Author:  Roger Sumner

In a recent blog, I wrote about the value of customer segmentation.  I know I left you hanging a bit, so I wanted to provide you with a few simple steps to help you implement a winning segmentation strategy in your contact center if you’ve decided that segmenting is right for you.

1. Identify Metrics
   Identify the metrics you plan to use to give each of your customers a “score” or “value.”  I recommend that you use metrics that can be easily measured or benchmarked.  I also suggest that you take into consideration the cost for each customer.  You should be prepared for this score to change on a regular basis, and plan to recalculate it at regular intervals.  In many environments some parts of the customer score can be automatically adjusted based on customer behaviors and contact history.
2. Mine the Data
   Determine if the information you need to calculate the score actually exists.  If so, figure out where it resides.  Is it located in a centralized customer database, a customer analytics server, or somewhere on your contact center software server?  Regardless of where the data lives, make sure that it can be accessed by your call center routing mechanism.  Good analytic tools can help you see relationships that are not entirely obvious.  This is key factor in establishing the appropriate metrics.
3. Determine Call Treatment
   Think about key factors such as customer satisfaction, quality of service, response time, and first time contact resolution in order to determine call treatment.  You may, for example, decide that you want your high value customers to receive the highest priority in the queue, to be routed to your most skilled agent group, and to be handled by your best available agent. These customers may have special needs and, as high value customers they cannot be handled by just any agent.  Think this through carefully as call treatment will ultimately determine the business rules and scripting that will direct your calls. 
4. Program the Software
   Finally, setup your contact center software to handle each customer interaction based on the scores you have established. Have your contact center architect develop the call flows that maximize each customer contact, and provide the metrics to measure effectiveness.  Leverage tools such as workforce management applications to help ensure you have the right kind of agents available when they’re most needed.  And, you can modify business rules as your customer segmentation or your call treatment offerings change or evolve.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 20th, 2007 at 9:00 am and is filed under Customer Service/Consumer Demands, Performance Optimization, WFM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.