Serving customers while keeping an eye on the bottom line and the environment might become the new battle cry of customer service centers.
As a result, more and more customer service operations are getting “greener.” It allows them to continue to make customers happy, while saving the company money and doing their part to save our ecosystem.
Here are four “going green” best practices at the greenest customer contact centers, according to contact center solution experts at eGain.
1. Reduce written communication
Some companies that share sensitive information with customers — think the banking, insurance, medical and real estate industries — have been reluctant to switch to more electronic communication because they didn’t want to jeopardize security.
But now secure email allows more electronic sharing of sensitive information.
Give customers the option of going “paperless” and many will likely take it, cutting down on the cost of paper, postage and its impact on the environment.
2. Cut unnecessary customer visits
The more troubleshooting that’s done over the phone or through live chat, the fewer visits technicians need to make to customer sites. It saves money on fuel costs and tech time, and reduces carbon emission.
The key might be more technical training for front-line service reps who take customer calls. If they can troubleshoot the small issues, they should be able to prevent bigger issues and more customer visits.
3. Increase first-contact resolution
Whether it’s a tech visit to a customer, a phone call to the contact center or an actual customer visit to a retail outlet, the sooner an issue is resolved the less it’ll cost. So smart companies are equipping reps, techs and customers with more information at their fingertips via smart devices. That way, techs and retail clerks can pull up answers immediately, rather than have customers call or come back for what they need — wasting time, money and fuel.
Other contact centers have teamed off-site technicians with on-site service reps to work together fixing customer issues so it’s done right the first time.
4. Allow more work from home
The new Yahoo no-work-from-home policy is quite contrary to what many contact centers have been doing. Progressive contact centers have increased the number of agents who work from home. It cuts down on commuter costs and the emissions that come with rides to and from work.
Costs reductions are also realized because of the need for less physical space.
