Customer Experience Simple Customer Plan, Monetized Customer Worthy HoffmanSimple Customer Plan: Monetizing the Customer Experience by Michael R HoffmanIQPC interviews Michael R Hoffman, of Client X Client. The interview explores the evolution of customer expectations within utilities. Michael lays out a simple plan for monetizing consumer touch points and explores how utilities can achieve cost savings through intelligence planning.  Customer expectations are not set by the utilities, nor by a set of ‘utilities best practices’ - they originate from all of a customer’s experiences, things like; their Amazon experience, cable TV, cell phone, and banking. This includes their experiences on a variety of different channels; on their phone, emails, web, and commerce experiences. This is why customer management is hard; customer expectations are formed with all their other interactions at work and at home. The other big issue for utilities is that customer experience isn’t usually an issue until something goes wrong, like a service outage or billing issue, by which point the customer is distraught at the point(s) of contact. Frankly, customers don’t pay attention until a) something goes wrong b) competition c) news alerts their interest d) they want to change their existing service With so many customer interfaces (social media, online, phone, etc) – how do you determine where to focus your efforts? Is an integrated approach better? The test for ‘simple’ is that any person (especially the customers) can understand what channels are available to them for information and assistance. All options need to be clearly laid out – then reviewed and tested against different customer situations, customer groups, regions, etc. ‘Simple customer view – excerpt from Customer Worthy by Michael R Hoffman Asking the question, “What would a customer do if…? Once the basic customer plan is laid out, the company can articulate what information and resources are needed based on meeting their customer needs. Scoping resources can be accomplished by adding dimensions to the simple plan like; who is responsible for message, systems and technology required, cost/benefit, regular and exceptional volume, disaster recovery, local and enterprise solutions – this is where the simple plan (the customer’s view) becomes complex internally.  Internal view of ‘simple customer experience, excerpt from Customer Worthy, by Michael R Hoffman Quick tech tip: Companies should also build a customer memory – this customer uses x channels – they emailed us, they called us, they have been to a location – you can also look at this for different types of transactions – they pay bills in person, they call with problems and they email with general questions – this builds a profile of how customers can, and should be contacted. What would your advice be on configuring systems and processes to manage customer demand for service?My simplest advice or guideline is to monetize every customer interaction. Every customer contact has a real cost and a potential or actual benefit – so make those figures explicit and keep them front and center while making configuration and resourcing decisions. Companies are often surprised by the innovations that come from monetizing interactions – and again, there are examples in other industries everywhere. It may seem counterintuitive to actually charge customers a fee when they request service, or to charge them to move to the front of a service queue (phone call or installation) but this is becoming more common practice as theme parks have a ‘pay to cut in line,” express service, other companies have preferred customer plans where customers pay an annual premium for ‘personalized’ service while some companies charge a service guarantee fee – all inclusive fee rider for ‘exceptional service.” A slightly more unique and effective approach may be to apply a service fee credit to every customer then debit the balance with each customer contact. This type of monetization raises the perceived value of customer service, and highlights exceptional customer service resource consumption, service abusers (or highly problematic service issues), for both the company and the customer. In your opinion how should you decide which technologies to pursue and which processes to change, adapt, and invest in?Technology and process decisions are all based on monetizing the benefits, weighing the expense of new technologies, outsourcing options, process redesigns versus the monetary and strategic benefits. I have to point out that many of the benefits are not obvious until they are laid out on the simple plan above – the customer schematic. For example, managing messages in each channel probably does not, Looking at all of the information and contact management requirements across all channels and contact points may justify investing in a knowledge management system, or packaging information about services and utilization may create new revenue generating or consumption balancing services that would not otherwise be possible. How can utilities achieve cost savings through improved ‘customer understanding and intelligence planning’ – what does this mean?“Follow your customers” – nowadays technology’s capabilities far outweigh our capacity to use them right now.  