Ask the Customer Experience Experts

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1 1 Ask the Customer Experience Experts How the sum of all experiences impacts the bottom line How would you define customer experience? Is it the same as customer service? Does it refer to an interaction you have with a customer online, over the phone or face-to-face? Or, is it the way your customers ultimately feel about you and your brand? The truth is that there are many different ways to define the customer experience. And these experiences are not a single, one-time event. Rather, they are the sum of all experiences throughout the duration of your relationship with a customer from face-to-face interactions in a retail store to online purchases and even calls into a contact center. It is for this reason that organizations must be consistent in every interaction to ensure a positive customer experience overall. However you define the customer experience, you must also identify what results can be expected and how to measure your success. We ve asked three of the industry s top customer relationship experts to share their insights on how to define, improve and measure the customer experience in your organization. Here s what they said: Defining the customer experience Forrester has defined customer experience as how customers perceive their interactions with your company. Their Customer Experience Pyramid explains that good customer experiences are made up of three qualities identified from the perspective of the customer: useful, usable and enjoyable. For me, the customer experience is the sum of all the interactions with customers that adds up to that picture the customer has of us, said customer experience consulting and coaching expert Melissa Kovacevic. Anytime a customer calls in and gets stuck in the IVR, is the victim of a poor process, or even something they see, hear, or even smell in a retail establishment or if they can t find a parking space because employees parked in all of the visitor spaces all of this paints a picture. The customer experience, says Kovacevic, is the sum of all of the interactions and opportunities to connect with and impress the customer and, ultimately, what the customer uses to judge your brand. And when something goes wrong, it all hinges on the next interaction. Sometimes that next contact a customer has with an employee will make all the difference in the world, said Kovacevic. If employees are always mindful of the customer experience, they can make up for some of the negatives if they are

2 Ask the Customer Experience Experts 2 willing to listen and fix whatever went wrong. It s all about how you move forward. Preparing for a positive customer experience As agents and other frontline employees are better equipped to exceed customer expectations, the customer experience becomes more personalized and, as a result, a company creates competitive advantage. A recent study conducted by Accenture found that nearly half of B2B firms agree that customer experience is a competitive differentiator, yet they invest as little as 1% of their annual revenue into it. There is so much parity and equality in products and services today that customer service and the customer experience are really the big differentiators, said Greg Levin, author of Full Contact: Contact Center Practices and Strategies that Make an Impact. The question becomes how you will distinguish yourself not just in your mission statement, but proving it in your actions. So, how can you ensure your customers will have a positive experience? Understand the customer One fundamental thing organizations can do that is often overlooked is to simply take a step back and identify who their customer is. This means understanding their needs and expectations in your industry. Without doing this, it is difficult to create a path to delivering a good customer experience, said Flavio Martins, customer experience expert and author of the Win the Customer blog. Then, once you have this understanding, you must ensure that everyone in the organization is working together so that the experience is consistent with customers across the board. Look at the big picture The customer experience includes everything from the customer s point of view not just their interactions. Employees, no matter what their department or role, should remember that the customer experience includes everything from the customer s point of view not just their interactions. I encourage our clients to experience all kinds of interactions from the customer s standpoint, said Kovacevic. We tell them to call into their own call centers, experience the IVR, and observe how they are greeted by agents. Monitor calls. Visit the website. See how long it takes to get a response by or social media. It s just not enough for the customer service employees to understand and focus on the customer experience because they aren t the only ones interacting with customers. It s a team effort. Be consistent Again, consistency is key. Not only should customer service employees be focused on delivering a positive customer experience, but so should every department within an organization.

