White paper MaY 2012 USheriNG in the NeW era OF CUStOMer experience BY MarChai BrUCheY, ChieF CUStOMer OFFiCer thunderhead.com

Transcription

1 White paper MAY 2012 USHERING IN THE NEW ERA OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE By Marchai Bruchey, Chief Customer Officer Thunderhead.com

2 01 MANAGING THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE: TIME FOR AN OUTSIDE-IN VIEW Customer Experience Management has taken a fundamentally different approach by focusing on driving processes from the customer s point of view; an outside-in view. As terms go, the definition of Customer Experience Management (CEM) is as varied as its distant cousin Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Both of these terms imply that it is all about the customer; either managing their relationship or managing their experience. But unlike CRM, which is largely focused on internal people, processes and technologies; an insideout view, CEM has taken a fundamentally different approach by focusing on driving processes from the customer s point of view; an outside-in view. Customer experience is a business issue that has a profound impact on overall business objectives including but not limited to customer retention, increased customer loyalty, increased revenue per customer and competitive diff erentiation. It can be a game changer for organizations that get it right. At Thunderhead.com, we believe that the world has changed forever, driven in large part by the adoption of social and mobile technologies. It has been reported that the average person carries as many as four mobile devices at any given time. Knowing when, where and how to reach these customers and prospects has become a daunting challenge for most companies. The diff erence between which companies will win or lose will depend upon how deeply they engage with their customers and partners across all touchpoints. Companies can t avoid providing a customer experience, so it is important to make it meaningful and relevant. WELCOME TO THE AGE OF THE CONSUMER Making this new world even more complex are the customers themselves. It is often said that we are living in the age of the consumer, meaning that the customer is in the driver s seat. Gone are the days where customers will accept the status quo. Their options are virtually unlimited in the digital world and today s customer doesn t mind switching. Back to the world changing forever; just look back at employee loyalty. It has direct correlation to the thinking of today s customer. Let s look at the traditional generation that came into the workplace in the 1940s and 1950s. It was considered rare if someone of that generation had more than two jobs in a lifetime. When you joined a company, you expected to work there for life. This generation was all about loyalty both to their employers and to the companies they did business with. The next generation, the baby boomers, as they are called, started experiencing the shift in employee/ employer loyalty in the mid to latter part of their careers and can be expected to have three to five jobs during their working life. They were not nearly as reluctant to make a change as previous generations and their mindset started the shift to focus on customer satisfaction. Now, let s look at what is known as Generation X & Y, you know those children from what I like to call the fast food world, a world where you should never have to wait on anything. This generation is expected to have between jobs in their work career. This generation takes the customer experience agenda to a whole new level. They are the digital society and use every channel available to them to connect; mobile, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Not only do they connect but they will tell you everything that you wanted to know about themselves and then some. It is difficult to reach this audience that has little tolerance for mass market messages and push advertising, unless you can make it fast, easy, relevant and in a language they can understand. They tend to travel in packs and therefore trust their peers more so than the companies they do business with so peer recommendation is extremely important. While this particular demographic is quick to adopt social media we have seen recently that even unlikely demographics are adopting its use who would have thought that middle aged women and grandparents would be great adopters, but research tells us they are. Whether it s to stay connected to kids, grandchildren or friends in far flung places. So even in this context peer recommendation becomes increasingly important. And don t forget those mass connectors and mass mavens. The people out there influencing the conversations with millions of followers or those who are beacons for a cause, service or product. Building an engaging relationship with this vast set of customer demographics, all of whom have diff erent expectations, is hard and is one of the biggest challenges for companies today. Delivering the right information, at the right time, on the right device to your customer or your employee serving that customer is business critical. This opportunity can be a company s dream or nightmare depending largely on how well you are equipped internally from a customer experience perspective. overcoming the technology barriers Through the years, companies have spent millions upon millions of dollars on technology to manage the customer relationship. These systems, by-and-large, did a good job of creating a system of record. But managing customer experience is all about the engagement, so companies need to assess how they can tie all of the disjointed, disparate systems together and empower their employees to be able to manage all customer touchpoints across the business. CRM systems were largely deployed in a siloed fashion to meet specifi c business objectives. Marketing executives acquired marketing automation solutions to create demand for their product/service and to handle both inbound and outbound marketing needs for customer acquisition. Sales executives deployed sales automation solutions to get their arms around pipeline and forecast management and to manage prospect/customer contacts. Customer service executives designed systems to better support the customer after-sell and to insure that customer issues were tracked and ultimately solved. Building an engaging relationship with this vast set of customer demographics, all of whom have different expectations, is hard and is one of the biggest challenges for companies today

