The digital environment has dramacally changed the way customers expect and demand to engage with brands. It is a change or die situaon for businesses that need to transform quickly to integrate online and offline acvies to serve customers 24x7 service in their channels of choice. At the same me, businesses need to balance their own needs for revenue upliſt and cost containment within this new digital model. While there is no one-size fits all formula for customer-centric, mulchannel, digital transformaon, there are some fundamental elements every business should consider before developing a holisc customer experience soluon. Achieving a Customer-Centric Service Culture By implemenng the Customer Experience Blueprint, HGS was able to demonstrate immediate improvements, including: • Higher call resoluon rates • More sasfied customers • Fewer escalaons • Higher customer lifeme value • Higher average revenue per call through upselling and cross selling • Lower average handle me When It Comes to Customer Service, Seek First to Understand The idea of the Emoonal Bank Account (EBA) is arguably one of the most important concepts introduced by Stephen Covey in his ground breaking book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effecve People. According to Covey, every interpersonal relaonship, whether with friends, family members, co-workers or business partners, can be managed by accounng for the health of the relaonship. While this “account” begins with a zero balance, we connually make deposits and withdrawals as we interact. These deposits and withdrawals influence trust, which is the cornerstone of a healthy relaonship. A few years ago, HGS examined how we could apply Covey’s principles to our call center soluons. The result was a Customer Experience Blueprint that led to higher resoluon rates (delivering at 122% of first call resoluon target) and a dramac transformaon in customer sasfacon (delivering at 118% of CSAT target). The Customer Experience Blueprint addresses the beginning of the call by immediately transferring control from the agent to the customer, and requires that our agents immediately make a deposit in the EBA at the very beginning of the interacon. Agents begin by simply asking the customer, “How are you today?”
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The digital environment has dramatically changed the way customers expect and demand to engage with brands. It is a change or die situation for businesses that need to transform quickly to integrate online and offline activities to serve customers 24x7 service in their channels of choice. At the same time, businesses need to balance their own needs for revenue uplift and cost containment within this new digital model. While there is no one-size fits all formula for customer-centric, multichannel, digital transformation, there are some fundamental elements every business should consider before developing a holistic customer experience solution.
Achieving a Customer-Centric Service Culture
By implementing the Customer Experience Blueprint, HGS was able to demonstrate immediate improvements, including:
• Higher call resolution rates
• More satisfied customers
• Fewer escalations
• Higher customer lifetime value
• Higher average revenue per call through upselling and cross selling
• Lower average handle time
When It Comes to Customer Service, Seek First to UnderstandThe idea of the Emotional Bank Account (EBA) is arguably one of the most important concepts introduced by Stephen Covey in his ground breaking book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. According to Covey, every interpersonal relationship, whether with friends, family members, co-workers or business partners, can be managed by accounting for the health of the relationship. While this “account” begins with a zero balance, we continually make deposits and withdrawals as we interact. These deposits and withdrawals influence trust, which is the cornerstone of a healthy relationship.
A few years ago, HGS examined how we could apply Covey’s principles to our call center solutions. The result was a Customer Experience Blueprint that led to higher resolution rates (delivering at 122% of first call resolution target) and a dramatic transformation in customer satisfaction (delivering at 118% of CSAT target).
The Customer Experience Blueprint addresses the beginning of the call by immediately transferring control from the agent to the customer, and requires that our agents immediately make a deposit in the EBA at the very beginning of the interaction. Agents begin by simply asking the customer,
“How are you today?”
This is followed by asking clarifying questions about the problem and restating to ensure, and demonstrate, clarity (seeking first to understand). They then ask permission to ask questions to support verification by asking
“Before we can solve your problem, may I ask you a few questions?”
The beginning of the call portion of the Customer Experience Blueprint process also includes sowing a seed which means that agents may communicate a potential upsell offer to a client, stating,
“Remind me to discuss this with you after we resolve your problem.”
This strategy creates interest, leaves control in the hands of the customer, and allows customers to benefit from additional value added offers that they may not have been aware of before they called.
