Process Optimisation
Service is increasingly becoming a crucial competitive factor. However, a high level of service can only be guaranteed if not only the quality of contact is right, but the underlying processes are functioning too.
Companies frequently get a nasty surprise the first time they test these processes to see if they actually work, because unsuccessful contact with customers has far-reaching consequences for the brand as a whole and the company's image.
Breaking Things down into Individual Steps
In numerous market research and consultancy projects in recent years, Vocatus has tackled in depth the evaluation and improvement of process quality
in sales and service, via various channels (such as websites or call centres) and in various sectors and countries. The results of these studies
identified an unexpectedly high level of superficially hidden weak spots in process quality.
In order to analyse the process in an optimal manner, we first of all break it down into the greatest possible number of individual steps. For each step individually we then ascertain the process quality and possible process problems. Based upon the results, we effectively support you in the reorientation of business processes, and in doing so are consistently guided by your customers' requirements in the light of your cost structure.
Customer-based Process Checking
With complex processes involving different parts of the company or even different firms, such as dealers or agents, it is necessary to continually
check external processes in order to ensure long-term quality of service. Otherwise there is too great a danger that even with the best intentions,
some customer enquiries consistently remain unanswered.
A low-cost and very effective way of doing this is to continually check the process from the customer's perspective. In such cases, the customer who has set the process in motion and left their address or phone number is questioned after a certain time in writing, by phone, or by e-mail.
So if a customer leaves their contact data on an automobile manufacturer's website so that they can be contacted to arrange a date for a test drive, the customer contact data is then passed on by the manufacturer to the respective dealer with a request to contact the customer.
The data is simultaneously passed on to Vocatus, and after a fortnight we ask the customer, for example, whether the dealer has actually called them. The company can thus ensure that every customer enquiry is actually answered.
The Transition from Online to Offline
Something that's also particularly important when it comes to process optimisation is the transition from the online world of websites to the
offline world, since our experience suggests that for many companies, major weaknesses become apparent here.
Nevertheless, the problem often lies not so much in a pure process problem, but more in the attitude of staff, dealers, or agents to online enquiries. It's often the case that they wrongly assume these enquiries to come from weaker prospects or customers, and this duly leads to a lower quality of processing.
Corresponding fact-based analyses conducted by Vocatus can show how relevant to sales online enquiries really are, and how close potential customers are to the real-life purchase decision once they initiate such processes.
As a result of corresponding lead scoring it is also possible to rate individual online enquiries with direct regard to their sales potential so that staff can concentrate on the enquiries with the greatest potential.