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Bridging the Customer Experience Chasm
1. volume 1
Customer Experience
Exchange
Transforming
the Customer
Experience with
home
Technology
editor’s
letter
bridging
the Customer
Experience
Chasm
Employee Focus
Transforms
Customer
Experience
Management
Strategies
Measurement,
Monitoring
Essential
to Customer
Experience
Management
bridging the Customer
Experience Chasm
Customer Experience Exchange • november/december 2011 1
2. editor’s slug
story letter
The View from Outside:
home Do Your Customers See You
editor’s
as You Want to Be Seen?
letter
W
bridging
the Customer
Experience
Chasm
elcome to the inaugural issue of Customer Experience Exchange. This
Employee Focus
Transforms
bi-monthly e-zine offers insights into and tips about the customer ex-
Customer perience. We will be covering customer engagement and loyalty, ana-
Experience
Management
lytics, social and customer-facing initiatives, cross-organizational communication
Strategies and how companies are maintaining a single view of the customer.
In this issue, find out how to get customer-facing groups to buy into customer
Measurement, experience management (CEM) and make it a priority, how employee satisfaction
Monitoring
Essential
may or may not affect customer loyalty and how CEM fits into a company’s overall
to Customer strategy.
Experience
Management First, Beth Stackpole walks through the process for establishing a customer expe-
rience champion and how this role can help companies look outside of themselves
and see how the customers view them. Did you know you have CEM to thank for
the recent retraction of those annoying monthly $5 debit card fees?
Then Rose Cafasso explains why it’s also important to consider the employees’
point of view and make sure that they are engaged in CEM strategies. Although it
may seem obvious that the front-line employees’ feedback is valuable to ensuring a
positive customer experience, many companies tend to ignore this feedback.
Finally, Anna Fiorentino shows how Coca-Cola and ING Direct have incorpo-
rated CEM into their corporate strategies using techniques such as a loyalty pro-
gram via Facebook and social listening. These CEM approaches help companies
meet customer needs in real time, which is becoming more and more a customer
expectation.
We look forward to sharing the best CEM ideas and tips in Customer Experience
Exchange. If you have a topic you’d like to see us cover, please feel free to send me
an email or reach out on Twitter (@JacquelynHoward).
Kind regards,
Jacquelyn Howard, Executive Editor
Customer Experience Exchange • november/december 2011 2
3. cover story
story slug
Bridging the
Customer
home
Experience
editor’s
letter
Chasm
bridging
the Customer
Experience
Chasm
Management may be pushing
Employee Focus
Transforms
Customer
Experience
Management a customer-centric mandate,
but without the right culture and
Strategies
Measurement,
Monitoring processes in place, it’s difficult
to get employees get on board.
Essential
to Customer
Experience
Management
By Beth Stackpole
tune into business news these days and it’s hard
not to see the effect that the voice of the cus-
tomer is having on day-to-day business decisions.
Bank of America and other large banks’ recent
decision to ditch their much-maligned plans for
a $5 monthly debit fee is a recent example showcasing how powerful cus-
tomer influence and how important customer experience management
(CEM) have become, thanks in part to social media venues like Twitter
and Facebook.
Customer Experience Exchange • november/december 2011 3
4. cover story
story slug
While it’s hard to find a company optimize quarterly results, not cus-
that isn’t paying some sort of homage tomer satisfaction.
to the concept of improving customer “Most companies tend to be com-
experience, the reality is many are pany-centric for obvious reasons …
home struggling to carry out their objectives, and their commitment is provid-
hampered by longstanding cultural ing value to shareholders,” adds Paul
editor’s customs that favor controlling, not re- Greenberg, president of The 56 Group
letter
sponding to, customer interaction and LLC, an enterprise applications con-
messaging. sulting firm focused on CRM strat-
bridging
the Customer
It’s not exactly that companies aren’t egies. “But what shareholders are
Experience listening to customers; it’s more that looking for in terms of return on
Chasm
they’re having a hard time translating investment is not necessarily what
what is said. Seeped in longstanding customers are looking for from a
Employee Focus
Transforms
traditions, it’s difficult for companies company. Companies have to make ad-
Customer to move past their conventional in- justments to understand things about
Experience
Management
ward-focused cultures, making it next their customers, but it’s really hard.”
