2009 Is the Year of Delivering Hope

Customer Experience is often confused with customer service or customer satisfaction. The confusion is understandable because those two pieces are critical components of creating an extraordinary customer experience but they are not enough. They only represent pieces of the whole picture. Last year left businesses and customers in a bad way. Our hopes were trashed repeatedly with the failings of key industry, our financial stability, depressed sales, closing doors and the resulting unemployment. That is why 2009 is pivotal-- perhaps more than any other past year. This year WILL be the year of getting right with our priorities and our processes. That is why it is imperative that businesses start at the beginning—at the intention.

Let’s exam the intentions of customer experience. Some businesses reading this will think--more sales. More sales is an outcome of customer experience not an intention. Others will say loyalty where customers choose you over a competitor--again an outcome not an intention. Still others who know about the "accountability" component and have rushed to embrace that piece will say to keep employees doing what needs to be done or face consequences. To these folks I say "keep coming back" (to the blog). Accountability for consequence sake is a delicate precipice that can destroy customer experience rather than enhance it. It sinks a business back into dollar and cents mentality and takes us away from the service we provide or enable.

What is it what is the intention behind customer experience? The intention behind customer experience is to give them hope and deliver on that hope with every interaction. Offer them the best solution-- solve their problem every time and unlike anyone else out there.

Yes, hope starts with a great product or service and more. That initial offering is supported by the best experience and that includes the best delivery, advice, direction, follow-through, and understanding. Offered in a seamless, integrated, and consistent manner every time regardless of venue--web, store, contact center, billing, support, advertising and employee. That is the story for 2009. That is the story every time the customer sees, thinks, hears, touches, and interacts with your product or service.

What are the key components:
1. Good Product or Service (notice I said good not great, not the best)
2. Employees (hired, trained, supported, compensated, and empowered)
3. Data that is clean, informative, actionable, and conclusive
4. Cross-organizational Relationship Management connected and in sync to ensure the knowledge and understanding and action take place from a context of doing the right thing, knowing what has been done and what is needed, and how to do it, and doing it the right way--every time. This shows up cross-organizationally in marketing, sales, R&D, product/service management, executive leadership, accounting and finance, legal HR, facilities, channel, visual merchandising, procurement etc... This shows up in every way that each of these departments contributes to the business. Relationship management is the responsibility of everyone in the organization. Relationship means back and forth. It means you have the customer’s ear and, likewise, you listen to what they say and need. This process needs to become so second nature that you can anticipate and create from a vision that is on target. Connect the silos this year and create and tell your whole story every single time. That is the customer experience.

Then accountability, loyalty, more sales, repeat business and so on are natural outcomes not the end-goals.

2009 will be a great year!

Its About Time! Contact Center Agents Calling it Quits

A recent article in CRM Magazine seemed surprised at the high rate of turnover hitting contact centers in recent years. I say, "Its about time." Contact Center agents are underpaid (including benefits)and under trained. I believe the contact center agent to be one of the organizations most stressful and important roles. Traditionally, contact centers are staffed with part-time workers who have other pressing commitments that take precedence over work like going to school or raising a family. This coincides with most companies having a low regard for contact center staffing. In fact, I will go one step further and say that companies are fine with the turn-over and treat these poor folks like a commodity and low-skilled worker.

I worked with a company who consciously understaffed contact centers which upped the hold times, increased customer frustrations, and brought those angry customers right to innocent agents doing their best. Meanwhile, their managers constantly prodded agents to move through calls faster and then blamed the poor Customer Sat scores on slow agents. All the while, the execs understaffed and delayed hiring to show lower expenses while they secretly sought to move their centers out of California. Meanwhile the company while touted a corporate mandate to improve the Customer Experience--not possible.

Contact center are known for: Legacy software requiring multiple open screens often creating a toggling nightmare, kluggy interfaces that work intermittently at best, lack of empowerment to resolve customers issues, the incessant threat of downsizing (companies are forever trying to do the contact center cheaper), high accountability and One and Done requirements while lacking in training. Most contact center work environments are designed like bull pens with numbers flashing driving and demanding performance all day long. I would leave too!

Its time that companies make contact centers one of their top priorities. Hey guys this "is" your company's face-to-the-customer. The one opportunity that can make or break your customer relationship--a key Moment of Truth.

I would like to see a mandatory six month to one year stint in contact centers required for every management trainee. As agents not in a management capacity. I would like to see a company's best and brightest earn their stripes in a contact center environment. Learn how to deal with customers. Learn what customer value or what is not working in a company and how to take that information forward to make a meaningful change within an organization. Learn speed, agility, and accuracy. I would like to see One and Done training and empowerment offered on a regular basis and commissions paid for difficult resolutions (not points for trinkets or pizza parties). I would like to see true accountability and its measurement supported with software enabling agents full capacity execution in customer resolutions.

The contact center is the number one department responsible for creating, instilling, and sustaining customer loyalty. On the flip side, I will go out on a limb and say that poor contact center service, kluggy or lengthy IVRs are the top reasons that customers walk out the door. Each of those customers becomes a detractor taking more customers and potential customers with them. Lets face it if your center makes appointments, settles bills, and initiates returns, upgrades, or renewals can your company really afford a disconnect here.

