In my operations management class, we spend quite some time talking about how to staff a customer service call center to ensure high service quality. Some of the management principles include:
- If you want your customers to wait less on the phone, you need to staff more people (think of the 9-1-1 response center);
- If each customer tends to spend more time on the phone, then you need to staff more people;
- If customer needs are more diverse in terms of time requirement, then you need to staff more people.
Then we talk about the cost side. I then ask âWhy, when we call an airline or credit card 800 number, do I have a wait (sometimes a lot) before I can talk to some real person?â
The typical response is: âWell, it is typically too expensive for a company to staff enough people so that a customer can talk to an agent without delay. Â And normally it is okay for customers to wait a little bit, I guess…â
Is it?
Letâs take a look at what Zappos, the online shoe retailer, does. It started with zero sales in 1999. In 2009, just ten years later, it crossed the 1 Billion bar. Whatâs its secret? In its CEO Tony Hsiehâs words, it is âDelivering Happinessâ. It is about making customers (as well as their employees) happy. They do not compete on price. Instead, they provide the best customer service experience. This means that they really take their time in answering customersâ questions and building a relationship over the phone. The longest service call? 10 hours and 29 minutes!
Does this mean every company should throw concern for cost out of the window and build enormous call centers? No. Companies that focus on efficiency and low prices should by all means control their costs in staffing. But if your strategy is to differentiate and avoid price competition, focus on customer service may just be a very good idea.