Strategies to impossible to interpret the percep-
tions and priorities that rank top-of-
Measurement,
Monitoring
mind with their customer bases.
“Companies have a hard time seeing
“Companies have a
Essential
to Customer what they look like in the eyes of their hard time seeing what
they look like in the eyes
Experience
Management customers,” explains Bruce Temkin, a
managing partner at Temkin Group, a
customer experience research and con- of their customers.”
sulting firm, and the co-founder and Bruce Temkin, Temkin Group
chairman of the Customer Experience
Professionals Association, a nonprofit
organization dedicated to working It may be hard, but it’s not impossi-
with customer experience profession- ble, according to Greenberg and other
als. “Companies are not deciding they CEM experts. To understand the cus-
don’t want to be good at customer tomer point of view, companies have
experience—it’s just that over time, to invest in technology tools to inject
they’ve built out the processes, proce- that accurate outside-in view from cus-
dures and perspectives that get in the tomers. At the same time, they need
way of being customer-centric.” to build out a culture designed to help
Larger firms, especially those that employees not only understand the
are publicly traded, commonly fall into mission, but be well equipped to pull
the trap of prioritizing shareholder it off.
needs over customer needs—a tactic Establishing formal processes and
that leads to decision making tuned to procedures that guide customer-fac-
Customer Experience Exchange • november/december 2011 4
5. cover story
story slug
ing employees through interactions is petencies, you can redesign the experi-
part of the retooling. So is implement- ence to be better for the customer, but
ing internal metrics so everyone has it will go sour sooner than you expect.”
a clear understanding of the expecta-
home tions and goals of the customer-facing
program. Championing the Effort
editor’s Temkin Group identifies four core Adopting a corporate customer expe-
letter
competencies that are critical to ensur- rience champion should be a strategic
ing success with customer experience. part of the plan. This can be organic,
bridging
the Customer
There must be purposeful leadership with people in individual business
Experience with a clear and consistent mission; units taking on the customer experi-
Chasm
a compelling brand value that deliv- ence champion role or it can be an
ers on its promises at every customer official position in a central organiza-
Employee Focus
Transforms
touch point; active employee engage- tion that spearheads CEM while serv-
Customer ment, meaning stakeholders are com- ing as a change agent for the cultural
Experience
Management
mitted to the mission; and customer transformation.
Strategies connectiveness, a strategy, Temkin Lynn Hunsaker, president of Clear-
says, rooted in feeding the ongoing Action, a CEM consulting firm, advo-
Measurement, flow of insights back into the collective cates the latter. “Making this a C-level
Monitoring
Essential
consciousness so employees can take job and having a central organization
to Customer action. overseeing enterprisewide deployment
Experience
Management “Unless a firm masters all four com- is better,” she explains. “If you put
Goals for the Customer Experience Champion
p evelop a clear plan of what the goals of the program are and communicate
D
the plan to all customer-facing employees.
p reate formal processes for common activities, such as returns and complaints.
