CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT : SUCCESS DOES NOT COME WITH SLOGANS OR GOOD INTENTIONS; YOU CANNOT BE A SUCCESS WITH SPORADIC AND NON-CONCERTED ACTIONS

A  STRATEGIC  APPROACH TO 

 CUSTOMER   EXPERIENCE  MANAGEMENT

In particular, companies are progressively realizing that managing customer satisfaction is key to succeeding in this effort.  Unsurprisingly, studies have  shown that  as a customer’s satisfaction increases, so do his or her loyalty and willingness to recommend the  service to others . On top of this, satisfied customers are more receptive to cross-selling actions and have proven  to be less  costly  in terms of customer care. 

Despite the evidence, service companies rarely consider building loyalty, capturing cross-selling opportunities and managing customer satisfaction as part of one and the same process. Satisfaction is typically measured in period- if customer surveys that are used to compare the position of the company relative to that of its competitors.

 Yet these results are seldom translated into the individualized commercial actions launched by marketing & sales to retain and increase revenue per customer. In the  process, valuable  resources are lost when attempting to cross-sell to unsatisfied customers who  will probably  never  agree to increase their spending with the  company, and trying to retain  satisfied customers who  would  have  stayed with the company anyway.

HERE ARE 7 STEPS TO A GOOD CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

 

SETTING A CLEAR CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE STRATEGY

Often organisations confuse defining a customer experience strategy with creating a "slogan". How many companies create a slogan without any supporting initiatives, thereby disillusioning employees and creating a "flavour of the month?"

To establish a good strategy certain key practices are required:

§  Understand the overall organisational vision and mission

§  Define the organisation's customer service direction, slogan and values

§  Ensure customer service is defined as a key responsibility for the business/department

§  Share the customer experience strategy via a comprehensive communications program

§  Ensure that this strategy does not conflict with other business strategies. As consultants, it is amazing how often we hear organisations say, "Improving Customer Service is a priority, and we are also introducing stringent cost-cutting measures." This can present a tough dichotomy.

 

HAVE THE RIGHT PEOPLE ON THE WAGON

When recruiting employees to provide customer service, the process often tends to concentrate more on functional expertise, technical competence and knowledge rather than interpersonal skills. However, lack of the right attitude can drastically impact client satisfaction levels. Research has in fact shown that attitude is the most important requirement: skills and functional expertise can be taught.

Therefore in selecting the right people:

§  Define the critical job requirements

§  Develop scenario-based interviews/assessment centres to screen and select candidates

§  Involve multiple team members in the hiring process

§  Ensure evaluation is based on objective, not the subjective "Be Like Me" criteria

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PEOPLE COME FIRST -THEN CUSTOMER IS FOREMOST

Even though you have hired the right people, there is still a need to orient them into the organisation's customer relationship culture and define key communication skills. In Call Centers and Technical Support departments, there is a tendency to rely on technical/functional skills and neglect interpersonal skills development. This can result in providing acceptable material service, the more tangible aspect, yet unacceptable personal service, the competitive differentiator.

Therefore to build a customer relationship culture, it is important to:

§  Provide training in key areas required to deliver exceptional personal service

§  Reinforce these skills using ongoing coaching and feedback

§  Measure current performance levels

§  Reward performance using a combination of monetary awards and non-monetary recognition

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENT SERVICE DELIVERY PROCESSES

Effective processes and procedures provide the foundation for smoothing or inhibiting the material service element of the customer interaction. Efficient service delivery systems appear transparent to the customer. Poor systems create those 'speed bumps' that necessitate personal intervention in order to satisfy the customer requirements.

The critical elements in ensuring a positive material customer experience are:

§  Mapping the service delivery processes

§  Evaluating critical success points in the process

§  Defining service standards and objectives for these essential points

§  Establishing service delivery procedures to optimise material service

§  Creating service level agreements to smooth internal service delivery

USE DEMING’S WHEEL : PLAN-DO-CHECK-ACT (PDCA)

No matter how effective the service delivery processes, or well-trained the service deliverers, things go wrong. Products have faults. Customers get frustrated. Things slip through the cracks. The organisations that are built around managing the customer experience are able to resolve these issues effectively. This process known as "recovery" is an important differentiator in building customer loyalty.

In order to recover effectively, it is necessary to:

§  Actively seek customer feedback and complaints: you cannot improve if you don't know what went wrong in the first place.

§  Train staff how to handle customer complaints effectively using the correct mix of empathising, apologising and resolution.

§  Make sure that the real problem is solved, not just the symptoms.

§  Focus on proactive (prevention) as well as reactive (cure) problem solving.

SET CUSTOMER SERVICE STANDARDS AT EACH TOUCH POINT

We are used to such phrases as ‘100% reliable’ and ‘works everytime‘ as they relate to products. These product quality standards have developed over time, as consumers have become more demanding of manufacturers.But a tangible product is only one aspect of the supplier/customer relationship. The other aspect is service; indeed, in many businesses, there is no physical product. The only relationship is service.Service standards are important for customers, potential customers, employees and management of a business. They help to define what a customer can expect and to remind management and employees of the challenge and obligations that they face.

This guidance note addresses these questions: in what terms should service standards be defined? How do you go about creating service standards? How many standards should a business have? How are service standards used?

SET NORMS FOR CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS HANDLING FOR ORGANISATIONS

·       Have a clear, flexible welcoming and open policy on complaints. A complaint is a gift when a customer gives up their time to help you improve your organisation.

·       Train your staff and management in complaints handling

Give them confidence to tackle the difficult customers and support in their actions. Excellent complaint handling isn't easy and can sometimes be stressful and feel unrewarding. Confirm its importance in providing great customer service.

·       Give complaining enough priority and authority

Staff should be aware that complaints are a top priority item for your operation, and anyone who deals with them must have sufficient authority to resolve them completely.

·       Ensure that you can process complaints from all sources

There are 4 main ways to complain – in person, by telephone, by mail, by email/internet. Your organisation must be able to handle all of these efficiently.

·       Set up processes to log and analyse all complaints and share with everyone

You can learn a lot about problems with internal processes, training, specific employees/managers, and product forfree.

 CONCLUSION

CUSTOMER SERVICE EXCELLENCE IS NOT A DEPARTMENT – BUT THE WHOLE COMPANY

We observe often; that senior management  has the vision, intention and commitment to introduce a comprehensive customer relationship management system. The "make or break" element is in involving middle management in the change process, and empowering them to be the key change-agents.

To do this, it is important to:

§  Engage the management team early and often in the process

§  Involve management members in articulating the customer experience strategy

§  Teach managers coaching skills so that they are able to articulate and reinforce the key personal service skills

§  Use managers as facilitators when rolling out interpersonal skills training

§  Reward managers on establishing, monitoring and updating service delivery processes

§  Ensure managers are able to act as an example to their teams.

  

As you can see, in order to deliver outstanding service, it is essential to build a customer relationship focused culture. This can take up to two years and can involve changing the way the company operates in all aspects of service delivery. The time investment can be high, but the pay-off can be enormous building long-term customer loyalty and helping to ensure business profitability.