3 Your customers should not have to put up with digital interactions that are less satisfying than face-to-face. The challenge is how to create this same experience in the digital world where you don t have face-to-face interactions. Technology that used to help now gets in the way because it isn t integrated. Increasingly, companies see the need to drive this type of change not only in their systems, but in conjunction with employee engagement focused on providing employees with the tools to enable improved experiences, because today s customer doesn t wait for IT timeframes or massive deployment of new customer solutions. Our point of view is that companies must determine how to leverage the investments that they have made in technology and their employees to design new ways of managing the customer engagement across all touch points. And if technology barriers weren t enough, there is still a good bit of infi ghting within organizations as to who owns the customer; sales, marketing or service. MANAGING THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY Today s customer views themselves as a customer of the organization, not any one group and companies serving those customers need to do the same. For instance, if a customer were to interact with the customer service organization, either by phone or web self-service, they expect you to have a view of their interactions across the entire enterprise not just in the service organization. Understanding and managing the customer journey across the business silos has become mission critical. Today s customer wants personalized, contextual and relevant information at every touchpoint whether they are talking to someone on the phone or interacting via the web or app. This will require companies to know their customer s preferences, behaviors and interactions like never before. It is a great feeling to walk into an establishment and be recognized immediately and to be able to have a conversation that takes into account my previous history with the business and to determine my current needs, fi nding the vendor responds with the perfect solution. This is the ultimate in customer engagement. Your customers should not have to put up with digital interactions that are less satisfying than face-to-face. The challenge is how to create this same experience in the digital world where you don t have face-to-face interactions. Your customers should not have to repeat themselves when moving between channels or service representatives. This is the biggest complaint I hear regarding customer experience. How many times have you started an interaction in one channel, let s say the web, and could not accomplish the task you set out to do, having to or phone the company only to have to start all over and repeat yourself suffering broken conversations at every turn. Or better yet, enter your ten digit account number in the IVR only to have to repeat it again to the customer service rep when he/she answers the phone after your five minute hold time. These broken conversations can have very adverse consequences from a customer retention perspective and they cost the business millions of dollars. Fixing these simple issues can improve the customer experience and reduce cost for the business. A win/ win for everyone. Your customers should not receive communications that disregard their stated preference for privacy or contact. Remember the discussion around know your customer? Personalized, relevant and contextual communications are a must for today s digital customer. Nothing can ruin a brand s reputation quicker than to send irrelevant information to the customer who has a twitter community of over a million followers. This may be an exaggeration but we can agree that customers today have a platform for sharing opinions like never before and this digital savvy customer doesn t mind sharing experiences online. One negative post that goes viral can have dire consequences for a brand s value. Your customers should not have to read content that was designed for a website but has been resized onto a mobile phone. Not only should they not have to read it, in most cases, they won t even attempt to. At this point you have not only missed an opportunity for engagement but you have created an unpleasant experience that, depending on the customer s journey with your organization, could also mean a defection. PERSONALIZING EVERY INTERACTION At Thunderhead.com, we believe that there is a fundamentally different approach to better customer engagement, ultimately leading to a better customer experience. It s about removing friction within the business, it s about personalizing the digital interactions, it s about empowering employees to serve your customers, it s about enabling collaboration and changing the way businesses engage with their customers. Businesses are built on relationships. In order to provide superior customer experiences, companies need to enable two-way interactive conversations with customers. Every communication, regardless of touchpoint needs to have unmatched real-time personalization across every channel. In order to provide this level of personalization you must combine behavior, outcomes and experience. It s about knowing the customer so well, they never need to contact you because you anticipate their needs and deliver moments that matter. It s about removing friction within the business, it s about personalizing the digital interactions, it s about empowering employees to serve your customers, it s about enabling collaboration and changing the way businesses engage with their customers.

4 It s about blowing up the silos and realizing the full potential of integrating back-end and front-end systems and delivering the optimal content for every conversation. Consistent customer experience goes beyond the channel; it s about the customer journey. It s about maintaining a consistent, intelligent conversation across all touchpoints while marrying opportunity, engagement and servicing. It s about blowing up the silos and realizing the full potential of integrating back-end and front-end systems and delivering the optimal content for every conversation. Companies that can adapt quickly to changing customer needs proactively, managing the customer s journey across all digital touchpoints, print, call centers and more will ultimately improve the customer experience, increase revenue potential and influence brand value. PUTTING THE CUSTOMER AT THE CENTRE OF YOUR STRATEGY In closing, the digital customer has come of age and is driving many forward thinking organizations to rethink their customer experience strategy producing a shift in the technology market from systems of record to systems of engagement. While this shift is driven in large part by the customer, there are many benefits to the business for putting the customer at the center of your strategy. The left-hand column overleaf outlines strategic business initiatives of many companies today while the right-hand column is the resulting benefit to both the business and the customer. Brand Health Loyalty Lifetime Value Cross/Up-Sell Competitive Response Enter New Markets Offers and Promotions Budget Optimization Deliver a consistent experience Personalize every interaction Manage the customer journey Appropriate, informed interactions Superior, differentiated experience Change strategy at new speeds Improved response rates Leverage SaaS & existing IT investments Adapting quickly to changing business needs requires business software that is purpose-built to give business users a contemporary, intuitive user interface that is easily embedded into daily work life. Technology should be transparent, relevant and empowering allowing you to engage in real-time collaboration with partners and customers. The business user must be able to manage every aspect of the customer s journey, being able to listen, adapt, engage, and improve with little or no IT intervention.

5 ABOUT THUNDERHEAD.COM We are Thunderhead.com. Creating a powerful new force for business. Leading the advancement of customer experience by fundamentally changing the way businesses engage their customers and partners through utilizing a powerful suite of contemporary SaaS solutions delivered on a purpose-built cloud platform. Remarkable software for business users. Memorable experiences for your customers. info@thunderhead.com Copyright Thunderhead All rights reserved. Version 1.0 (US). Thunderhead endeavors to ensure that the information within this document is correct and fairly stated, but does not accept any liability for any errors or omissions.