C
Identify in which situations agents should escalate a customer interaction to a
supervisor.
p dentify customer experience leaders in the customer-facing groups to help
I
evangelize the plan.
p Use metrics to analyze customer interactions so executives and employees can
easily understand the impact of the customer experience program.
p
When the customer experience program is established and running well,
consider introducing incentives to further engage employees. n
Customer Experience Exchange • november/december 2011 5
6. cover story
story slug
CEM inside of marketing, it becomes “There’s a difference between a
a marketing thing, and if you put it script and a guide,” says Donna Fluss,
inside of service, it becomes a service president of DMG Consulting LLC, a
thing. Then the rest of the company contact center and analytics industry
home will excuse themselves.” analyst and consulting firm. “You need
Educating employees on why cus- to have guidelines and you need to
editor’s tomer experience is important to the train people to follow the guidelines,
letter
firm’s future should be part of the but they need to be able assimilate and
champion’s role. In addition, experts apply them on a consistent basis.”
bridging
the Customer
say there should be individuals within Best Buy has put a lot of effort into
Experience various departments that help evange- empowering its customer agents to re-
Chasm
lize the effort, using tangible results solve issues, according to Jeff Radecki,
to drive home the potential benefits of the firm’s customer experience man-
Employee Focus
Transforms
getting on board with CEM. “Some- ager for the exclusive brands group. As
Customer times it’s just a matter of a narrative opposed to a series of set procedures
Experience
Management
of a customer who went from being that are part of a training guide, agents
Strategies a detractor to an advocate because of are trained through coaching and role
some social action that was taken—it playing on how to evaluate custom-
Measurement, doesn’t have to be hard metrics,” The ers by looking at their histories and on
Monitoring
Essential
56 Group’s Greenberg explains. how and when to use tools to mitigate
to Customer As active as champions must be, tense situations—for example, issu-
Experience
Management their efforts have to be buttressed with ing credits or gift cards or even returns
formal processes and training that edu- if the situations warrants it, Radecki
cate employees on their roles as well as explains.
what is expected in terms of customer “One of the core metrics we look at
interactions. For example, it’s impor- is resolution rates and if [agents] don’t
tant to create procedures for dealing feel empowered to take steps to resolve
with returned merchandise, forgiving issues, it’s not going to work,” he says.
late charges or escalating a call to a “Agents are empowered to take the sit-
supervisor so that all employees know uation and react accordingly, depend-
how to diffuse some common negative ing on the customer they are dealing
customer interactions. with.”
Rather than enforcing rote scripts Nevertheless, Radecki agrees it’s a
or rigid policies, however, experts ad- balancing act. “There’s the customer,
vise giving employees the flexibility to the employee and the shareholder, and
modify their approaches to best meet the ultimate decisions have to be bal-
the situation while ensuring overall anced between all three,” he says. “If
consistency. Again, proper training is you’re constantly giving money away,
essential for helping employees strike you’re not keeping the shareholder in
this balance. mind.”
Customer Experience Exchange • november/december 2011 6
7. cover story
story slug
Employee Engagement and CEM around customer service as well as be
A set of specific yet simple metrics something the individual employee
around customer experience also can control.
keeps Best Buy employees on the right Esteban Kolsky, founder of ThinkJar,
home track. Customer service reps are mea- a research and consulting firm spe-
sured on three core metrics: customer cializing in CEM, cautions that in-
editor’s satisfaction, likelihood to recommend centive programs work best when the
letter
and resolution. Reps can log into a CEM program is already under way
portal at any time and see their scores, and people have a clear sense of what’s
bridging
the Customer
Radecki says. expected. “You can’t say this is the di-
Experience “We try to simplify for the front- rection we’re going in and tie bonuses
Chasm
line agent what it means to have a to that,” he says. “It has to be already
good customer experience,” he ex- under way so people can see it’s not a
Employee Focus
Transforms
plains. “There are so many differ- punishment but a reward.”
Customer ent approaches out there, it can be The old carrot-and-stick approach is
Experience
Management
overwhelming.” also essential for getting employees to
Strategies Providing reps with visibility into embrace a customer-centric culture.
their performance has been an im- After all, if they’re not feeling the love
Measurement, portant factor in encouraging inter- from corporate, it’s impossible to ex-
Monitoring
Essential
nal competition and getting buy-in. pect them to be goodwill ambassadors
to Customer “We’re delivering transparency so an of top-notch customer service.
