Advice From Effective Voice of the Customer Leaders

Every year the Voice of the Customer (VoC) Awards process gives Forrester's Andrew McInnes and his fellow judges the opportunity to explore the inner workings of the day's best VoC programs.

Here are the pieces of advice that this year's nominees provided for other organizations to learn from, grouped into common themes. Straight from the horses' mouths...

1. Do pursue executive sponsorship:

• When the leader of the organization is paying attention to the customer and taking time to be educated by the customer, the rest of the company notices and emulates that behavior. --Midsize B2C software maker


• We believe involvement at the top executive level has been a main driver of our success so far. --Large retailer

Don't wait for executive sponsorship to get started:

• Don't wait for executive sponsorship to begin your VoC measurement and insight program. Much of your program's success will be driven by bringing tangible proof points to the table that serve to accelerate executives' appetite for more. --Midsize business services firm
  
• Start small, and create advocates to help excite others throughout the organization. --Large retailer

2. Do engage employees at all levels of the organization:

• Involvement across the board, from executives, to sales management, to account managers, will drive your success and maintain interest and excitement for the program. --Large B2B/B2C software maker


• It is critical that the "voice of the employee" is also considered when defining the VoC program. --Midsize B2B software maker

Don't waste time chasing after resistors:

• Don't waste your time on employees who resist you and challenge the data gathering methods - go towards the "yes" people. --Midsize B2B technology and services firm


• Start small, and create advocates to help excite others throughout the organization. --Large retailer

3. Do communicate broadly about the program:

• Giving the program a name/brand/identity brings the initiative to life. --Large B2B technology and services firm


• One third of your program team's job is communication about the program and results. --Large B2B/B2C software maker

Don't forget to tell employees what's in it for them:

• Any VoC program has to be in employees' language and enable them to see the results and ROI in order to get engaged. --Large B2B/B2C software maker


• Understand how leaders across product and services make decisions, and ensure the metrics and reporting help leaders make those decisions wisely and efficiently. --Large airline

4. Do hold employees accountable:

• By linking compensation to customer experience performance, you will make it clear that this initiative should be treated as a priority at all levels. --Large retailer


• Build regular stakeholder review sessions into the process. --Large health plan

Don't just focus on problems:

• Do not use guest feedback as a means to embarrass or penalize local management. Create the notion among employees that we want guest feedback. Don't fear it, embrace it. --Casual dining chain


• Without proper attention, feedback can quickly become a succession of small, daily fires. Give at least an equal amount of time scaling successes as you do solving problems. --Quick-serve restaurant chain

5. Do use all of the insights at your disposal:

• Embrace analytics and data patterns from information collected outside traditional VoC survey questions. --Large airline


• A multifaceted voice of the customer effort must consist of a variety of formal and informal efforts, leveraging the latest communication tools to meet customers where they live and play. --Large B2B technology and services firm

Don't lose sight of the path to action:

• Before moving forward with a specific VOC survey question, ask yourself, "Who owns this question? Who is accountable for the data?" --Quick-serve restaurant


• Maintaining line of sight to the insights that your organization values and understanding the data that provides this insight can limit data scope creep and deliver business impact faster. --Large B2C financial services firm

6. Do quantify customer feedback:

• It's extremely important to put in place some kind of measurement capability in order to separate hearsay from important opinion. --Large B2B technology and services firm


• Do the analytical work to show how customer satisfaction has economic impact. --Large B2B/B2C technology and services firm

Don't remove the human element:

• Listen to the customer's actual experience. If you see that a customer has noted they waited on hold for 15 minutes while an employee was assisting them - find the call and listen to it. --Midsize business services firm


• Utilize customer journey mapping to make your customers' experiences real to the people in your organization not directly familiar with what customers actually experience. --Large B2B/B2C software maker

7. Do create consistency across business areas:

• It is essential for an organization to have a single metric/approach, such as loyalty, that summarizes the health of the company's relationships and is proven to link with business success. --Large B2B technology and services firm


• Unify the capability by bringing together all of the individuals capturing voice of customer data. --Large retailer

Don't sacrifice relevance with a one-size-fits-all approach:

• Make certain to create a balance between consistent feedback touchpoints and regional customization to meet the needs of a diverse organization. --Large B2B manufacturer


