Keeping the Customer central in the experience by Thomas Grounds

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The Customer Experience - a much larger context

In my last post I talked about how the customer experience usually starts far before they choose to contact customer support.  In many cases the customer experience has already been tarnished before they begin looking for a resolution on company web-sites, IVR's, Call Centers and other methods of resolution.  The customer experience starts with the first interaction.

This morning I had plenty of time to think about the customer experience as it applied to my commute.  Then I started thinking that my commute is only a part of a much larger context.  My frustration wasn't the result of being stuck in traffic in horrible weather,  It was the result that my commute was just a single element in a much larger picture.  When I schedule my day I plan my commute in the much larger context of my day:

• Wake Up (6:15 AM)
• Make Coffee (6:16 AM)
• Answer E-Mails (6:20 AM)
• Get ready for work (6:45 AM)
• Travel to work (7:30 AM)
• Work (8:00 AM)
• Eat Lunch (11:30 AM)
• Work some more (12:30 PM)
• Travel home (6:00 PM)
• Make Dinner (6:30 PM)
• Family Time (7:00 PM)
• Bed (10:00 PM)
• ...and start all over again

If something goes wrong with my commute and it takes longer than I planned, it has an impact on the next step - my Work.  If there is a wreck, or a road is closed for repair (and what road in Dallas isn't closed for repair these days?), or bad weather slowed traffic to a crawl, it has a lasting effect on my mood and my ability to work because I'm usually playing catch-up to make up for the lost time.  This also happens to your customers before they contact you - it could be directly related to your product or service, or it may be a result of something entirely unrelated which they carry through to their customer experience with you.

Stay with me here -  and let's apply what I just illustrated above to the airline industry.  I have had excellent experiences with the airlines and I have also had the reverse.  When considering the customer experience from the airline's perspective it would be hard for me to see that most people think about the airlines in the same way I think about my commute.  The travel on an airplane is not an event in itself for me - it's usually a step in a much larger context.  If I'm traveling for work you can look at the list I provided above and replace 'Travel to work' with 'Catch a flight'.  My biggest concern is to execute my schedule as planned.  When I decide to book my flight there are three things I'm considering:  My time, the cost and availability.

What I have been seeing with the airlines is that they seem to only be thinking about the customer's experience in segments and not as a whole (pointing back to the Gartner study that the entire customer experience is rarely planned... it just happens).  There are two major interaction points with an unfortunate optional third (which I don't wish on anyone).

• Interaction Point 1:  Searching and buying my ticket
• Interaction Point 2:  Execution of the Travel (commute)
• Interaction Point 3 (optional): Dealing with the airline when my baggage is lost

What is missing from the interaction here is the larger context of the customer.  Understanding why the customer is buying the ticket is important to know how the customer should be treated and what importance the customer puts on the commute being on-time.  I have seen some good advances in the customer experience around ticket research, purchase and delivery as well as support on the day of travel (such as American Airlines 'Remember Me' technology that knows you are traveling and offers activities around gate information, delays, etc. for the travel happening that day - in my opinion - brilliant).

Then we get to interaction point 2 - Execution of the Travel.  Everyone thinks of their travel in different terms.  If I'm traveling for work I think of my flight as my commute and my only concern is leaving on time and getting to my destination on time so that I can get on with why I traveled in the first place - my work.  If I'm traveling for pleasure I'm usually trying to maximize my time doing whatever I'm traveling for and again I think of my travel as my commute and want to get past it and begin enjoying my time off - but will be more forgiving in the likely event of delays because I'm not usually pressed for time. 

In very crude terms I think of an airplane like a bus.  You have a collection of people traveling together from point A to point B for whatever reasons (work or play).  When you think of it that way the airlines become a utility or service - just like power, water, telephone service (wireless or broadband), etc.  You just expect it to work, and if it's not going to work, you want as much proactive communication as possible so that you can exercise an alternative if required.  All because it's part of a larger context.