The map – customer flow – is very familiar design for utility executives – similar to how gas flows, water flows through pipes and distribution systems, we are looking at how customers flow, don’t flow, and the efficiencies across the utilities ecosystem or piping. Seems simple, right? Counting customers across each interaction point, by customer type, customer segment, etc. depicts the company’s current operation and quickly identifies inefficiencies, process bottlenecks, service redesign opportunities and opportunities for innovative solution. This is also the purpose of monetizing each customer – so we can isolate and quantify the affects of changes at each channel, interaction point – or process step to see what the yield or benefit will be and share the results of proposed changes to all concerned parties. Customer and stakeholder transparency enables better solution making and monetization of each contact and experience quantifies cost savings and revenue generation opportunities. Your book ‘Customer Worthy, How and why everyone in your organization must think like a customer’ – what is the main gist / advice your book gives to the reader?Customer Worthy derives from the most fundamental business fact, customers are responsible for a business’s success or failure. Without customers there is no business. The longer title of the book, “How and why everyone in your organization must think like a customer,” comes from a finding that customers are the final arbiter of what is a good or poor business decision. Plain and simple, if the customer doesn’t realize the benefit of a technology investment, a system improvement, or a new service then the company can’t realize any benefit. If the change does not result in new customers and referrals, additional business from existing customers or customers increasing their tenure with the company then how can you justify the change? This works for cost reductions and alternative sourcing too, if customers don’t experience change, but company reduces cost, than both parties benefit. Customer Worthy provides a template for every company to map their customers’ experience and then provides a method to visualize, monetize, analyze and optimize customer experience so that everyone at the company can articulate their role, function and performance in the context of how it affects customers. From introduction in Customer Worthy – following common customer service nightmare:Customer satisfaction surveys—Net Promoter Score, J.D. Power, and other “everything is all right” customer satisfaction measurement methods—miss the point. They are too far away from the customers, the interactions, and the phone call. The “long tail” is on the phone right now. This is “long tail” meets the Pareto Principle. Key Takeaway: Poor customer experience design is expensive for everyone, but it is most expensive for customers. This is why the CxC Matrix that you will learn about in this book is so important. It can be used to fix the customer problems and improve service delivery from the moment a customer begins the journey to fulfill a need all the way to product or service disposal. Poor customer experience leads to incredible expense—not just for companies, but for customers. (At the time of this writing, the wireless phone company’s annual report says that it spent $21 billion in “selling, general, and administrative expense.”) Even if I discount the cost of my personal experience by 90 percent, it means that my wireless company cost its customers nearly ten billion dollars that goes unreported. The point is that with all of the investments in product development, sales, marketing, and customer service systems, companies continue to waste an unfathomable amount of customer time—waiting for the technician to arrive to load software or install cable, waiting for a salesperson to return a call, waiting for the answer to an emailed question, trying to figure out how to use a product. Will I ever do business with the wireless phone company again? Reluctantly, I already have.  About Michael R HoffmanMichael R Hoffman is a customer experience and customer management expert. He founded CLIENT x CLIENT to help companies leverage technology to create superior customer experiences and grow revenue per customer. Customer Worthy is the synthesis of his work with major brands, marketing, and CRM innovators where he honed the elements of the CxC Matrix presented in the book. Mr. Hoffman held executive positions at Experian, DoubleClick and Sitel before founding CLIENT x CLIENT. Hoffman is the founder and CEO of CLIENT x CLIENT, a consulting firm that excels in customer centric innovation and customer experience transformation. With over 20 years of experience consulting to customer-centered executives in technology-aggressive businesses across many industries. He is a visionary thought leader with the unique ability to bring clients and lead customers together to co design business strategies, innovative solutions, and ideal customer experiences. Hoffman is a highly acclaimed keynote speaker at business conferences and industry symposia worldwide. His visionary insight and experience in designing customer-centric processes and measurements make him sought after by business, customer advocacy and technology audiences. His latest book, Customer Worthy, describes the new approach to the process of customer-centric innovation, customer ecosystem design and measurement. 
|
|
|
|
Customer Worthy News >
Customer Experience for Utilities, Services Organizations IQPCposted Aug 11, 2011 11:36 AM by Michael R Hoffman |