Customer Relationship Management and Self-Service Go Together, Says CRMToday.com

Self-service technologies can yield a win-win situation for customers and businesses if a few key principles are followed, says a new article on CRMToday.com, a business to business online resource. The article, Self-Service: Talking Your Language, written by a member of the site's expert panel, reports that customers do not have a problem with the technology of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and related systems, only with their poor implementation.

(PRWeb) July 10, 2007 -- Evolving self-service technologies have become a means to deliver both positive end-user experience and differentiation in highly competitive markets, according to CRMToday.com, a business to business online resource. Savvy customers are recognizing the benefits of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and related systems, according to a new article on the site, Self-Service: Talking Your Language, (http://www.crm2day.com/editorial/50433.php), with reservations only about poor implementation. Three quarters of companies surveyed by the Aberdeen Group who had introduced self-service into their call centers reported both reduced operating costs and a boost of 25 percent in customer satisfaction.

"The best self-service solutions," says the author of the article, Richard Brown, Vice President of Sales at EMEA, Interactive Intelligence, "are those which seek to automate a limited number of applications, each offering a restricted number of options." The design of self-service solutions can be improved by adhering to such rules as:

•    Reflecting sudden changes in circumstance by rapidly incorporating relevant messages into automated responses.

•    Giving the user confidence that information has been correctly and securely received and acted upon, by playing back and verifying both the transaction and any supporting detail.

•    Maintaining self-service interaction at a quicker speed than speaking to a live agent.

Additional to such essential information, CRMToday.com (http://www.crm2day.com/) also offers a free and easy-to-use CRM solution matching service providing an instant answer to respondents who complete a short online form.

CRMToday.com provides business information, resources and interactive tools that help companies improve their customer relationship management. Expert advice from industry professionals, company profiles and other features make it easy for businesses to learn more about how customer relationships can shape a company's consumer loyalty.

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