• Rather than make customer experience initiatives and activities a separate program or another item on the to-do list, try to seamlessly integrate it into the tools, systems, process and activities people follow every day. --Large B2B manufacturer

8. Do embrace technology to scale up:

• Find a partner that has the same goals as you and can empower you with the information and tools necessary to be successful. --Large B2C services firm


• Implement a VoC reporting application that is easy to use and helps with decision making. --Large airline

Don't let available tools stifle innovation:

• Don't fall into traps where you don't experiment because "it won't scale." It's how to get ahead of the curve--technology will catch up! --Midsize B2C software maker

Customer Service Moments of Truth - A reminder of the basics

A lot has been written about customer service over the years and most of it is true. We have all read and, most importantly, learned the significance of customer service excellence from our own experiences. It really does make a difference in the performance of businesses. The Distributor Board reminded us in a recent posting of these tried and true basics, worth sharing.

Important Truths

We have used this over and over again: "You never get a 2nd chance to make a good 1st impression." In any business, that first impression starts with the first phone call, the first visit to your web site, the booth at the trade show, your Linked-In company profile, your magazine ads, drive into your parking lot, or any other place where you, as a company, are visible and active. For everything you need to ask the question, how is this informing or helping my customer or potential customer? How am I providing a service in whatever I am presenting or doing? What value is my organization providing during that first impression?

It was once said that, "Every time a service organization performs for a particular customer, the customer makes an assessment of the quality of the service, even if unconsciously. The sum total of the repeated assessments by the customer and the collective assessments by all customers establish in their minds the organization's image in terms of the service quality."

The worst thing that can happen to a distributor is not a failure, but rather how the distributor reacts to a failure. It is clear that a customer service problem that is resolved quickly and to the complete satisfaction of the customer will solidify the relationship with the customer. But this is not an area where repetition is good. Reducing the number of customer service problems should be the goal. According to Karl Albrecht and Ron Zemke in Service America, written many years ago, but still valid today:

"Of the customers who register a complaint, between 54% and 70% will do business again with the organization if their complaint is resolved. That figure goes up to a staggering 95% if the customer feels that the complaint was resolved quickly"

If the customer is not satisfied, research finds that, "The average customer who has had a problem with an organization tells 9 to 10 people about it. 13% of people who have a problem with an organization recount the incident to more than 20 people." These numbers can be exponentially higher with today's multiplicity of interactive communication options.

Changed Environment

According to a Business Week article, "It's never been easier for customers to find the opinions of others to validate their product and service choices." Today's buyers have the entire Internet, filled with evaluations, assessments, and commentary that provides others with the ability to find out about you and your products. Distributors today cannot hide. If your service to customers is not 100% all the time, someone, someplace will be talking and/or writing about it for the entire world to know. That's scary!

In a recent Citrix white paper entitled, Improving Customer Retention and Satisfaction by Delivering Exceptional Customer Support, they stated:

"In today's connected world, a bad opinion about service can be amplified quickly. In fact, customers are likely to share a bad experience with many others via word of mouth and virally, through social networks and service evaluation sites. Research conducted by Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management on the influence of social media found there is a measurable connection between what is being said about a product in online posts and real time customer behavior and sales."

Many may discount this as "consumer environment," however, don't. The emerging, continually connected consumer today is the same person that works for your customer. The knowledge tools, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, etc., they use personally are often the same they will use to evaluate your products and service.

How to Fail

In the book, The Service Advantage, Albrecht and Bradford talk about:

"A moment of truth ... that precise instant when the customer comes into contact with any aspect of your business and, on the basis of that contact, forms an opinion about the quality of your service and potentially, the quality of your product."

You make promises every day with your customers and potential customers. Fulfilling those promises are the "moments of truth" for your customers. It's OK to be out of stock, but don't sell something and then call later and tell the customer you are out-of-stock or, worse yet, don't decide to not call at all and fail to deliver. This is where failure happens. Your key to success is making certain this never happens by focusing your entire organization on making sure every promise is kept all the time.

Empowering People

We heard the other day these ten, two-letter words that I believe says it all, "If it is to be, it is up to me." If your organization has this service attitude, magic can happen. To have this attitude they must be empowered to act and be trained to act to the benefit of the customer and in turn your organization. Training is critical. It is a process, not an event and therefore needs to be on-going.

