Don’t compromise customer service over cost

Can a dedicated team of agents really be more cost effective than training advisors to answer any calls?

“You can’t cost-cut your way to top-notch customer service,” is the message from Peter Thompson, Managing Director of Junction.

“2012 is likely to see insurance companies driving down call centre costs in the current climate. But they should be careful to avoid a knee-jerk reaction,” Peter continues. “There is a way to deliver both on quality and cost-efficiency. While cost is, of course, very important, it is vital not to underestimate the relevance of customer satisfaction.”

“In the last ten years, the insurance space has changed dramatically. Today’s consumer has high expectations of good service and competitive prices, and if their standards aren’t met, they’ll walk away. Review sites and social networking then make it easy for them to share their bad experience with other potential customers.”

Junction operates dedicated teams to ensure that advisors have comprehensive knowledge of their brand and products. This is in contrast to the cost-focused approach of training contact centre advisors to answer calls on any brand.

“This is a more resource-intensive approach and, yes, incurs some operational expense,” says Peter Thompson. “But through careful forecasting and use of technology it doesn’t have to cost the earth. Most importantly, a brand-dedicated approach means any issues are usually resolved in a single call, which has a major effect on quality scores as well as sales rates. To us, that’s invaluable. We also see a benefit to sales conversion, retention, and cross-selling, which means in the round both partners and customers benefit.”