BUILDING A PROACTIVE CUSTOMER PERCEPTION PROGRAMME

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1 MEMBER REPORT INSPIRING SERVICE DESKS TO BE BRILLIANT BUILDING A PROACTIVE CUSTOMER PERCEPTION PROGRAMME JUNE 2016

2 ABOUT THE AUTHOR CONTENTS The author of this report is SDI s Industry Analyst Ollie O Donoghue. Ollie is dedicated to providing insightful and practical research to the service desk industry. Ollie s work with a wide range of service teams around the world provides him with ITSM expertise across a variety of business sectors. You can find more of Ollie s work on the SDI Blog and can follow Introduction What s The Difference? How Do We Do It? When Is Proactive Customer Perception Particularly Important? Conclusion About SDI Contact SDI While every care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of this report, the results, estimates and opinions stated are based on sources which, while we believe them to be reliable, are not guaranteed. No liability can be accepted by SDI, its Directors or Employees for any loss to any person acting or failing to act as a result of anything contained in or omitted from this report, or conclusions stated. 2

3 INTRODUCTION WHAT S THE DIFFERENCE? A customer perception programme is vital to any service desk s continual improvement plan. Soliciting feedback and suggestions, understanding strengths and weaknesses and getting to grips with how different customers use services is vital to the success of a service and support organisation. There are a multitude of member reports that provide insight into building brilliant surveys and methods of building strong complaints handling processes. However, little attention has been paid to the proactive side of a customer perception programme and the considerable benefits it can bring. Often the reserve of business relationship managers, proactive services are now a vital component of a service desks remit to ensure it continues to deliver value in an environment where technology provides the potential to reduce reactive workloads significantly. A reasonable question that requires answering before we delve into the methods of proactive customer perception is how does it differ from current models? Often, customer perception models are largely focused on the reactive capture of feedback in its many forms complaints, compliments and suggestions. The feedback is often in response to something that has already happened and are, by their definition, reactive. Of course, reactive customer perception has an important part to play for service desks. We need to know when things have gone wrong and when they have gone right so we can fix things and use success to drive improvements elsewhere. However, waiting for problems or plaudits to be brought to our attention should not be the only way we engage with our customers over improvements to our services. We should be regularly engaging them to seek improvements pro-actively, whether that be isolating new technologies that will benefit a particular customer group or pre-emptively employing a measure that will avoid an issue in the future. The importance of proactive customer perception will increase as the workforces evolve. Trends that have been monitored with caution for several years, particularly Shadow IT, will become more acute as digital natives enter the workforce. Quite simply, if a service is not up to scratch, they may not provide an opportunity for it to be fixed, they ll simply source services elsewhere in the same way they would in their consumer experiences with technology. As the consumerisation of IT develops with this new generation, service organisations will need to remain one step ahead to deliver the best service for their customers. 3

4 HOW DO WE DO IT? Shifting customer perception to a more proactive approach can be achieved through several means. The most common methods are to either include questions into surveys with a more proactive leaning, build focus groups with the assistance of business relationship functions or build a separate proactive customer perception programme that will feed into any current programmes. Proactive questions Starting with the first method, which is potentially the easiest starting point and is particularly useful if a mature programme is already in place, will require us to take a look at the questions we are asking. A reactive stance would be to ask what went wrong or right? For a proactive response although, as mentioned previously, reactive questions still play an important role we need to ask a completely different set of questions. Some of the most effective include: If you could highlight three things that the service desk could improve, what would they be? What could we do right now to assist you in your work? What causes the most disruption to your work? Is there a tool or technology that could improve the way you do things? Proactive questions like these are best reserved for a periodic survey, as asking them after a specific event may drive feedback based exclusively on the event and not the service as a whole. The defining difference between both approaches is that reactive questions will solicit the responses we need for a specific transaction or event, proactive questions will solicit responses based upon the service as a whole and provide inspiration for broader service improvements. Focus groups and workshops Another method that is often a core component of a proactive perception programme is to hold workshops and focus groups with customers and stakeholders. This approach has several benefits over traditional methods of collecting feedback, most notably it allows for a conversation on improvements and breaks down potential barriers between customers and the service desk. A potential downside is the higher cost associated with this form of engagement. Additional time and resources are likely to be required to host the focus group. However, the result can be a considerable boost to service improvement activities. Business relationship managers will be a useful resource to draw on should this approach be taken. Their expertise in converting feedback from business customers into service improvements will no doubt be useful for the service desk, and likewise, for business relationship managers it will open up a range of potential service improvements with key stakeholders already present. 4

5 Building a new proactive perception programme It may be the case for some organisations that a current perception programme is immature or non-existent. In these instances, a new programme will need to be constructed from scratch. As mentioned previously, reactive aspects of perception programmes are important and the resources to build these can be found in the SDI members research library. From a proactive standpoint, it would be recommended to engage with core customers during the development of the programme to ensure from their perspective, that the programme will be accessible to all customers. For example, if questions in a survey are too technical or are too focused on a specific area, customers may struggle to provide responses that will be valuable to the service desk. WHEN IS PROACTIVE CUSTOMER PERCEPTION PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT? There are a range of scenarios when pro-actively asking customers for feedback can be particularly useful. For the most part, this insight is used to fuel long-term plans or provide inspiration for broader service improvement initiatives. Below are some examples of when pro-actively capturing customer feedback can be crucial to success. Reviewing the service desk strategy The periodic review of the direction the service desk is vital to ensure it aligns with the strategic objectives of the wider business. To support the service desk in its drive to design a future service desk strategy, customers should be consulted to gauge current successes that should be continued and areas of weakness that need to be addressed. For example, asking representatives from a variety of business areas to identify key areas where the service desk can boost their productivity or help to deliver against longterm objectives will provide a raft of potential opportunities to deliver a service that better meets the needs of the business. 5

