There’s no doubt about it. American Express (AMEX) is an outstanding leader in customer service and customer relationship management (CRM).

Just last month, the company, which is an ATG Live Help customer, was named a winner of the coveted 2010 Forrester Research Voice Of The Customer Awards. Harley Manning, vice president and research director of Forrester Research, said, “The quality of this year’s nominees is evidence that voice of the customer programs are advancing rapidly … The best VoC programs demonstrate that executive involvement, measurement, and insights that are tied directly to action are critical to customer experience success.”

In addition, AMEX today unveiled the results of its American Express Global Customer Service Barometer. The study surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers in April and its findings were just shared in 1to1 Media’s “Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog.”

Here are some of the highlights:

• 28 percent of respondents said that companies are now paying less attention to good service, even though 61 percent of those consumers said quality customer service is more important to them than ever
• 91 percent of Americans consider the level of customer service important when deciding to do business with a company
• The three most influential factors that help consumers decide which companies they do business with include personal service (98 percent), a company’s reputation or brand (92 percent), and recommendations from family and friends (88 percent)
• 81 percent have decided never to do business again with a company because of poor service

Jim Bush, executive vice president of world service at American Express, said, “Many consumers say companies haven’t done enough to improve their approach to service in this economy, and yet it’s clear they’re willing to spend more with those that deliver excellent service, suggesting substantial growth opportunities for businesses that get customer service right.”

We couldn’t agree more, Mr. Bush. Congrats to you and your team on receiving one of this year’s Voice Of The Customer Awards and thank you for sharing the results of this insightful study!

Last week, we heard from the Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) and Customer Interactions Solutions magazine that ATG Click to Call was honored with the Eleventh Annual CRM Excellence Award.

The select CRM Excellence Awards winners were chosen on the basis of their product or service’s ability to help extend and expand customer relationships to become all encompassing, covering the entire enterprise and the entire lifetime of the customer.

To illustrate the strength of ATG’s live help offerings, and specifically Click to Call, in accomplishing this, we presented background on The Hartford’s dynamic and very effective use of ATG Click to Call.

The Hartford needed a product that curbed online application abandonment and increased sales of its personal insurance products. ATG Click to Call did the trick, and now approximately 4% of all online quote starts transition to a click to call communication – twice the volume of industry benchmarks. Once the call has been initiated with a live agent, there has been an approximate 25% conversion rate. This is a staggering statistic in the insurance industry considering the lifelong value of a conversion is well over $1,000.

It is evident from this case study ATG Click to Call is a true CRM solution, and we are glad that the award sponsors agreed.

“How am I supposed to control my brand if it is molded by the voice of the consumer?”

One of the primary discussions and concerns of 2009 centered on how the rise in social computing has caused marketers to feel as if they’ve lost control of their brand. It’s 2010, and let’s face it, this is still a big issue for marketers across the country. This presumed loss of control is understandable, but marketers do have some powerful tools available to help them actually strengthen their brand by learning from the “voice of the consumer.”

Live help technologies (those such as click to call or chat services) enable marketers to listen to, respond to, track, and analyze their customers “voices” during the process of providing online customer service on a specific part of the Web site. Applying what is learned through this analysis can ultimately help companies increase online conversation rates, reduce Web site abandonment, reduce service costs and even improve their products and services.

One major U.S. airline used click to call to analyze customer service issues pertaining to its online flight bookings process, and then improved its Web site based on the analysis.

The airline – which uses proactive live help – noticed a rise in call center volume stemming from a particular point in the online booking process. Taking quick action, they listened to a sample of the click to call recordings originating from that point in the bookings process to determine if callers were encountering a common problem.

As it turned out, the rise in click to call use was a result of travelers’ inability to view their seating assignments on a specific page. They were using click to call to find out their seating assignment before continuing the booking process.

With this ”voice of the customer” knowledge, the airline improved its booking process by making the seat assignment more prominent. The result? A drop in click to call activity and direct bottom-line impact (not to mention happier customers).

This is one of those hidden benefits of live help that businesses often don’t consider when evaluating the potential return on investment. Unlike a 1-800 number, click to call and live chat interactions can be tied directly to each customer’s online context, as this example shows.  With live help, companies can capture, listen to and respond to the voice of their customers at the most critical moments of need to drive revenue and customer satisfaction while reducing support costs.

How are you strengthening your brand by capturing and responding to the voice of you customers?  I’d love to hear your stories.