Enhancing customer satisfaction through outsourcing
By Josh Thackery, NorthStar TeleSolutions

In today's competitive marketplace the cost of getting a customer is too great to lose to poor customer service. Therefore it is imperative to deliver a service level that consistently exceeds your customers' expectations.

Competition and technology have driven consumers to demand more for their dollar. The days of handwritten bills, missed installation/service appointments and poor customer service have come to an end. There is a new breed of service bureaus available to provide a higher level of service to you and your customers.

Cable operators that outsource a portion of the business typically do so because of the following benefits:

Economies of Scale

Utilizing strength in numbers, outsourcing companies can negotiate better contracts with telecommunication providers and office supply companies. Just as importantly, they can staff a call center to handle the ups, downs and influx of calls due to outages better and more efficiently than a stand-alone operator. The economies of scale allow service bureaus to provide a higher standard of service for less than what an individual cable operator could provide it for.

Latest Technology

Outsourcing companies are typically equipped with the latest in technology. Examples of this technology include phone systems, billing systems and integrated voice response systems. The benefits in using the latest technology is that it enables you to attract new business as well as offer existing clients features that are often only available with larger cable operators. Advancements in technology can allow you to promote your product offerings to your subscribers before they ever speak with a live operator via recorded announcements. This technology also reduces the duration and frequency of calls for outage or service problems by giving up to the minute information via an automated response unit (ARU) on the progress to restore the service. Some service bureaus are even going as far to offer integrated voice response (IVR) to callers to reduce calls for simple questions such as account balance, last payment date/amount and next scheduled service visit.

Professional Customer Service

How many of your CSR's have had training from the NCTI or Mind Extension Institute or other credited cable training programs? There are several service bureaus with trained and experienced cable television customer service representatives and technicians on standby to answer customer questions and troubleshoot service problems. Having trained, courteous professional representatives answer your operation's calls is one of the most important aspects of the service bureau.

Huge Savings

The following is a list of expenses operators can avoid by using a service bureau:

• Completely eliminate general and administrative manpower. No office manager, no cash processing person, no CSR's or dispatchers. No overtime or sick pay. No employee liability, no workman's comp, no benefits. No employee theft or pilfering.
• Office supplies and equipment.
• Billing computers and phone systems. No more upgrades or maintenance on equipment. No phone bill.
• Eliminate your overhead. No rent, no utilities, no janitorial, no liability or fire insurance.
• Postage. No more printing fees for bills and envelopes.
• Billing software license fees.

The number one reason that cable operators continue to look for alternative solutions for managing their subscribers is time. They can more effectively utilize their skills and resources on growing their existing business rather than using them on the day-to-day management of it.

What Can You Outsource?

Answering Service. One of the most common outsource services is customer service. It has been proven that companies that provide round the clock customer service will increase their customer's satisfaction and retention. There are lots of answering services that will provide service for a modest price per call or per call minute. Some of the things to keep in mind when selecting an answering service are:

• Do they provide daily call reports?
• Do they record customer calls?
• What type of training do their phone reps go through before answering your calls?
• Does the answering service take calls for other cable operators?
• Does the answering service specialize in the cable or telecommunications industry?

If you want to take your service to the next level, you can outsource all of your customer calls to a service bureau. Outsourcing all of your calls is usually only done when other services are also outsourced so that it can be integrated with billing and other subscriber management services.

Collections. Accounts receivable is the second most often outsourced service from cable operators. Even so, less than 50% of operators manage their receivables properly. There are two types of collections, pre-disconnect and post-disconnect.

Pre Disconnect Collections: Before a subscriber has their service shut off they should be contacted. This is most often done with a 'final notice' invoice. To be the most customer friendly you should also be sending a disconnect letter and following up with a phone call. These things do take extra time but the entire process will cost less than a dollar and will often save an expensive truck roll. There are debt collection agencies and management companies that will manage this process for your company for a small fee.