Experience
Management agent knows exactly what is coming,” “You can do everything you can for
Radecki says. “If they’re doing really the customer, but if you treat your em-
bad on CSAT (customer satisfaction) ployees horribly, it doesn’t matter what
scores, they know a quality rep is going you tell them to do—they won’t be
to come and talk to them.” happy, and it won’t come across to cus-
Incentives are another tool for fos- tomers,” notes DMG’s Fluss.
tering employee engagement, whether In the end, it could come down to
they are prizes, bonuses or even rec- some employees just not being a fit for
ognition. The first step is to come a customer-centric culture. “Sometimes
up with key performance indicators the people you have aren’t the people
(KPIs) that are specific to customer ex- you need,” Kolsky says. “You may get to
perience and factor those results into the point where you need to make per-
employees’ overall performance re- sonnel changes or reassign people to
views. To be effective, the KPIs need to different functions because their atti-
reflect what the firm wants to achieve tude is just not what you need.” n
Customer Experience Exchange • november/december 2011 7
8. Employees as Customers
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Employee focus
transforms
home
customer
editor’s
letter
experience
bridging
the Customer
Experience
Chasm
Employee Focus
Transforms
Customer Management
strategies
Experience
Management
Strategies
Measurement,
Monitoring
Essential CEM initiatives suffer when
employees can’t provide their
to Customer
Experience
Management
perspectives on customer
concerns. by rosemary cafasso
Most business managers know there is a link between happy employees
and satisfied customers, yet they are often challenged to capitalize on
this connection when implementing customer experience management
(CEM) strategies.
However CEM projects are at risk if managers don’t focus more on em-
ployees. Two issues come into play for CEM initiatives, which are typi-
cally cross-company efforts aimed at improving customer experiences
throughout the lifecycle. First, managers need to find ways to help em-
ployees care more about their jobs. Otherwise, customers immediately
recognize an apathetic employee, and that can damage even the best
mapped-out CEM plan.
Customer Experience Exchange • november/december 2011 8
9. Employees as Customers
story slug
Second, managers need to create “It is logical and straightforward,
opportunities for employee feedback, but a lot of managers don’t connect the
not just on jobs and tasks, but on com- dots,” said Jim Clemmer, president of
pany plans. The goal is to factor that The Clemmer Group, a customer ex-
home feedback into CEM projects. As several perience and management consulting
analysts note, employees, particularly firm in Kitchener, Ontario.
editor’s those on the front lines of customer
letter
service, can often provide the best in-
sights into customer concerns. Experts Say Executive
bridging “The best companies have the most Support Is Key
the Customer
Experience engaged employees,” said Jeanne Without executive support, employees
Chasm
Bliss, co-founder of the Customer Ex- likely will not be a priority in a CEM
perience Professionals Association initiative. Often, executives are so
Employee Focus
Transforms
(CXPA). “If the employee is at the focused on the market and the com-
Customer table, everyone is working towards de- pany’s competitors that internal strat-
Experience
Management
livering something better.” egies drop down their priority lists. In
Strategies turn, that thinking trickles down to the
managers running the customer-facing
Measurement,
Monitoring
“The best companies projects, analysts said.
“This can’t be lip service,” said Kate
Essential
to Customer have the most engaged Leggett, an analyst with Forrester
Experience
Management employees.” Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass.
“It has to be in the DNA of the
Jeanne Bliss, CXPA company.”
