CUSTOMERS “RATE” IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE WITH NEW CUSTOMER SERVICE PROGRAM

Customer Driven Management program welcomes customer feedback

A new program means a new kind of “driving” for E-470 customers, who generated more than 50 million toll transactions per year. Now, when they call E-470 with an inquiry or concern about their tolls or toll accounts, they can help drive the quality of service they receive from the EXpressToll Service Center .

Thanks to an ambitious new “voice of the customer” initiative called Customer Driven Management (CDM), customers now have the ability to rate their customer service representative (CSR). CDM was developed by tpc--Tamer Partners Corporation (www.tamerpartners.com).

Using this new tool, the EXpressToll Service Center is able to capture and analyze detailed customer feedback across all contact channels (telephone, Internet and in-person) right after an interaction with a customer. This provides E-470 with timely, employee-specific “coaching” to CSRs so they can continuously improve their performance.

New website is an ally to customers and CSRs

In 2011, E-470 had a 1.5 percent increase in toll transactions, yet E-470 saw the number of customer phone calls, emails and walk-in contacts drop nearly 30 percent to 486,938.

According to Jim Harlan, manager of the service center, there were several contributing factors to the decrease in contacts. The introduction in 2011 of a new, more user-friendly and informative EXpressToll website (www.expresstoll.com ) has enabled customers to obtain answers to their questions on the website instead of having to contact the service center, thereby reducing the workload. In addition, “CDM has helped our CSRs learn how to resolve customer issues on the first contact, thereby reducing the number of customer contacts. It’s proving to be a very effective way to receive our customers’ feedback and immediately improve our service.” The interactive voice recognition system allows customers to take care of their toll-related business over the phone without the need for a service representative to assist them.

Not all customers channel their concerns through the service center. A small percentage of customers took their issues directly to the Colorado Attorney General’s office in 2011, which recently reported in the news media that it had received 65 E-470-related complaints. (There were 52.1 million toll transactions in 2011, so those 65 complaints equal about 1.2 complaints per million transactions.) Of the 65 complaints recorded, 58 of the issues have been resolved. The remaining seven complaints not yet resolved are customers who opted not to pay their tolls.

Jo Snell, E-470’s Community and Public Relations Manager, said, “Almost half of the complainants never contacted E-470 or the EXpressToll Service Center for assistance prior to contacting the Attorney General’s office. That’s a shame since we have a great customer service team and likely could have resolved most of those complaints easily and quickly.”

How CDM works

If an email, telephone call, or visit to the service center has created a change to the customer’s account, the customer will receive an email within one day providing a link to an eight-question survey. The survey asks the customer to evaluate the CSR’s performance and provides an opportunity to offer advice to the CSR.

Among other things, customers are asked to rate the CSR on skills, knowledge, courtesy, professionalism, and the ability to efficiently resolve the issue at hand. The survey also asks if the customer’s issue was successfully addressed on the first contact.

What sets CDM apart from other customer feedback programs is its ability to create “Individual Action Surveys” that ask for customer feedback on particular areas that each CSR is working to improve. Both the individual CSR and the CSR’s supervisor have instant access to the customer’s survey responses.

CDM has also been programmed by E-470 to provide alerts whenever a customer scores a CSR either very high or very low, enabling supervisors to identify issues as they arise as well as recognize and praise CSRs whenever they receive customer accolades.

Thousands of surveys, plenty of praise

On an average day, more than 600 survey requests are emailed to customers. So far, more than 6,200 surveys have been returned, providing feedback and coaching to more than 50 CSRs.

Jim Harlan said that post-contact feedback surveys from customers so far show a “remarkable satisfaction level.” On a scale of one to five, the CSRs as a team consistently earn an average satisfaction rating of 4.9. In addition, 92 percent of customers report their issue was successfully addressed the first time they contacted the customer service center, without further contact.

“Our CSRs appreciate CDM. They get far more positive feedback from customers than a supervisor would have time to provide for their entire team on a daily basis. This provides encouragement and motivation for CSRs to continue to do good things well and makes them more willing to accept suggestions for improvement.”

An added tool for monitoring customer satisfaction is E-470’s new “Mystery Driver” program. The program enlists customers to provide monthly feedback about the quality of their E-470 on-road experiences as well as their dealings with the EXpressToll Service Center . Mystery Drivers are compensated with toll credits.