3 Ask the Customer Experience Experts 3 Every single division must understand what the customer experience is and be in alignment so that the delivery is consistent across every single customer interaction, said Martins. This includes sales and marketing, as they make sales calls and collect data all the way to IT, said Martins. Ask yourself, are they focused on the customer experience when they make decisions within their sphere of influence? Get proactive According to Levin, it s important to empower your agents and other frontline employees to be customer-centric so that they deliver exceptional customer service. This includes focusing on the key performance metrics, processes and tools that really impact the customer experience and less focus on things like Average Handle Time (AHT). There must also be a focus on training. Agents have to be able to answer customer inquiries and solve their problems, but it s also critical that they feel they are knowledge workers and not just occupying a seat, said Levin. They also need the right tools. Agents don t have to be able to answer every question off the top of their heads, but the information needs to be accessible. Invest in your agents Frontline agents are one of the most valuable assets in a contact center and an organization as a whole and should be used as consultants. They know what your customers are asking for and they know what they need in order to serve them better. Increase agent autonomy and ownership, said Levin. Welcome their feedback and act on it. This includes engaging agents on task forces and panels for ideas, providing ongoing training and development opportunities, and rewarding and recognizing outstanding performance, said Levin. The result is happier agents who are more satisfied in their roles and committed to your customers and your organization s reputation. Measuring the Customer Experience Customers expect agents to be knowledgeable enough to resolve their issues and efficient enough to do it quickly. This expectation can be measured in part with metrics such as Service Level, First Call Resolution (FCR) and Customer Satisfaction scores. Service level measures the percentage of calls or online interactions handled in a specific amount of time, which addresses agent efficiency, while FCR measures whether or not the agent was able to handle the customer s issue in one call. The best way to measure the customer experience in your organization is by listening to your customers. In addition to analytics like FCR and contact quality scores, IVR or -based surveys or surveys conducted by a third-party after an interaction can provide valuable customer feedback that can be used to improve future interactions. However, these tools don t always provide a complete picture because not all customers

4 Ask the Customer Experience Experts 4 respond to surveys. Measuring quality from the customer s perspective through quality monitoring tools gives managers insight into the customer experience on a transaction-by-transaction basis. Customers often mention things like I love ordering from you because, or I really wasn t sure which button to press to get through to you and the agent doesn t make a note of it, said Kovacevic. By monitoring calls, managers can get real-time customer feedback that is happening right there on the call or . Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are also an invaluable tool to evaluate how your customers view your company, brand and service. Agents can be trained on how to effectively interact with customers on social sites and provide both proactive service and damage control, said Levin. The best contact centers keep a close eye on social media and have social media monitoring tools in place to see what their customers are saying about them, said Levin. They re-tweet the good things and fix the bad things as soon as possible. Intraday Management Customers often mention things like I love ordering from you because, or I really wasn t sure which button to press perceive that their inquiry isn t being answered quickly, their perception or experience is already off to a rocky start and puts more pressure on agents. Agents need to have the right knowledge and information to effectively handle customer inquiries and provide a consistent customer experience. Since products, services and policies can continuously evolve, agents need to be continually updated on any changes in order to provide correct information and maintain consistency across channels. With a constant ebb and flow of incoming calls, chats or inquiries and limited time to squeeze in training, intraday management technology can better optimize the efficiency of the contact center organization. In multi-channel environments, using technology to automatically balance agents across , phone, and chat, according to real-time volume, ensures customers have quicker access to answers in their preferred channel. And when service levels threaten to endanger customer experience, intraday management automates the voluntary overtime process to ensure enough agents are always available. A positive customer experience starts with a positive customer interaction and a huge percentage of interactions occur in an organization s call center. This impression can begin even before your customers reach an agent. If customers This technology also increases the frequency of agent training and coaching by dynamically delivering individualized training, coaching, knowledge base reviews and other off-phone work directly to the desktop during aggregated idle time. When

5 Ask the Customer Experience Experts 5 volume unexpectedly spikes, agents are automatically prompted to return to answering calls so that service levels are not negatively affected. As a result, more qualified agents are available to handle and process customer inquiries, and agents get the training and coaching they need to handle complex customer questions and requests. And as agents increase their skills and competencies, skill and queue associations are automatically updated to ensure that customers can quickly reach the agents most suited to handle their inquiries. When intraday management technology alleviates these manual updates, supervisors and managers can spend quality time coaching and developing agents. The best contact centers keep a close eye on social media to see what their customers are saying about them As agents become more empowered and confident, the customer experience also improves. How do I know if my customers are happy? You can use case studies, analytics and surveys, but ultimately, how is your business doing? said Martins. Your customers speak with their wallets. If you are performing well and customers keep coming back and referring others, you will see that reflected in your bottom line. If you don t meet their needs, they will turn away and go somewhere else. About Intradiem Intradiem, formerly Knowlagent, is the leader in intraday management solutions for multi-channel contact centers. Intradiem s customers achieve an invincible customer experience with a real-time workforce. Intradiem s solutions automate manual processes such as intraday task management, intraday staffing, reskilling, channel balancing, and real-time alerts to ensure front-line workforces are poised to react to whatever the market throws their way. More than 450,000 contact center, field service, retail, bank branch, and back office employees around the world use Intradiem s solution every day. For more information, call or visit