Karl Albrecht and Ron Zemke, Service America said,

"If a company that is supposed to be operating in a service industry has a department called 'The Customer Service Department,' what are all the other departments supposed to be doing? Might it be that having a customer service department signals to the other people in the company that the customer is being properly looked after, and that they need not concern themselves with the matter? Shouldn't the entire organization be one large customer service department, at least figuratively speaking?"

How to make it Happen

In this ever changing environment, the Owner, President, or CEO is the key to customer service success. Troops take direction from the leader. If customer service is a top down imperative, if keeping the promises you make at all levels of the organization is mandatory, outstanding customer service will occur. The CEO must focus on infusing this culture across the organization.

Beyond the strategy, there are 3 key tactics for success: people, processes and technology. Perhaps Glenn Dobson of Citrix said it best,

"Companies with the most effective, loyalty-inducing customer service equip their representatives with the tools and skills to resolve problems."

The skills come from training and experience. The tools are the vast array of technology that can be deployed. The goal is to have a "consistent" experience across the many points of entry to your company. Some of the customer service tools that need to be consistent and that all distributors should either be using or considering include:

• Live Chat
• Push to Talk
• Video Product Demonstrations
• Live On-line Demonstrations
• Phone Conferencing
• Video Phone Calls and Conferencing
• Email Communications
• Customer Relationship Management Solutions (CRM)
• Knowledge Sharing Systems
• Web Site and eCommerce

The keys to customer satisfaction success are: to utilize technology that will help you know your customer; technology that lets the customer know you; interactive communication systems; and adaptability to change rapidly as new systems and processes evolve, because they will!

In a recent Customer Relationship Management magazine article titled, The Next 15 Years of CRM, they stated that,

"Advances in people, process and technology over the past 15 years have helped make customer relationships deeper and more meaningful. But the next 15 years will deliver innovation at a much faster pace and organizations will only survive by embracing meaningful two-way dialogue with increasingly mobile customers."

Conclusion

In one of the Customer Service classics, by Carl Sewell & Paul B. Brown, Customers for Life, they say,

"If you're good to your customers, they'll keep coming back because they like you. If they like you, they'll spend more money. If they spend more money, you want to treat them better. And, if you treat them better, they keep coming back and the circle starts again."

Yesterday, today and tomorrow's successful distributor exists because of their focus on the service they perform for their customers. The difference then, now and tomorrow are the tools and the application of those tools to the company's processes. You should be assessing your technology to determine how well it helps your people in developing deeper and more meaningful relationships with your customers. Rest assured, your best competitors are looking at ways to improve their relationships with customers. Some of those customers might be yours!

One final quote comes from an ad that Bill Marriott ran many years ago and is ever more meaningful today. This lends itself to most any business and certainly to any distributor.

More than flashy architecture

More than razzle-dazzle décor

More than culinary fireworks

More than triple sheeted beds

A business traveler needs one simple thing

Service, the ultimate luxury

It begins the moment you call

Six common reasons why ‘customer centricity’ initiatives fail

Richard Whitely is the author of The Customer-Driven Company, Customer-Centered Growth, Love the Work You’re With and, most recently, The Corporate Shaman. He is a co-founder of The Forum Corporation. Richard is a long-time consultant and advisor of UP! Your Service, on whose blog he published this insightful entry.

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Over the many years of working with organizations to help them become ‘customer centered’, I have witnessed a number of successes as well as failures. By understanding why these well-intentioned initiatives fail and looking for common causes we are able to address them early in the planning process for future initiatives and thus increase the odds of success.

The six most common reasons for failure I have seen throughout my career are these:

1. Past Success

“Nothing fails like success.” In a moderately successful organization, when things are running “well enough”, senior managers do not want to risk their careers by championing a new way of being. They realize that changing the culture of an organization is like changing its DNA and they simply don’t want to take that on.

Lou Gerstner, reflecting on his turnaround at IBM said, “Organizations don’t change because people don’t want to change,” and all too often those “people” are the ones at the top.

In the absence of enlightened leadership that sees new opportunities, a burning platform is needed to create the motivation to set out in a new direction. There has to be a compelling and widely understood reason for change without which people will give significant lip service backed up by woefully little real action as they just go through the motions phantom change.

2. Uncommitted Leaders

I have never met a senior executive who says “Customers? Who needs them!?” Every leader knows how important it is to clearly identify customer segments, understands their needs and deliver solutions consistently and reliably.

