Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

February 07, 2007

US Firms Lacking Disciplined Customer Experience Approach

By Susan J. Campbell


Customer service is synonymous with the call or contact center – right? After all, the main focus for the organization is the total customer experience as it is the key to preserving the customer base and remaining competitive in a tight industry – right?
 
Of course, this seems like logical thinking, but the reality is that this is often mere talk and organizations are failing to put it into practice. Forrester Research (News - Alert) recently interviewed executives in 74 large US firms as part of its Customer Experience Peer Research Panel to gain an understanding of how US firms are performing when it comes to the total customer experience.
 
Of the customer experience executives that were interviewed in regards to their efforts, nearly all of them felt that customer experience is important to their firm’s competitiveness. However, most of these executives do not follow a disciplined approach to customer experience management. This reality seems somewhat in contradiction to the titles that these executives hold.
 
An enterprise-wide customer experience effort is in practice for only about half of the research respondents and roughly one-quarter have an executive in charge of customer experience across all channels.
 
Forrester researchers found that the most prevalent issues for these organizations are the lack of a clear strategy and limited budgets. When the differences between firms with a disciplined approach and those that were more undisciplined were examined, researchers found that a wide gap existed in the use of primary user research. To close this gap, researchers suggested that firms should focus more effort on gaining more customer insight and put someone in charge.
 
There is a significant difference in the company’s view of their customer service deliverables and the customer’s view of their own experience. When companies rely solely on their own view, their services can fail to meet customer expectations and the result will be lost customers.
 
Top performing call centers have recognized the importance of examining the total customer interaction and surveying customers to gain an understanding of the customer’s perception of the interaction, as well as their wants and needs. Not only do these efforts improve the customer experience, they can also assist the organization in designing product and service offerings that will appeal to their base for increased revenues.
 
Establishing that the company should listen to its customers is only the first step to improvement. The organization must have a disciplined plan in place in order to be effective in its efforts. Once this plan is in place, however, the organization will be able to open up opportunities for revenue and growth that were previously inaccessible.
 
Want to learn more about call centers? Then be sure to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users. Check here for the latest in CRM information.
 
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMC (News - Alert) and has also written for eastbiz.com. To see more of her articles, please visit Susan J. Campbell’s columnist page.
 
 


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