WAKE UP and give the contact center its due. I believe that a company's contact center is their most important department. It is where the relationship with your customer is made. Without customers you have no company. Open those purses corporate America!

Comcast More of the Same or Sincere Turnaround Effort?

Today’s blog is a response to a recent article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/technology/25comcast.html?ex=1217649600&en=071e9483ddeb681a&ei=5070&emc=eta1

In this article Comcast is highlighted as one of the companies that is searching the web for disgruntled customers and doing one-off turn around. Is theirs a commendable effort? I think not. I am both an unhappy customer and a Loyalty consultant so I am walking a fine line here of emotion and experience.

As an experienced professional I want to reach out and offer my services to a company who is obviously doing this in the most costly, ineffective way possible. Which leads me to think that their effort is at best an cloak of appeasement to their market. See how we are trying? See how responsive we are?

Cloaking to continue to do as they have done which is disregarding the needs of their customers. Perhaps this is because they believe to have a corner on the market while they try to snare them into more products and services. My suggestion to them is that AT&T is almost there—they just need to make a few more adjustments and your market is gone!

If Comcast were serious it would do away with the three-hour window that their customers clearly say is "not" working. If Comcast were serious it would develop a loyal customer program and put their money into revamping their responsiveness and Customer Service capability. They would repair the front-line first (technology, training etc) and then integrate the rest of the organization.

My Comcast experience occurred last December. What occurred first was an apparent visit by Comcast to our neighborhood (I was not home). During this visit they located "leaking sites" and put blocks on those lines rendering the Cable or Internet service unavailable. Resulting in that customer having to call Comcast to come out and do an in-home repair, which consisted of following all the cable lines around the parameter of the house for leaks. In my case, I got a double whammy because I use both Cable TV and Internet both of mine were down. What a nice way of rewarding my patronage. I called and said that both my cable and Internet were non-functioning. They said the soonest available appointment was a week out. Now I have a VOIP phone as well (and thank God it is through a different carrier) so when they asked for my phone I told them that because my VOIP line was dependent on their cable that was out as well. They still wanted the number so I gave it to them and suggested they take my cell phone as well sensing a potential problem.

I had a week of no Internet, no TV, and no phone. Good thing there was no emergency during that time. I took a day off of work to be there for the 12-4 pm window they gave me. I sat on my front porch and waited. At about ten minutes to 4 pm I called them. They said they canceled my appointment. I was outraged and asked why and how? It seems they called my home phone to confirm I was there for my appointment. Yes my non-functioning VOIP line and because I did not answer decided I was not there and canceled my call.

I asked why they did not call my alternate number. They claimed they had no such instruction. I explained my predicament and time off of work. The best they could offer was another appointment one week out.

(Their IVR had a CEM component that as I was placed in queue asked if at the conclusion of my call would I participate in a customer satisfaction survey. I agreed--the survey malfunctioned and disconnected me.)

Clearly a Comcast is company that is consciously oblivious to their customers’ needs. Are the one off replies a sincere effort or a misguided cover up allowing for more of the same? I sense it is the later. If not? Comcast I call upon you to put your money where your need is and contact me to turn this mess around.

Noreen
http://www.loyaltybiz.com/

How Net Promoter Score, Voice of the Customer, Customer Experience, and Loyalty Fit Together

These days it seems that Net Promoter Score (NPS) is receiving a resurgence of interest as the score to watch. Certainly a neat and tidy tool like one number is attractive. The danger is if that number becomes your destination.

Let me suggest the analogy of a map. NPS is the highway you are taking Like 580 or 13. The state is Customer Experience. Voice of the Customer(VOC)is the data or fuel that moves you down the road along with action. Loyalty is the destination.

If you don't know where you are going how can you get there?

The relationship is the critical interaction. NPS keeps you on the right road and heading in the right direction. VOC data of which NPS is one aspect gives you indicators of what to do next, how fast to do it, where to do it, and how to do it.

Loyalty is the goal. Join me at LoyaltyBiz and look at what your company can do next to get the results it wants.

Noreen
http://www.loyaltybiz.com/

Creating Loyalty from Repeat Customers (Part 1)

Let’s begin by defining a loyal customer. A loyal customer makes regular or repeat purchases. Secondly, a loyal customer buys across lines of products or services. Thirdly, a loyal customer refers others because they know from experience the value your company offers them and they give no thought to recommending you to others. Lastly, a loyal customer is immune to the pull of competition. Lets define a repeat customer to ensure we differentiate the two. A repeat customer is one that buys at least two or more times from you.

Focusing on creating loyal customers speaks to a company valuing relationship rather than just a "sales" focus. Loyal customers add value. The Loyal Customer relationship pays off literally. First of you have a lower marketing spend with repeat customers. Secondly if you can insure those customers are advocates. Hence, you have a built in sales force that is second to none. Third the longer you keep that repeat customer the higher the income generated from that customer--not just in personal purchases but in referrals and testimonial sales that follow. There are additional savings in lower transaction costs, increased cross-sell and lower customer turn-over expense.