A second problem stems from the
Bliss recalled her own experiences traditional organizational structure
as leader of customer experience at that creates silos of expertise. Typi-
Lands’ End, a clothing retailer well- cally, managers charged with employee
known for customer service and now relations are tucked away in human
owned by Sears Holding Corp. Once a resources departments, preventing
month, the company president would collaboration between them and the
meet with a few dozen employees to business managers running the CEM
hear comments about all aspects of the initiatives.
business, Bliss said. But companies having success keep-
But analysts said that while ideas ing employees engaged are using a
such as the Lands’ End group sessions combination of survey software and
seem obvious, these efforts often can old-fashioned employee encounter
be stymied by a corporate culture that programs. One example is Nicor
doesn’t give employee feedback much National, which sells home warranty
value. and energy management plans. The
Customer Experience Exchange • november/december 2011 9
10. Employees as Customers
story slug
company, a division of Nicor Inc. ter managers twice a month to discuss
and based in Naperville, Ill., relies on various issues.
automated survey programs, but it
doesn’t shy away from the soft tactics,
home either. Creating Emotional Bonds
“We begin with the strong belief that Industry analysts said managers should
editor’s the environment for our employees look for tactics that help employees
letter
is the one our customer experiences,” feel more emotionally connected to
said Barbara Porter, vice president of their workplace. Often, this comes
bridging
the Customer
business development and customer from sharing the big picture with
Experience service. workers. CXPA’s Bliss recalled a cli-
Chasm
Porter said the company uses sur- ent that made children’s cups. When
vey tools from Allegiance Software to the company began seeking input from
Employee Focus
Transforms
gauge employee satisfaction and cus- employees, not just as workers, but as
Customer tomer satisfaction. It has been able people and parents who understood
Experience
Management
to chart direct correlations that show what children liked or didn’t like, they
Strategies when employees aren’t happy, custom- found employees were more enthusias-
ers start giving Nicor lower service tic about their work overall.
Measurement, marks. Emotional connections also could
Monitoring
Essential
That data helped Porter get funding be forged from a variety of low-cost
to Customer for new contact center software that incentive programs. Paul Greenberg,
Experience
Management acts as a front end to several contact president of The 56 Group, spoke of
center legacy systems that employ- a company that hands employees the
ees had found increasingly difficult to authority to give occasional company-
use. This change boosted agent perfor- sponsored $50 rewards to co-work-
mance, and customer satisfaction has ers who they believe have done great
increased as well. work.
Porter said her group uses other Finally, Kathleen Peterson, founder
methods to help employees become of Powerhouse Consulting in Bedford,
more engaged. She points to the com- N.H. said to simply ask employees di-
pany’s contact center ambassadors, rect questions and listen to what they
who work on employee concerns with say. She suggests starting with this
managers. Ambassadors are elected query: “What are the smartest things
each year and meet with contact cen- we do, and what are the dumbest?” n
Customer Experience Exchange • november/december 2011 10
11. Customer Experience Analytics
Measurement,
Monitoring
home
Essential
editor’s
letter
to Customer
bridging
the Customer
Experience
Chasm
Employee Focus
Transforms
Customer Experience
Management
Experience
Management
Strategies
Measurement,
Monitoring
Essential Learn how Coca-Cola and ING
Direct expanded their customer
to Customer
Experience
Management
experience management in social
media approaches by measuring
goals and monitoring customer
feedback. By Anna Fiorentino
Advertising is nolonger the only way to create effective customer impres-
sions. Today, customers themselves are helping companies improve cus-
tomer experience management (CEM). Most companies today are using
social media sites as spaces for interactive dialogue about their products
and services. But do they realize there is more to launching a successful
social CRM campaign than creating a Facebook page?
Customer Experience Exchange • november/december 2011 11
12. Customer Experience Analytics
story slug
“So many companies say, ‘We’re go- creating value for its members as well
ing to build a Twitter campaign,’ with as internal and external partners.
no goal in mind of what kind of return “Measurement is key,” says Kaitlyn
they want,” says analyst Zach Hofer- Dennihy, a strategist at Engauge, the
home Shall of Forrester Research Inc. in social media agency of record for My
Cambridge, Mass. “There is often little Coke Rewards. “Translating overall
editor’s regard to who a customer is and who business goals into measurable actions
letter
that customer is not.” within social has allowed us to track
Hofer-Shall has seen this sce- the impact of our communities as well
bridging
the Customer
nario many times before: A company
Experience launches a social media campaign
“So many companies
Chasm
without setting specific standards or
goals. The truth is, companies can eas-
Employee Focus
Transforms
ily set and meet goals by doing things say, ‘We’re going to build
Customer
Experience
such as using software to track online a Twitter campaign,’ with
CEM metrics or establishing customer
Management
Strategies ambassadors. no goal in mind.”
