Mastering the Customer Experience SM
In today’s environment, a successful enterprise requires a clear and sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. A strategic differentiation can be gained by focusing on the single most important element of success – the customer. A business can ensure a competitive advantage by managing the customer relationship and providing world-class customer care, field support and billing services as efficiently as possible.
There are several evolutionary drivers – regardless of industry – that are having a profound impact on customer service: strategic value of customer care, an enterprise approach to customer relationship management, operational innovation, technological advancements and customer expectations.
- Strategic Value. Customer service delivery has a long, progressive history: administrative customer support – reactive customer service – proactive customer care – and, ultimately, Internet-based collaborative service. The services business continues to strategically evolve – from a "cost of doing business" that is vertically organized by narrowly defined segments of work/activities; to a multi-channeled, cross-functional contact center and field services operation that are horizontally aligned around customer-focused processes. This strategic paradigm shift represents the recognition of customer service management as a mission critical asset to the corporation for revenue-protection and revenue-generation opportunities.
- Customer Relationship Management. Enterprise-wide customer relationship management has broadened the concept of customer care – no longer is it satisfactory to develop strategies and operations within "organizational silos". Personalized customer contacts – the basis for a business relationship – require common customer knowledge across internal functional areas. In addition, customer segmentation rules based on contact triggers are necessary to reduce "flight risk" of high-valued customers. A holistic approach is required to synchronously manage the customer across the traditional customer-interfacing organizational boundaries, e.g., marketing, sales, field services, technical and aftermarket support.
- Operational Innovation. As corporations strategically leverage the customer contact, innovation inherently follows. Leading-edge service organizations will look beyond the four walls of a particular operation and deliver customer contacts to the most appropriate associate regardless of reporting structure – applying the principles of the contact center across the enterprise. Thus, as benchmarks in providing exceptional service evolve, the continuous improvement paradigm becomes more of a necessity. It is imperative, in the global competitive landscape, to not only benchmark within and across industries but strive to stay on the leading edge of providing world-class customer care – based on customer needs and exceeding expectations.
- Technological Advancements. Technology (such as the Web, WAP, VoIP and P2P) and associated applications (contact center, field service scheduling, CRM, et al) are unique in both supporting and driving operational requirements – consistently "raising the bar" in unparalleled customer and operations support. Advancements in both operation support systems and customer-facing technologies promise flexibility and innovation for customer contact operations. Human factors, business rules and workflow are important factors for a business to capitalize on these innovations. In addition, the ever-growing popularity of the Internet and other electronic communications raise unique challenges – how to provide proactive, personalized service in an inherently impersonal environment where certain customer touch points, such as email, are not real-time.
- Customer Expectations. Customers, too, are evolving: the expectations of customer service transcend industries. Expectations have evolved to the point where exceptional customer service is now considered the minimal requirements and personalized, proactive customer care is gaining momentum. Exceeding customer expectations and providing solutions to both explicit customer requests and implicit customer needs are the primary objectives.
Customer service delivery must be developed with a focus on distinguishing one from the competition, preventing the erosion of the existing customer-base, providing revenue-generating opportunities and protecting the company assets – all major challenges. Success will be determined by a combination of expertise, experience, discipline and innovation – following a logical, structured approach to "operationalizing" and mastering the customer experience in an increasingly Internet-based, relationship-driven environment. |
| A logical, phased approach that is customer-focused, adapts to the changing environment, encourages continuous improvement and leverages the customer contact personnel is advantageous to both the operation and customer. Customer service must be synchronized across the business in order to master the customer experience. |
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