Security Sales & Integration August 2021 - 56

EXECUTIVE DECISIONS
Monitoring Matters by Morgan Hertel
Providing Customers
Convenience
It's just as
important to
keep in mind
that, even
before the
call, many
consumers
have strong
preferences
on how they
would like to
interact with
a monitoring
center.
Morgan Hertel is Vice
President of Technology
and Innovation for Rapid
Response Monitoring.
56
▶ THERE IS ONE THING that is certain about
how we perceive a customer experience, and that
is we remember it for a very long time. We all
have diff erent expectations, requirements and
manner of getting things done, but customers
do too, and once we part there is either a lasting
smile on our faces or a sour taste in our mouths
that just won't go away. Still, success in any business
depends on not just walking away from
each other with preconceived notions of how a
customer experience - good or bad - will play
out. Follow-up or cross 'em off .
Today's consumers are tech-savvy, impatient
and sensitive to a level of competence that is the
crux of a successful business experience, so there
is always room for improvement. To be kind,
not every business appreciates that. Allow me to
share a few experiences many of you can relate to
that will help make that point.
A home warranty company: It doesn't have
to be a home warranty company for you to recognize
it ... off shore call centers, very poor web
tools for communication, no ability to speak
with supervisors and agents that just fl at-out lie
to you to get you off the calls as fast as they can.
While the home warranty space is full of these
types of actors, this particular company will not
ever get any repeat business from me, and I say
that even though they have paid out on several
claims. Th e pain and frustration in dealing with
them just isn't worth the trouble.
Dish Network: I have been a Dish customer
for a number of years, and the other day I called
them. Th e agent answered the phone, " Hi, my
name is Mary, and I am talking to you from San
Antonio, Texas. How can I help you today? "
Look how much I know already. Th e conversation
had clear, static-free audio with no delay and
I had no problems understanding what Mary was
saying; just being able to eff ectively have a conversation
made the call signifi cantly better. Dish
Network has excellent follow-up emails to make
sure the problem was resolved and the agents are
empowered to make changes on their own without
a lot of hassle and reasonably fast.
Security Sales & Integration AUGUST 2021
mhertel@rrms.com
Sirius Radio: I needed to remove a couple radios
from the account because I no longer had
the vehicles. To my delight, when I went online,
they gave me three diff erent ways to conduct
this transaction: I could use voice and call them,
SMS, or a web chat application, and I could pick
the one that I wanted to use. I was using my cellphone
and was multitasking as usual, so I opted
for SMS with an agent.
In the monitoring business, consumers almost
always take this journey during what must be
considered a very stressful time in their lives, so
it's tremendously important to be able to meet
the expectations of how the consumer feels the
interaction should go. It's just as important to
keep in mind that, even before the call, many
consumers have strong preferences on how they
would like to interact with a monitoring center.
Let me expand on that a little bit.
When I had the interaction with Sirius, I chose
to use SMS as a medium; this was my choice that
I picked to use because it was convenient for me
at that moment in time. Th e expectations of consumers
today are that, like me, they want to be
able to choose how they interact with a monitoring
center.
In the fraught circumstances that characterize
a conversation with a security monitoring center,
their preferences are extremely important to
them. It should be just as important to us as an
industry, even on a routine call. Of course, allowing
a consumer to pick how the experience
will go brings additional complexity to the equation.
Just being able to articulate to dealers and
consumers what the options are is challenging
enough. Lurking in the background is the infrastructure
you need to be able to off er and support
their choices.
Two lessons, then: First, partner with vendors
that understand how to make this all happen and
are willing to make the investments in time and
money to not only get there but to keep making
these investments in technology and processes to
stay current.
Secondly, no matter what kind of organization
you run, you need to pay attention to the customer
experience in all facets of your business,
not just the monitoring services, but everything
from sales to service to billing. Build your business
so consumers like interacting with you, never
dread interacting with you, and never walk
away with a sour taste in their mouths.
securitysales.com
http://www.securitysales.com
Security Sales & Integration August 2021

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