Where does the contact center fit in The Hartford’s overall view of customer service?
Hammond: Customer experience comes through all touch points (e.g., salespeople, call center agents, advertising, correspondence and Web sites). A company’s reputation — its brand — is built off of those touch points. This experience ultimately conveys the company’s value to the customer and is a primary influence for future customer behavior, especially the individual customer’s future value to the enterprise. A poor customer experience is a step towards customer defection, while a good experience builds customer loyalty. The Hartford’s approach is to develop value by understanding the customer, determining clear service expectations, then translating that into specific touch point processes to ensure consistency across channels. We then gather customer feedback and start the process all over again. This customer-centric, closed-looped improvement system enables the enterprise to maximize the value exchange and react quickly to changes in the environment. I&T: How do you combine tech
