By Rich Gorman 15 Comments

Optimization – it’s key in this competitive and cut-throat market.  Merchants optimize media buys, messaging, creative and landing pages but surprisingly, many don’t focus any attention on testing customer service interactions.  It’s often an overlooked yet important component of profitability.  In a few words, don’t rely on Peggy and you could be 75% more profitable!

In this business, most people associate Customer Service with words such as “headache”, “hassle” and “costly”.  Many call centers are disorganized, non-responsive and are usually located in developing countries where reps are hard to understand and refunds flow like wine.  Don’t cut corners with your customer service strategy; every touch point with customers can have huge positive or negative consequences to your success and survival as a business.  Testing and optimizing your customer service interactions is important in determining the right messaging, save sale price points and optimal way to handle interactions to boost profits, cut refunds, lower customer service expenses and slash chargebacks.  Using a proven IVR (Interactive Voice Response) and Web platform with split-testing capabilities for inbound customer service inquiries get optimal results quickly.

Merchants need to ask themselves:

1)      Am I placing the same emphasis on customer service optimization as I do landing page or media buying optimization?

2)      Is my customer service solution available all the time: 24/7 – 365 days a year?

3)      Am I efficiently testing inbound customer service calls and web inquiries?

4)      How long are my hold times and what’s my call abandon rate?

5)      How much more profitable can I be with a better solution?

If reading these questions makes you feel a bit queasy, don’t worry; you’re not alone.  Take a swig of Pepto-Bismol and relax; there’s a solution out there just for you! Optimized Customer Outcome™ (OCO™) by RevGuard is a patent-pending IVR and Web-based profitability engine developed over the course of five years by merchants, for merchants.

Plus, with RevGuard you’re never alone!  RevGuard has a dedicated analytics team that works with merchants on an individual basis to review metrics during weekly optimization calls and provides ongoing recommendations for continuous testing to provide significant lifts to profitability while driving down risky refunds and chargebacks.


CASE IN POINT:  A Snapshot of a Merchant OCO Test

RevGuard approached a merchant that has been running free trial programs for over seven years.  They had been through it all, seen it all and thought they had the best solution to maximize profitability and manage chargebacks – but, they were open to testing a new technology and admitted they hadn’t spent much time optimizing their customer service interactions.

RevGuard ran a 50/50 split test on their weight loss offer with 50% of the calls routed through RevGuard’s OCO platform first and the other 50% routed directly to their existing call center. The client was able to keep their existing 800# and simply redirect the calls to the IVR, so the test was launched quickly with little risk.

Over the course of the 60 day test, over 17,000 customers went through the system. Here are the results:

OCO slashed customer service costs by 44.18%
OCO reduced refund expenses by 47.12%
OCO lowered chargebacks and related costs by 26.70%

OVERALL: After the cost of the solution, OCO added $49,970 PER MONTH ($600,000 A YEAR) in profitability – a jump of 78%!  Best of all, they made these improvements after just the first test, so there is more money to be found as optimization continues!

This client quickly decided to use OCO to handle 100% of customer interactions and is looking forward to additional optimization to continue to scale and crush the competition.

So, if you’re tired of Peggy handling your customer service and you want to increase your profitability and create a sustainable business model, contact RevGuard and see how they can help you take your business to a whole new level.  Get in touch with them now – before your competition beats you to it.

About the Author

Walter Long has been in the online marketing space since 1999 and helped launch RevGuard.net.  He’s currently working closely with DirectResponse.net members Rick Del Rio and Peter Nguyen providing OCO support to their clients.  If you’re in the space, you should know Walter – hit him up at walter@revguard.net.