the focus lies in the areas mentioned above varies from person to person: an external service expert with cross-industry experience can help you to identify the areas of action relevant to you and implement appropriate measures with a fresh view from the outside.
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