Implement Self-Service Options Whenever Possible Think about the last time you booked an airline ticket or placed an order for a product. Chances are you completed those transactions online. What we see anecdotally is also borne out in the research. Self-service platforms are gaining in popularity because they allow consumers to take control of solving their own problem. According to the January 2014, McKinsey Quarterly, 75% of surveyed consumers said they would prefer to use online support if it were reliable and provided accurate and complete information.
Control and self-discovery are powerful psychological motivators. For example, if you have a problem installing a kitchen appliance and you are able to find the answer to your question online either through an online community, instructional how to video, or by reading documentation provided online, you will feel much better about having solved the problem yourself rather than having another person walk you through the solution.
The self-service trend does not mean the end of voice service. There will always be unusual, non-routine transactions that will require speaking to a knowledgeable person who can guide consumers through the process and help them accomplish their goals quickly, with minimal effort. According to a survey by Execs in the Know, 82% of consumers ranked “Getting my issues resolved quickly” as the top element to of a great online experience. The main question is, how do companies ensure their service representatives have the level of knowledge necessary to resolve questions quickly, especially in businesses like technology and telecommunications where products and services are often complex? One solution involves having comprehensive and highly intelligent knowledge bases with robust search functionality. More importantly, these knowledge bases need to be integrated with multiple channels such as click-to-chat, web self-service, and email and the ability to update content must occur automatically in real-time.
Earn Customers for Life by Solving ProblemsOrganizationally, the move toward customer centricity starts way before the customer even has a problem. Customer centricity is about building ease of use and reliability into products in the first place. At the same time, no product is perfect and product failures actually provide a great opportunity to create loyal customers – if the problem is quickly and easily resolved.
Customer-centricity should also be built into marketing strategy. Rather than blasting a single customer list with offers that may or may not be relevant, perform detailed behavioral analytics to segment lists to ensure that customers receive offers that are finely targeted, relevant, timely and offer real value to the customer.
ConclusionAchieving a customer-centric service culture is realistic in today’s technology driven and digitally enabled environment and there are a few key principles we should all keep in mind:
1. Be proactive: By using technology such as proactive chat and website usability monitoring and analysis, companies can learn to anticipate problems that customers may be having before they abandon their shopping cart or move off the website to check a competitor’s site.
2. Enable customers: Giving customers the tools to solve their own problems quickly and providing the support of agents who are fully empowered to solve problems with the right information on one contact begins the road to customer-centric transformation.
3. Think holistically: Too often companies implement digital customer service solutions in a piece-meal fashion rather than holistically, which creates its own challenges. For example, a business can have the best knowledge base technology and content, but if it’s not widely accessible across the enterprise, leveraged for self-service use by consumers, available in the languages consumers require, integrated with a click-to-chat option and integrated with CRM and analytics technologies, the complete customer experience will fall short.
4. Ask for help: If a company is serious about digital transformation as a means to achieving a customer-centric culture, it is helpful to have a third party act as the change agent. A partner can help you identify an end state of what is required and reverse engineer the proper solution to ensure a scalable, effective digital solution. If done properly, transformation does not have to be expensive; rather it can save costs and improve revenue from sales. Using an experienced partner that understands how to combine the proper technologies, processes and people can go a long way toward ensuring the success of a digital transformation initiative that meets consumers’ needs consistently and effectively.
A study by Benchmark Portal and Purdue University showed a 78% repurchase probability if a customer purchased a product and had no problems. Interestingly, the study showed an 89% repurchase probability if the product had problems but the customer had a positive customer experience.
@TeamHGS
www.teamhgs.com
About HGSHGS is a leader in optimizing the customer experience and helping our clients to become more competitive. HGS provides a full suite of business process management services from marketing and digital enablement services, consumer interaction services to platform enabling back office business services. By applying analytics and interaction transformation design to deliver innovation and thought leadership, HGS increases revenue, improves operating efficiency and helps to retain valuable customers. HGS expertise spans the telecommunications and media, healthcare, insurance, banking, consumer electronics and technology, retail, consumer packaged goods industries, as well as the public sector. HGS operates on a global landscape with around 40,000 employees in 65 worldwide locations delivering localized solutions. HGS, part of the multi-billion dollar Hinduja Group, has over four decades of experience working with some of the world’s most recognized brands.
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