If you achieve the delivery of first-rate customer service, many of your competitors won't be able to replicate it without a lot of time and hard work, or they may be incapable of replicating it at all," says Bob Cecchini, a senior consultant who focuses on customer service and service center productivity and measurement at the Robert E. Nolan Company. "The new differentiator for many financial services companies is customer service."

Companies are coming to understand this. In a 2008 study conducted by Forrester Research, 64 percent of decision-makers questioned said improving customer experience was a mission-critical goal–a number nearly double that of the year before–and more than half of the companies surveyed said they had undertaken companywide programs focused on improving customer experience.

If a company's customer service is subpar, it's tempting to blame the people delivering it. However, the fact is time-strapped CSRs need to balance different, and sometimes competing, performance objectives: increasing customer satisfaction by delivering quality and personal service while meeting standards for productivity and efficiency. Technology is essential to help achieve this balance.