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Higher satisfaction at lower costs:
Digitizing customer care
By: Francesco Banfi /// Boris Gbahoué /// Jeremy Schneider

RECALL No.22 – Digital marketing
Higher satisfaction at lower costs: Digitizing customer care

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Does it make a difference whether telecoms players handle customer interactions online or via traditional channels? The answer may surprise you.
Handling customer issues online might seem like a simple incremental addition to traditional call centers and retail stores, but McKinsey research shows that, done well, it can represent a paradigm shift in customer satisfaction. Digital customer care (“eCare”) responds to consumer demand for easily accessible, highly rewarding multichannel interactions. In one example of many, one leading mobile operator employed eCare initiatives to reduce their total call center volume by 20 percent in just eight months, lowering costs significantly while elevating their net promoter score (NPS).
McKinsey conducted its first eCare consumer survey in the second quarter of 2012 to more fully explore eCare dynamics. The survey addressed
2,000 respondents in France – customers of the main telecoms operators in that country. Its key focus was on understanding the differences in customer service between digital and traditional channels for telcos and on identifying roadblocks to adopting digital channels.

Why digital channels matter
The advent of digital channels has changed the way consumers communicate and search for product and service information. Take France as an example. An NM Incite survey showed that consumers increased their use of social media by 17 percent between 2010 and 2011, while their use of short message service (SMS) texting, e ­ -mail, mobile phones, and landlines all fell by 8 to
11 percent. Digital channels have already become the preferred source for