I live in Dallas because of the availability of flights out of DFW which afford me more travel options when I need them.  A few weeks ago I was with a colleague of mine at a client and he was counting down the time until his flight the next morning so that he could join buddies for their annual 3 day golf outing (ok, more drinking than golf, but you get the picture).  This was during the time when American Airlines was canceling all of those flights for inspection.  When we were sitting in the parking lot he said he hoped he didn't have to wait until tomorrow morning to find out his flight was going to be canceled.  If he knew now, he would decide to drive to meet his buddies because it was only a 9 hour drive and he could make it overnight.  The important thing was the time with friends, not the flight to get there.  If he found out in the morning, he would have to cancel because he wouldn't have time to execute plan B. 

Here is a perfect example of customer experience in a much larger context.  Ironically, he received an e-mail notification before we left the parking lot that his flight was canceled and he drove the night to meet his buddies.  Good for American Airlines, while unfortunate, they had a customer who was able to still execute his plans (the bigger context) because he had information soon enough to make other arrangements for his commute.

When thinking about your customer experience, try to put it in a larger context.  Hopefully you know enough about your customers to know the greater context that needs to be considered for your products and services.  This will give you more insight as to how you can improve your entire customer experience.  If you don't know... then ask!  Your customers will thank you. 

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Customer Experience is more than Customer Care

In my previous post talking about 'Measure' I introduced you to a company called Clickfox (www.clickfox.com) The more I speak with them the more I realize how far the 'Customer Experience' can be taken.  She shared with me how a client of theirs was using ClickFox in the typical way by charting the paths of a single client across multiple interaction channels.  She was working with a telecom company and explained how they followed a large number of customers who first started on the web site looking up orders and then called in to ask about orders and identified the large amount of time helping these customers.  It seemed like an odd pattern so they started digging in deeper.  They started looking at keywords that were used on-line, in the IVR and within the customer management system and found that all of these customers were following up on service technicians that were dispatched to their homes because they had missed their appointments.  This led the client to have the logs from their dispatch system included as one of the channels that ClickFox was monitoring as well to show how many interaction events were from people with open service calls.  Brilliant!

Many times a company will focus only on the customer service side of the business and monitor patterns there and not find any 'silver bullets' to help reduce the calls, increase customer satisfaction and get customers promoting the company.  What the example above showed to me is that while companies have customer care departments, they exist because of the services and offerings of the rest of the company.  Many customer care departments create their KPI's for only those items that they can control while sometimes ignoring that the volume of calls and the main driving reason for the customer call is NOT in their control. 

The Customer Experience is more than just how the support, service or customer care department deals with the customer.  It is ANY TOUCHPOINT that a customer has with the entire organization and all of them should be considered.  If you look at the lifecycle of a customer this includes all of the activities in targeting customers, procuring customers, signing up customers, helping them when issues arise and proactively reaching out to them with new service offerings, renewals and other information (that they are interested in).  When evaluating the customer experience, you have to look across the entire enterprise and see how customer interactions outside of customer care are creating/avoiding larger volume in the contact center.

A recent Gartner study indicated that it is rare that the entire Customer Experience is actually planned.  It happens more by accident as companies figure out how to work with their customers (usually in silos... Sales is focused on procurement, operations is focused on fulfillment, customer care is focused on support).  It is rare that someone thinks across all of the touch-points and plans out the experience from beginning to end and says 'This is good'.  Perhaps it's worth looking at.

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Measure

When implementing consistent products and services across multiple channels, it is important to think about how you will measure the success.  Customer behavior is both an art and a science and requires the review of results.  You have to be able to track a customer’s use of your on-line site to see where they went and be able to ask questions about why they did things in a certainly order.  For example, if a customer looks at an item on-line, adds it to their shopping cart and then abandons the cart, you need to know why.  Was it that there was not enough product information on the site?  Was shipping too expensive?  Did they call into the contact center and finish the transaction there?  It is important to be able to track a single customer across all of the channels and continue to optimize each channel. 