Instead of just getting a brand out to Zach Hofer-Shall, Forrester
Measurement, the general public, Hofer-Shall says a Research
Monitoring
Essential
company should send its messages di-
to Customer rectly to a loyal customer database on
Experience
Management social media platforms. The Coca Cola as manage and exceed expectations for
Co., he says, is one company that is do- the social space. Every content piece in
ing that well. social must include a call to action for
the user that can be measured.”
The social media goals of My Coke
My Coke Rewards and CEM Rewards are quantified by the code en-
Coke’s My Coke Rewards program, try and points spent on specific items.
housed on Facebook, is using social “We can best optimize the program
media as a living, breathing focus by assessing consumer actions, behav-
group. The members-only site allows iors and sentiment,” Dennihy says.
customers who already buy Coke prod- “Members are having detailed conver-
ucts to collect codes from products in sations surrounding the program with
return for rewards. Now, instead of or without our participation. In order
carrying around bottle caps, individu- to influence this dialogue, we join the
als enter promotion codes through conversation to participate, inform and
text messages and desktop widgets. influence.”
By listening and monitoring customer It’s important to provide a consis-
conversations and codes, Coke has tent program and a systematic value
managed to deliver real-time results, through targeted content and informa-
Customer Experience Exchange • november/december 2011 12
13. Customer Experience Analytics
story slug
tion strategy, according to Dennihy. Maybe the most all-encompassing
My Coke Rewards provides quality of the bunch, Radian6—which Sales-
content and builds one-on-one rela- force.com acquired this year—tells
tionships with the social media com- companies such as ING Direct who is
home munity as well as every department saying what and whether customers
within the company, she said. are communicating through a news
editor’s “With insight into areas such as cus- site or blog, for example. The software
letter
tomer service, product merchandising can also judge, based on Web traffic
and exclusivity, we can deliver real- and readership, how influential the in-
bridging
the Customer
time results that impact the program dividual who made the post is.
Experience and create value for our members as “Often we find there is internal or
Chasm
well as internal and external partners,” external detective work to service cli-
Dennihy says. ents, so it’s great to see these tools built
Employee Focus
Transforms
into Radian6,” says Gloria Chik, social
Customer media lead at ING Direct.
Experience
Management
ING Direct and CEM “If we get a client complaint, it’s
Strategies ING Direct, an online-centric bank been fantastic to get a full profile of
that is part of Netherlands-based ING, that person.”
Measurement, also believes that meeting customer Chik said companies should tread
Monitoring
Essential
needs is the basis for creating a thriv- carefully with Radian6 while handling
to Customer ing social media campaign. confidential client financial informa-
Experience
Management ING Direct boosted its bottom line tion, making sure to look at each client
by listening to online consumer con- complaint or compliment individu-
versations with the help of a program ally—even if that means passing it on
called Radian6, a social media moni- to the sales team.
toring platform that allows compa- But whether companies use qualita-
nies to not only know what’s being tive or quantitative methods to track
said about their brands, industries and return on investment on customer
competitors online, but to also help response management, one thing is
them measure, analyze and report on certain.
their social CRM efforts. It’s just one “There has to be a goal around sup-
of many tools now used for measuring porting customers,” Hofer-Shall says.
Web activity—others include Alexa for “That goal may be tangible—like solv-
providing statistics on visitors, Google ing a problem for a customer. Or it
Analytics for summarizing search can be intangible—like looking at the
trends, and Summize for providing likelihood of a customer returning to a
tweet searching capabilities. site.” n
Customer Experience Exchange • november/december 2011 13
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