Customer expectations become greater

Everyone knows what it is like to be on the receiving end of poor customer service.

Worst-case scenarios can range from long waits on the telephone, to conversations with people who know little and care less about your problem, through to unanswered e-mails and letters - or even a combination of these followed by an inability to track records on the subject.

Driving customers away

It is a frustrating, annoying and time-consuming experience for the customer, who deserves better. The majority of companies are dependent on their customers for survival, and you would think they would strive to deliver a fantastic experience to them at all times.

What poor service does, however, is drive customers away from one company into the hands of another which is dedicated to providing the best possible care, service and attention through modern and focused CRM systems.

Unprecedented standards

And, at a time when customers are becoming more demanding in their dealings with organisations and their expectations of what constitutes acceptable service are rising fast, increasing numbers of companies are responding by setting standards of service which are unprecedented in their sectors.

In short, they have the customer and the customer's interests right at the heart of their organisation's culture

Getting it right can mean competitive edge. Getting it wrong can mean loss of competitiveness. And it seems that quite a number of companies are still getting it badly wrong.

Survey highlights failures

A recent survey commissioned by BT and carried out by Coleman Parkes in eight European countries highlighted an almost total lack of integration between departments handling customer enquiries by the main contact methods of telephone and e-mail. The result? Customers receive confusing and conflicting information.

Some 95 per cent of European businesses included in the 'mystery shopper' survey were unaware that an e-mail had been sent when contacted by the same individual asking the same question by telephone.

In addition, the same question asked via e-mail and telephone elicited different responses in 85 per cent of the cases.

Despite the fact that many companies offer customers at least three contact options - usually telephone, e-mail and post - consumers are apparently unable to rely on businesses to track, log and integrate all forms of customer interaction.

Shifting the culture

For Ian Seedhouse, Head of CRM - Marketing at BT, the fundamental element of a good CRM strategy is shifting the culture of an organisation into one that has the customer at its heart.

"If you don't believe in customers, any CRM system or Customer Service operation is going to fail," he says. "Companies need to measure customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction in order to be a customer-centric organisation. If you get it right it can be an enormous benefit."

One of the first tasks on the road to change is for a company getting its knowledge about customers right. Tiering customers according to what they spend is the usual initial approach. However, this can be a rather insular way of looking at things and will not deliver a long term sustainable result. It ignores fundamental issues such as, what they might be spending with the competition, what type of individuals they are, etc.

Building knowledge

In order to deliver relevant and appropriate products and services to customers, organisations must build knowledge on who they are as individuals.

This includes what type of people they are, what they like to do in their spare time etc. These might not seem relevant to the service provided to them, but they are all stages that will require different product requirements from a company, i.e. someone starting a young family will require different things from a couple entering retirement.

In summary, the right way means building up good quality data and detailed profiles of customers so that appropriate and relevant information can be passed to them at the right time.

The information must also be personalised on any contact with the customer. This way the customer feels valued and is more likely to keep his or her business within that organisation.

Critical to success

Ian Seedhouse believes that this is critical to success. "The power in the market is with the customer," he states. "Price is no longer a great differentiator. Service is. Customers are more willing to pay a little more for a product and have a great experience than they are to pay a little less and have a bad experience."

The second major element in getting CRM to function is multi-channel integration - that is, ensuring all elements of contact such as Internet, e-mail, telephone and shop function as one to create a consistent brand experience.

It also means that all data and profiling about a particular customer is available immediately when a customer makes contact through telephone, e-mail or in person, and that consistent and correct information is provided each time, whatever the medium.

"Why" asks Ian Seedhouse, "is e-mail so difficult for some companies? It is, after all, a common tool in how we communicate in business every day. Many companies still view e-mail communication with their customers as very difficult, mainly due to their existing service operations being geared around telephone calls only. E-mail should be integrated into existing customer service centres as just another type of transaction."

Integration a speciality

Multi-channel integration is a specialty for BT, which is currently working with the UK's National Health Service on a system that will provide a step change in care for patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes. It is also working with a number of city and county (provincial) councils to deliver a better quality of service to citizens through multimedia contact centres.

Its services extend from designing, developing and operating the various customer channels right through to the integration process and operation of multiple channels using CRM technology.

The approach enables the development of scalable, flexible, responsive and consistent customer service capabilities and can also result in a reduction of costs.

For Ian Seedhouse, the fact that many companies are operating with many systems that are 'bolted on' to each other is at least part of the reason that real CRM, meaning real customer service, can be seen as too difficult.

Competitive market

But it's a change, he points out, that BT itself has been through - a change that has transformed the company and which is now enabling BT to provide the high level of expertise, experience and systems development that companies require.

In the end, the marketplace will continue to become more competitive, with customers harder to please and harder to keep. High standards of service and consistency are vital.

More information

You can read more about this and related topics through the link below:

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