There is only one tool available that I am aware of that does this.  Click-Fox (www.clickfox.com) has developed a product that can track a customer through the web-site, IVR and a call into the contact center and point out where enhancements need to be made so that a customer can complete a full transaction using a single channel.  Reviewing the results and enhancing the customer experience are critical to retaining customers and attracting new ones. 

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Consistency, consistency, consistency

When considering offering your products and services across multiple channels, it is very important to ensure that all of the channels allow for the same activities.  Many companies who already have an IVR and Call Center will create their self-service web presence and offer more or less functions/features.  If you are trying to reach your customers that prefer to work on-line, do not disappoint them by making them call the IVR or Call Center because they cannot complete their task on-line.  This defeats the purpose and may drive your customer away.  The same can be said when offering new services on-line – make the time to re-tool the IVR and Agents so that they can provide the services as well.

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How do I support all these methods of reaching my customer?

Many companies identify the channels that they are going to use and then add entire departments to handle the new channel.  I have seen departments responsible for processing fax orders, another for managing e-mail orders and a third, who takes phone orders.  This type of segregation introduces operational and communication challenges not to mention reducing organizational efficiency.  Additionally, it begins to segment how you support your customer.  When a customer calls, you have to ask how they placed their order and direct them to the proper department. 

The ideal situation is to leverage technology to integrate the departments into one operation regardless of the communication method.  Workflow systems and the newer phone systems enable skills-based-routing to get the information to the employee properly suited to handle it.  This way a properly trained employee is leveraged across multiple channels and allows the same business processes to be employed for consistency and quality.

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Maximizing your interaction with your customer

Companies are recognizing the importance of getting in front of their customers and that the amount of time that a customer will pay attention is limited. Companies are leveraging the different channels as an opportunity to speak with their customer. On-Line interaction allows focused messaging, ads and other information specific to that customer. Phone and IVR interaction enables dynamic messaging to the customer with information that is specific to the customer. We are seeing more interaction across the enterprise at the CXX level trying to optimize the ‘face-time’ with their customers to communicate cross-enterprise messages rather than only messages from a single department.

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What Happened to Conversation?

Many errors that companies make when converting a traditional IVR to a voice application is that they keep the same tree structure. Many customers hate IVR’s because not everyone thinks in a methodical, structured way and do not have the patience to navigate through the tree to the option they want. Consider turning the experience into a conversation. Rather than asking them to listen to the options and pick one, just ask them what they would like to do. This requires more planning on the front end to ensure that all of the options are available, but it engages the customer far more and allows them to get to the activity that they need in the most expedient way.

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When did my customers change?

Are you listening to your customers (including their complaints)? Some companies despise their problem customers and wish they would go away. Companies changing the game of customer service are listening to their customers and providing innovative ways to serve them. Your customers are sophisticated and demand more from your products and services. These multi-channel customers are combining the best interaction experiences from every place they go and expecting you to provide it too.

Customers use Amazon.com because they are able to place their order, pay for their order, track their order, inquire about their order and review their order history. In addition, Amazon.com provides recommendations based on a customers’ buying history. When this customer calls their insurance provider, car dealership, utility company, phone company, etc. they are expecting that these ‘more traditional’ companies provide the same type of information and service like Amazon.com.  And if your customer is having to call to get this type of update - then they will probably be looking for another provider who can deliver this information to them in other ways (on-line, for example).