Post Disconnect Collections: Collection agencies will generate a series of client-specific letters, reinforced with scripted phone cycles over a period of three to six months or until the account is paid in full. This approach yields consistently higher results than any single method. Skip tracing capabilities also enable collection agencies to increase returns by locating correct addresses quickly. Payment arrangements are negotiated as warranted and are usually followed with payment reminder notices to decrease the chance of a broken promise. If the customer is unable to be contacted or unwilling to pay, the collection agency will report the outstanding balance to a credit bureau. If the amount due is high enough, the collection agency may even go to court to collect the money. A full service collection agency usually will charge between 30 and 45% of the amount collected.

Billing. There are a couple of different options when it comes to outsourcing billing. There are mailhouses that will simply load a computer file of your invoices and send them out. This is the cheapest way to outsource your billing, however it requires that you keep and maintain your own database of customer accounts.

There are also service bureaus that provide complete subscriber management. They will maintain your customer accounts on their computer. This eliminates the need for your operation to invest in periodic upgrades of your own billing system and therefore cuts down significantly on the cost of providing service.

Either way, you will be able to send out invoices that are customized to your operation which will reinforce seamless identification with your company. Most often these invoices are laser printed, with your color logo. Since the invoice is usually the only correspondence that the subscriber sees on a regular basis, improving its looks will improve your company's image.

Payment Processing/Lock Box. The processing of customer payments can become a tedious task. Luckily there are several ways to accomplish this with little cost. The most often used option is known as a lock box and is usually provided by a bank. For a small fee the bank will process all of your payments and deposit them directly into your account. This has been a viable option in the past, however, consumers are now demanding more flexibility in their payment methods. Lock boxes typically only handle checks.

Other options that subscriber management companies offer include; credit cards, online payments, pre-authorized checking and electronic check payments. Subscriber management companies also offer a cash disbursement system that enables them to send out customer refunds and process returned checks. By using a subscriber management company, you provide additional service to your subscribers while eliminating the tedious task of processing payments.

Dispatching. Productivity and efficiency is critical to your bottom line. If you are using an answering machine to manage outages after business hours, how long does it take to get the outage repaired and at what cost? When customers call and leave a message they have no idea when their call will be responded to. Service bureaus that take your customer calls will also provide an immediate alert to your on call technicians. Subscribers calling in to the service bureau will be told of the service issue and that a technician has already been dispatched to fix the problem. Immediate customer response is key when it comes to an outage situation.

Subscriber management companies are also available to provide the same service as mentioned above. They will also develop, maintain and analyze schedules, routes and booking calendars to insure timely service and the most efficient use of manpower. Subscriber management companies typically have dedicated dispatchers to route all work orders and service calls to your technicians. Using pagers, faxes and cellular technology they are able to route, record and follow-up on all dispatched work.

Marketing. Getting specially trained representatives to help you increase market penetration and installation of premium services may be vital to your companies overall success. The following are some of the most common marketing efforts that cable operators use:

• Outbound telemarketing
• Inbound product sales
• Special mailings/billing inserts

Typically telemarketing firms will take on a project and charge per sale. Most subscriber management companies can take on these projects with ease if you utilize them for other services.

It is obvious that the cable industry has taken notice of the increasing demands that subscribers are now placing on cable operators as competition continues to become an increasing concern. Is it time to start providing a higher level of service to ensure the future success of your operation.

If you are willing to pay a couple of dollars per sub a month for a sports network on your channel line-up, why shouldn't you be willing to spend a couple of extra dollars a month per subscriber to provide a quality service level that will increase overall customer satisfaction.

Finally, the success of the service bureau is directly dependent upon your success. Exceptional management, technological know-how and focus on efficiency will take your commitment to exceptional customer service to a new level by developing creative and dynamic solutions to your outsourcing needs.

If you would like to create a customer service package that will increase consumer satisfaction, strengthen existing relationships and increase your bottom line you should contact one of the many service bureaus or subscriber management companies focused on providing service to the cable industry.

About the Author

Josh Thackery is General Manager of NorthStar TeleSolutions, a leading subscriber management company. The author may be reached at (317) 865-2400.