Customer Service Moves Back Into The Spotlight

Forrester's William Band (my former mentor and leader at then Coopers & Lybrand Consulting) just published his Top Eight Customer Management Trends For 2010. I was pleased to read trend #5: Customer Service Moves Back Into The Spotlight.

Band observes: "We see a rising number of inquiries from clients about how to improve their customer service capabilities. How does customer service affects the bottom line? Forrester asked customers to rate their interaction experiences (the Customer Experience Index) based on whether they were:
1) useful — could they get what they needed to do done;
2) easy — or did they run into all kinds of hassles in the interaction process; or
3) enjoyable — or did they feel frustrated and disappointed in the interaction.

The results show that the higher the customer experience index, regardless of the industry, the more customers buy and the more loyal they are.

Contact center customer support needs to evolve to better serve customers who no longer rely on one venue for receiving information but instead engage multiple sources. In addition to checking a company's Web site and its brochures, many customers research information on products and services from social networking sources, such as blogs, and online user ratings. With customers now requiring more real-time support, it's essential to keep pace with their expectations and to respond to them in new ways."