Ok, I admit it I am a multi-channel consumer. I evaluate products and services based not only on price but seek out those companies that will interact with me the way I prefer. I expect the companies I work with to allow me to set up my account on-line, receive my invoice as an e-bill directly to my bank and be notified via e-mail or text when my payment is due. I only have two companies that send me paper bills and that is because there is no alternative. My life is busy and I check my snail-mail once a week (because most of my mailbox content is junk mail now) – but I am in my e-mail every day. I am in my car a great deal and often stuck in traffic – and that is when I prefer to take care of personal business when I must call. I like the companies that provide me the ability to use an IVR and gain access to my account and who offer all of the same options as their on-line presence does. Even better are those who allow me to access my account using information other than my account number (phone number for example, I mean, who can look at a bill for a 15 digit account number when you are trying to navigate traffic?) Many communities are passing laws forbidding the use of hand-held cell phones while driving (they allow hands-free use) which makes keying-in information for IVR’s today illegal. The solution here is voice enabling the IVR so that commuters can still take advantage of their commute time without requiring the keyboard entry.

You cannot direct every customer to one channel over another, but based on personal preference, your customers will select their preferred method naturally. A word of warning, you cannot be all things to all people – that is why segmentation is important in determining which channel(s) are appropriate.

Companies are finding that through a balance of multiple channels, they are able to reduce costs to service their customers. For example, if someone prefers receiving their bill via e-mail or e-bill, have them opt-out of receiving the expensive paper bill saving you the printing and mailing charges. Likewise, proactive notification via text or e-mail to your customer when their bill is due can help your company manage cash flow. Informational e-mails and text messages as you execute certain steps in your business process informing your customer of status proactively helps reduce the number of inbound calls received by your contact center.

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Do I really know my customers?

If you cannot answer this question, chances are you are losing them and do not know it. To know more about your customer you have to spend time analyzing your customer information. Items such as demographics, behavioral trends (paying late, calls into your contact center, use of on-line tools), method of contact (home phone, cell phone in the car, work phone, On-line) as well as complaints and suggestions. Researching and understanding this information helps an organization understand how their customers prefer to interact and help determine additional services that your customers are interested in receiving.

Companies who have segmented their customers are finding that the entire customer landscape has changed. Baby boomers are retiring and new generations who have been working with new technology since pre-school are becoming heavy consumers. While we don’t like it, the age groups of our customers introduce new ways of interaction that we need to consider. Overall, the older generation still prefers to speak with someone on the phone, while the younger generation likes to have choices – being able to interact on-line, via text message or even IVR. Additionally, our customers want to be able to place orders, research products and take care of problems when they are thinking about them - late at night, early in the morning or the middle of the day while they are stuck in traffic.

I spoke at a conference recently of a large sales force (over 8,000 in attendance).  I asked the audience in both sessions to find out who preferred to speak to a customer service person on the phone and in both sessions I was shocked that there were only a few hands that went up.  Most everyone wanted e-mail or text messaging.  The demographics of the audience was from mid 20's up into retirement.

The idea of imposing ‘hours of operations’ on our customers is becoming an exercise in futility. Our customers contact us when it is convenient for them, not us. This expectation is leading many to offer self-service options via IVR on the phone or on-line to provide support outside of ‘normal business hours’. The simplest example is allowing e-mail requests – the most complex is full functionality available on-line or through IVR’s and Voice Applications. On-line services are growing due to the proliferation of broadband (400 million broadband users expected by 2009). The breakdown of your customers may warrant offering your products and customer services through multiple channels (Phone, IVR, Fax, Web, Text, real person).

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Reaching your Customers their way

Just about everything offered in the marketplace today has become a commodity. There are more and more suppliers offering similar, if not the same products. As a business, it has become more difficult to differentiate yourself from your competition. One area where a company can set itself apart from their competition is to offer impeccable customer service in various different ways. This applies to manufacturers, service providers, resellers or even internal departments within your organization.

Customers will go somewhere else given the right circumstances – so the most effective way to keep your customers is by engaging them and providing stellar customer service. 

Over the next few weeks I will be talking about different topics that a company can consider when trying to define their 'Customer Experience'.  It begins with knowing who your customer is and how they want to interact with you and then providing different methods of interaction that delivers your service in the manner your customers want.