Most leaders, however, do not demonstrate the level of commitment required. They are not the role models we need to see. Successful leaders, on the other hand, dive into the details and take full responsibility for creating an engaging environment where every individual is willing and able to fulfill the vision and mission of the organization.

3. No Voice of the Customer

In this case the organization is not “hardwired” to its customers and prospects. Important service and product decisions are based on assumptions and 2nd or 3rd hand information. The few powerful metrics that have the greatest impact on the successful execution of the organization’s strategy are all too often either not measured or, if measured, not shared with all employees.

4. Organizational Silos

In the increasingly complex environments in which we work today, no single job, department or function can succeed without significant levels of collaboration.

“Lateral listening,” and working closely with internal service partners are vital to making and keeping marketplace promises. This is the foundation of building a successful ‘customer-centered’ service culture and yet all too often inappropriate incentives drive us to withhold information and compete internally.

5. Inadequate Education

Senior executives often get all pumped up and excited by the allure of being customer centered. They then announce to all employees that the game is now about making customers happy and that everyone should do a better job in this area.

The big mistake these executives make is to believe that improving customer service is simply a matter of announcing that there is a new game and after that it is merely an employee attitude and motivation issue.

What they fail to realize is that while mindset matters, great service needs great skillsets, too. The new service behaviors required for success definitely require thoughtful, targeted education. In most cases they are not innate or natural. Management can provide generous incentives or onerous threats to shape employee behavior but without proper training such actions will not move the customer delight needle one bit. In effect they are incentivizing people to do things they are not yet able to do. Proper training is required.

6. “It’s not my job”

Executives and employees alike often believe that just because the organization has a customer satisfaction department or a marketing team that gathers customer data, “customer service” is taken care of and they don’t have to worry about it.

Successful organizations realize that delighting customers is every employee’s job. And when one embraces the concept of the internal customer, it is clear that everyone in the organization has at least one “real” customer who relies on him/her to provide a product or service that is vital to delighting an external customer somewhere down the line.

Which of these common reasons for failure might be lurking inside your organization? The first step to preempt them from derailing your efforts to become a customer centered organization is to recognize and admit that they might exist. The second step is to audit each of the six common reasons and determine the extent to which each of them might be an inhibiting factor for your organization. This might best be done in a group using a 5 point scale (0=not a problem, 5=major issue) to determine the degree each of the six will need corrective action. And, of course, the last step is to identify and take the corrective action.

Customer Focus: How to Make It Happen

Graham Clark sees it my way. He is a senior lecturer at the Cranfield School of Management in the UK [Note that this post is in British English]

It seems such a simple equation; good customer service equals good business. And yet this patently isn’t played out in practice, as all of us have experienced. So what does it take to be a customer focused organisation?

For many years I have examined successful customer focused organisations, as well as those organisations that have tried and failed. Although we may have an ambition to be customer focused, putting the customer at the centre of all we do, we tend to concentrate on our own activity rather than customer requirements. There is a tendency to drive for outputs rather than outcomes. In other words, it is common to focus on what we do as an organisation rather than what it means for our customers. The result is that even though our intentions are sound, somehow our practice does not turn out as intended. Another common challenge for customer focus is an emphasis on efficiency or cost reduction. In the process of striving for efficiency it is all too easy to lose the essence of what the customer really wants, rather than what we do for them.

In a restaurant, everyone may get fed, but have they had the desired service experience? So how do we put matters right and give customers what they really want?

A lot of customer success is down to consistently hard work; we live in a world that is always looking for the quick fix, the simple panacea that will make it alright for the moment. What we need to do is to go back to basics, defining very clearly what customers really are looking for and what are they buying from us.

Sometimes I describe organisations looking through their inside out lens, versus the outside in lens. We are very good at the inside out: "this is what we do, please love us"; rather than the outside in: "this is what you want from us in terms of outcomes, benefits and across-the-total experience". In the process of cost cutting, organisations often lose sight of the essential customer experience component.

However, not every organisation is losing their focus on the customer; so what is it that makes the difference in giving consistently great customer service? Southwest Airlines Is an excellent example. They know that service is all about relationships; successful organisations are removing the barriers to forming strong and enduring relationships throughout their organisation. They work hard all the way through their network of relationships – not just at the end point of contact with customers and those moments of truth. Emphasis needs to be placed all down the chain, making sure that the relationships are working and working well.