6 Evaluating new business technologies For service desks that are empowered to investigate the potential of new business technologies, engaging with customers to identify pain points in technologies that are currently available is critically important. For example, using the insight from responses to questions like Is there a tool or technology that could improve the way you do things? or Is there a technology which you use in your personal life or with other organisations that would be useful to you here? can guide investigations into future procurement activity. It is worthwhile noting that asking questions like these should only be considered if there is a genuine interest in procuring new technologies. If not, it may simply serve as a disappointment to customers who genuinely believe in a technology s value. Introducing or designing a new service Capturing feedback from customers based on the value they would see in a new service is also important to service desk success. Without this insight, services may be designed based on reactive customer perception we know they do and don t like these particular aspects of our current service as opposed to a proactive approach that will design the service based on what they are trying to achieve and what services will help them do it. Proactive Customer Perception Best Practices As with all forms of capturing feedback, there are tried and tested best practices that will support a service desk in achieving the best results. Some of the most valuable best practices are: Always respond: When a customer has taken the time to feedback, whether reactive or proactive, the service desk must take ownership of the feedback. Part of this ownership is the regular communication with the customer to advise them on progress and whether it is being carried forward and, if not, why it is not. In this instance, communication is vital for several reasons. Firstly, if customers understand you are taking their feedback seriously, they are more likely to return with future feedback. Secondly, communication will reassure them that the matter is being dealt with. Vitally, the perception of the service can be improved through communication or damaged due to a lack of it. Should the feedback be negative, effective communication can mitigate concerns and provide the service desk with an appropriate channel to rectify it. Even if the feedback is positive, it can quickly turn negative if the service desk fails to communicate. If a customer has taken the time to tell you something, you should take the time to respond. 6

7 Consider the outcome carefully: Proactive feedback differs significantly to reactive on many fronts but most significantly in that the service desk can take the time to design a programme to cover a specific area or subject. Conducting proactive customer perception programmes provides the service desk with the opportunity to design it to deliver the specific insight they need. However, this does mean that the service desk needs to consider carefully the outcome of the feedback and what actions they will be taking afterwards. For example, a specific programme might have been designed to fuel the creation of a new service offering, a VIP service, say. Pro-actively engaging with future service users is a valuable endeavour, however, what action will be taken if the reaction to the introduction of the service is negative. Will the service desk honour the new service regardless, or will it use the feedback to reallocate the resources elsewhere? If the answer is the former, pro-actively soliciting feedback may not be necessary as the decision has been made. Moreover, if it is clear amongst the customer group that the service was implemented regardless of the feedback, the perception of the service desk and the results of future perception programmes may be damaged. Ensure there are always channels for feedback: Conducting a periodic and proactive perception programme should be beneficial for everyone involved. Customers can provide details of future improvements, and the service desk has the inspiration to design a truly valuable service. However, this should not be viewed as the only feedback channel needed. Customers will want to provide feedback on a variety of areas, whether that is through surveys that are conducted after an event or transaction, periodically in a larger survey, or pro-actively through a workshop or focus group. Ensuring customers have constant access to channels through which they can provide feedback is essential to both the continual improvement of the service and the value captured in proactive feedback sessions. Customers who have been given the opportunity to feedback about a specific issue already, are far more likely to be objective in a broader survey about future services. Finally, as mentioned previously in this report, the perception programme needs to be conducted with a genuine desire to improve or act on the results. If the programme asks customers to name their dream working environment and the results are not acted on in any way, it is likely just to annoy your customers. 7

8 CONCLUSION The modern service desk can no longer rely on the steady stream of reactive feedback that has traditionally been returned by customers. As the rate of change in the economy led by disruptive technologies and new working trends accelerates, service desk professionals must seek to engage pro-actively with their customers through a programme that provides them with the insight necessary to design valued services and products. A proactive customer perception programme will provide service desk professionals with feedback to help guide them in designing a service desk that more closely aligns with business objectives. Combined with the traditional reactive surveys capturing no less valuable feedback proactive perception will ensure today s service desk can keep up with future demands and objectives. 8

9 ABOUT SDI CONTACT SDI The SDI company mission is to inspire service desks to be brilliant. To achieve this mission SDI has developed a set of goals by which it aims to inspire service desks to: Embrace: To raise the quality of service delivery by valuing best practice Engage: To create an inspiring and engaging customer experience Invest: To empower their teams to be inspired, take action and be better Service Desk Institute 21 High Street Green Street Green Orpington Kent BR6 6BG +44 (0) servicedeskinstitute.com Shine: To demonstrate and deliver exceptional business value SDI sets the globally recognised best practice service desk standards that provide clear and measurable benchmarks for service desk operations and professionals. The standards are designed to encourage service desks to embrace and value best practice in order to raise the quality of service delivery. For more information about SDI please visit