Its been the year of "Customer Experience"
Enterprises have been investigating, testing and piloting programs to assess and improve the customer experience. And, some best practices are emerging. Here are four "lessons" that we've distilled from the literature and our experiences this past year.
#1 - Start small and take the "long view".
In a recent report, Gartner Group predicted that only about half of the companies implementing Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM) systems will succeed in operationally using customer feedback. In our experience, the data generated by even limited CEM monitoring can be overwhelming. Acting on the insights produced can be even harder. Tip: Don't try to do too much, too soon, in order to justify large investments in EFM technology.
#2 - Choose appropriate metrics and begin to survey customers systematically.
Measuring customer experience requires an appropriate metric. A number of good ones are available including NPS and ACSI. Tip: Survey all (or as many as possible) of your customers and then track how different subgroups score you based on your metric. It will be clear over time if your experience improving efforts are having an effect (you'll have data from "control groups").
#3 - The right feedback management process will help you improve customer relationships while providing a positive customer experience.
Feedback management systems help to manage the feedback process and to "close the loop" with customers after they provide feedback. Tip: "Close the loop" with as many customers as possible and especially with those that matter most to you. Doing so really pays off in happier customers who know you are listening to them.
We've talked about one of our customers - AIFS - and how they were able to leverage feedback with their "promoters" in ways that helped them increase sales (If you'd like a copy - use our request information link). They reached the right customer subgroup at the right time, closed the loop in the right way and produced powerful results.
#4 - Where Customer Experience is concerned, short term actions impact the long term.
Focus short term effort on areas with immediate needs but long term benefits. An example would be to quickly follow up a survey by individually contacting each customer that expressed any dissatisfaction. Solve their problems and gain their loyalty! Tip: Start with discrete customer subgroups that closely link to your "success" as a business.
This approach limits scope (and cost) of organizational effort, offers opportunity for fast payback and provides crucial learning opportunities for later, broader based, efforts.
