Measuring, Monitoring and Improving Customer Experience

Measuring, Monitoring and Improving Customer Experience

customer More than ever, superior customer (CEM) is lending businesses a key competitive edge in a global marketplace. However, implementing the processes to accurately measure and monitor customer can be tough in an increasingly social media and information-driven world. This E-Guide focuses on how companies can address CEM challenges and take steps to improve the overall customer. By Anna Fiorentino, Contributor Advertising is no longer the only way to create effective customer impressions. Today, customers themselves are helping companies improve customer (CEM). Most companies today are using social media sites as spaces for interactive dialogue about their products and services. But do they realize there is more to launching a successful social CRM campaign than creating a Facebook page? So many companies say, We're going to build a Twitter campaign, with no goal in mind of what kind of return they want, says analyst Zach Hofer-Shall of Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. There is often little regard to who a customer is and who that customer is not. Hofer-Shall has seen this scenario hundreds of times before: A company launches a social media campaign without setting specific standards or goals. The truth is, companies can easily set and meet goals by doing things such as using software to track online CEM metrics or establishing customer ambassadors. Instead of just getting a brand out to the general public, Hofer-Shall says a company should send its messages directly to a loyal customer database on Page 2 of 8

social media platforms. The Coca Cola Co., he says, is one company that is doing that well. customer My Coke Rewards and CEM Coke s My Coke Rewards program, housed on Facebook, is using social media as a living, breathing focus group. The members-only site allows customers who already buy Coke products collect codes from products in return for rewards. Now, instead of carrying around bottle caps, individuals enter promotion codes through text messages and desktop widgets. By listening and monitoring customer conversations and codes, Coke has managed to deliver real-time results, creating value for its members as well as internal and external partners. Measurement is key, says Kaitlyn Dennihy, a strategist at Engauge, the social media agency of record for My Coke Rewards. Translating overall business goals into measurable actions within social has allowed us to track the impact of our communities as well as manage and exceed expectations for the social space. Every content piece in social must include a call to action for the user that can be measured. The social media goals of My Coke Rewards are quantified by the code entry and points spent on specific items. We can best optimize the program by assessing consumer actions, behaviors and sentiment, Dennihy says. Members are having detailed conversations surrounding the program with or without our participation. In order to influence this dialogue, we join the conversation to participate, inform and influence. It s important to provide a consistent program and a systematic value through targeted content and information strategy, according to Dennihy. My Coke Rewards provides quality content and builds one-on-one relationships with the social media community as well as every department within the company, she said. Page 3 of 8

customer With insight into areas such as customer service, product merchandising and exclusivity, we can deliver real-time results that impact the program and create value for our members as well as internal and external partners, Dennihy says. ING Direct and CEM ING Direct, an online-centric bank that is part of Netherlands-based ING, also believes that meeting customer needs is the basis for creating a thriving social media campaign. ING Direct boosted its bottom line by listening to online consumer conversations with the help of a program called Radian6, a social media monitoring platform that allows companies to not only know what s being said about their brands, industries and competitors online, but to also help them measure, analyze and report on their social CRM efforts. It's just one of many tools now used for measuring Web activity -- others include Alexa for providing statistics on visitors, Google Analytics for summarizing search trends, and Summize for providing Tweet searching capabilities. Maybe the most all-encompassing of the bunch, Radian6 which Salesforce.com acquired this year tells companies such as ING Direct who is saying what and whether customers are communicating through a news site or blog, for example. The software can also judge, based on Web traffic and readership, how influential the individual who made the post is. Often we find there is internal or external detective work to service clients, so it s great to see these tools built into Radian6, says Gloria Chik, social media lead at ING Direct. If we get a client complaint, it s been fantastic to get a full profile of that person. Chik said companies should tread carefully with Radian6 while handling confidential client financial information, making sure to look at each client complaint or compliment individually even if that means passing it on to the sales team. Page 4 of 8