How does a repeat customer become loyal? Simple, you want to ensure that every customer experience is a bonding experience. I said simple bu not easy. Before you can ensure that each customers experience is bonding lets identify these experiences known as "Moments of Truth" or MOTs for short. Now you may be tempted to have your first customer interaction be an advertisement, an article, a sales call, or a sample. And while that may be true it is important to understand what precedes that first interaction. Are you in a market that is competitive, known in a positive way or negative way, or unknown? The answer to this question is critical because this means that your first exposure must differentiate, align, dispel or create as well as expose you to that customer.

You may be asking yourself are all interactions critical? The answer is yes and no. But the first exposure is absolutely critical. Can you remember the launch of the Hyundai vehicle in the US? Their launch centered on it being one of the cheapest cars in the market. I think that positioning continues to haunt them today. I argue that what they meant to create was a car viewed as the best "value" on the road but what they got was a stigma of cheap. In the US marketplace cheap and value mean two very different things. Unfortunately their product struggles in the first few years supported the correlation to cheap rather than a value vehicle. The initial exposure must be thoughtful on many levels and cognizant or the marketplace as well as the target customer. Recouping a first impression is one of the hardest marketing feats any business will encounter.

Your employees play a critical role in the loyal customer relationship. No matter how insignificant every contact an employee has with a customer in that moment they represent your brand and product or service. Loyalty is based on relationship. Loyal customers are more apt to buy from someone they know and trust. It is critical that you invest and retain employees who adhere and understand the value of relationship as much as you do.

Join me next time when we explore, "Creating the Loyal Bond" in Part 2 of Creating Loyalty from Repeat Customers.

Noreen
http://www.loyaltybiz.com/

Your Rewards and Metrics Speak Volumes

Often companies are perplexed by how to get their employees on track with a change or a process or a sales goal. I begin by looking at how they have dealt with the situation up to that point. I usually find its due to a misalignment in the reward to metric system.

Rewards come in many forms including excuses. I recall a real estate brokerage that had trouble getting their internal staff to adopt a new on-line process. The process was, after all, designed with them (the end-user) in mind. The change took a somewhat manual process and brought it all on-line. Missing documents would soon be a thing of the past. It aided processing time and simplified many of the workflow steps that had hinder their "turn-around" in the past. These time savers should result in more sales being prepped and processed but the numbers remained the same. Upon closer inspection most of the document processors continued to use their traditional process and (most importantly) traditional excuses for being late on turn around. The chief one being that they were overwhelmed with workload. What made this response ever more frustrating to the GM was that sales had slowed way down. Their was for all purposes a classic stand-off going on.

We peeled back the onion and found that in the past their workload excuse had bought them time (reward). In addition, the lost documents kept them out of the light of accountability (reward). Lastly, their process with its manual feature let them feel more in control of their work because the process was not visible to anyone’s scrutiny (reward).

We think of rewards as bonuses and commissions but actually rewards come in many forms. The "sneakiest" reward is nothing--no consequence, no further interrogation, or no more discussion.

It is human nature to want to be masters of our domain no matter how small that domain is. It is human nature to assess and conclude about everything around us. That is why it is so critical when implementing any change and wanting to see results there is nothing easy about simply putting in a new process when what you want is adoption. Clarity is critical here. Be clear with yourself and your staff about who or why you are making changes. In our example, the changes were cloaked as being for the staff but reality and metrics testified their true intent were accountability, efficiency and revenue of the business.

There is nothing wrong in making changes for business sake be upfront with it and the why of it. Our example could have easily been handled differently and had very different results. Assessment and input should be rewarded and there should be a heavy dose of constant communication-before, during, and after the change. Buy-in at any level is critical and ensures adoption. People understand that change is needed for business sake and are much more willing to accept it and embrace it when they feel heard. Notice I said heard not necessarily followed. Most employees realize that it is unlikely that they will get their way in an organization and are willing to fore go that component when they feel heard. Ensure reward tangible and otherwise for early adopters. Highlight power-users and reward mentoring.

Planning or bringing in an outside expert in the beginning can save BIG money in the long run.

Engaging Accountability across an Organization

Often companies embrace Accountability as another way to ensure revenue targets and sales goals are hit. The failure I find is that the top-line jumps on the accountability bandwagon without properly preparing the rest of the company.

You cannot just one day say, “We are implementing an accountability forum,” or, “you will be accountable.”

I believe that proper preparation is far more than setting clear expectations. All the pieces must be lined up for success. The product or offering must be complete (e.g. not vaporware), training to sufficiently sell, explain, and demonstrate must be in place and people must be trained, and supporting systems and data must be functioning, accurate, and there must be analytics for measurement. Lastly, there must be a clear communication plan that has set communication intervals and vehicles with the talk being followed by the walk starting with the top-line.

Lastly, accountability should be a value adhered to across the organization. There must be openness and learning ramp-up to the process so the behavior is socially rewarded. In time the behaviors should progress to bringing financial rewards as well.
Doing accountability well is an art that must be orchestrated properly.