customer But whether companies use qualitative or quantitative methods to track return on investment on customer response, one thing is certain. There has to be a goal around supporting customers," Hofer-Shall says. That goal may be tangible like solving a problem for a customer. Or it can be intangible like looking at the likelihood of a customer returning to a site." customer There are many methods for improving the customer, some complex and costly, others relatively simple and inexpensive. But how do you know what's right for your organization, and where should you start? We've compiled this list of customer initiatives any company can implement to start improving the customer today. 1. Get employee buy-in According to expert Michael Lowenstein, employees are the key to optimizing the customer. First, organizations need to make sure they have hired loyal employees who are committed to the company and fully understand the company's mission. Employee loyalty and satisfaction play a big role in improving the customer -- an unhappy employee usually won't provide the type of customer the company is after. For organizations looking to get employee buy-in for their customer initiatives, expert Lior Arussy recommends building a business case that explains why the initiative is important, from a customer's point of view. 2. Run an open, transparent business Gartner suggests businesses be as open and transparent as possible in their dealings with customers and employees alike. Openness in business and transparency builds the trust of customers, and most experts agree that customer trust has a significant impact on the customer. The more open-minded, inclusive and transparent a company can be the better. Page 5 of 8

customer 3. Deliver consistent customer s Gartner also suggests making sure the customer is consistent across the entire organization. Every area of the company that the customer interacts with should have the same, updated customer information, so that the customer doesn't need to give their information to the company more than once. CRM software can help with this. 4. Train customer-facing employees According to Arussy, customer-facing employees should be given customer training from day one. This training differs from traditional call center training in that it tends to be more customized to reflect the company's brand, desired customer and relationships with customers. Some things to cover in training include: a. The principles of customer b. The concept of delivering memories and not just transactions c. The basics of customer segmentations 5. Give customers a personalized Experts agree that personalization is the key to any good customer. According to expert Lior Arussy, the customer database is the backbone of a businesses' relationship with the customer, and the information stored inside should be shared with every member of the organization, that way regardless of who the customer calls, they receive a consistent, personalized customer. Since personalization can be complex and expensive, Gartner recommends companies evaluate personalization based not only on sales benefits but also on the long-term value of improving the customer. 6. Measure and analyze customer emotions Measuring customer emotion is a new, growing trend customer experts are noticing. Companies that have the tools in place to measure and understand the emotions of their customers are better able to meet their needs. Emotion detection software is popping up in call centers, but Arussy feels it is more reactive than proactive, and will be more useful when it can measure customer emotions in real time. For now, companies can start by Page 6 of 8

customer building models of common buying personalities that reflect the emotional needs of their customers, and train call center agents to reference these when dealing with customers. 7. Act on customer feedback Everyone knows the importance of customer feedback, but not all companies actually act on the feedback and make the changes customers are looking for. Gartner feels this is something all organizations should be doing to increase their number of satisfied, loyal customers, and recommends communicating changes clearly and openly to all members of the organization. Technologies like speech and text analytics, as well as customer surveys, are often used for gathering customer opinions. 8. Take the customer's point of view Gartner VP Ed Thompson recommends focusing on two or three processes customers care the most about, and designing them with the customer's point of view in mind. By taking the customer's point of view, companies stop focusing on the way the customer looks to them, and begin focusing on the way they looks to the customer. This can lead to more relevant, trustworthy and worthwhile business practices. 9. Create a well-balanced customer team According to Gartner, organizations with the best-run customer programs usually have a good mixture of people from all areas of the organization responsible for and reporting on the customer. Thompson recommends the customer team structure be made up of people who are focused on customer loyalty, customer satisfaction and process improvement. 10. Design the total customer Organizations shouldn't sit back and let the customer unfold as it will. Experts feel successful customer s need to be carefully designed and thoughtfully planned out to ensure that the right is delivered every time. Page 7 of 8

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