My key message is not to rely on one or two service heroes to provide great service-though we need those heroes, people who love the customer to bits and really go the extra mile for them. Great service is service which is delivered consistently through the network of relationships which starts right at the very beginning and all the way to the end.

I recommend that organisations map at every point what is happening with the relationships. We used to refer to internal customers in the past, but I believe we should now emphasise relationships throughout the organisation– what do I give, what do I get back, how can we make it better? In this way you will re-evaluate what is working and what is not working, so that you can continue to improve the experience of the customer.

It’s good to talk, not just to your customers, but throughout your whole organisation. In this way you are much more likely to retain that valuable and essential component, customer focus.

An App That Makes Customer Service Hold for You

Have you ever wondered, while you wait on hold for a customer service representative, if there was a way to get your problems resolved without spending your time listening to Muzak?

FastCustomer, an app for use on both iPhones and Android phones, aims to provide the answer. While it clearly has some bugs to be ironed out (particularly the Android version, which is in beta and will be upgraded later this month), it seems to be a promising tool.

Aaron Dragushan, FastCustomer’s co-founder and a self-described “computer science dropout turned entrepreneur,” says he got the idea while waiting on hold for customer service at Comcast. “After 20 minutes, I thought, ‘We live in an age of technological innovation, and yet we sit on hold!’”

Why, he wondered, couldn’t a company’s computers “hold hands” with another computer, and put the live people in touch when they were both ready?

Thus was born FastCustomer. Here’s how it’s supposed to work: You download the app onto your phone. When you click on it, a menu of companies appears (there’s more than 2,500 currently listed, including all of the Fortune 500, he says). When you select one, the app tells you to go about your business while it calls the company for you.

When FastCustomer’s automated phone call reaches a customer service representative, Mr. Dragushan said, it tells them, “Please press 1 for your next customer.” Then, assuming the representative presses the button, the app calls you back and links you to the representative.

Sometimes, he admitted, because the service is new, or the representative doesn’t want to wait even briefly, he or she hangs up. But in the vast majority of calls, he said, the representative presses 1, and your call proceeds. (Plus, if one representative hangs up, he says, the app calls back until it gets one who will play ball.)

It happens that I’ve been meaning to call two companies: Netflix, and Cox Cable. A bad electrical storm knocked out our Internet service a while back, and I hadn’t gotten around to resetting the wireless link with our Wii terminal, which allows us to watch Netflix shows on our television. I’d been dragging my feet in part because I wasn’t sure which company to call first for advice. Plus, I couldn’t seem to find the time to locate the proper customer service numbers. So, FastCustomer seemed well worth a try.

The app downloaded quickly onto my Android phone, and the service worked smoothly after I selected Cox from the list. Within three minutes, my phone rang; it was a live Cox representative, asking (somewhat suspiciously, I thought) if I had called. (Why, yes, I did!) I described my problem. She suggested a solution that I agreed to try. Pretty painless.

The Netflix call didn’t go as well. It started out the same way. I got a quick call back. But the voice on the phone was automated. The recorded voice asked me if I was satisfied with Netflix’s service, and directed me to press 1 if I was. I thought that it wasn’t Netflix’s fault that lightning zapped our router, so I pressed 1. Big mistake. “Thank you for your feedback,” the voice said. “Goodbye.” Then it hung up.

Mr. Dragushan said he was not sure what the problem is with Netflix, but he took the company off the app’s menu while he investigates the situation. In some cases, he said, as with Comcast, for instance, the company’s computers block calls from FastCustomer. He said he didn’t believe it was because the company didn’t want to take calls from FastCustomer. It is more likely because the computers see hundreds of calls from a single, toll-free phone number, and register them as some sort of nuisance attack. The company plans to switch to a non-800 telephone number, he said, which should help things go more smoothly on the receiving end.

E-mail inquiries to Comcast and Netflix weren’t answered.

So far, the app has been downloaded about 20,000 times. Ultimately, Mr. Dragushan said, he thinks companies will welcome FastCustomer’s service. “We’re providing such a clear benefit— handing them a caller who isn’t furious for waiting on hold.”

FastCustomer aims to earn revenue by eventually selling premium services for a fee, or by selling analytical data to the companies it calls, so they can better evaluate their customer service.

You can try out FastCustomer with a test call (which features a message from Mr. Dragushan’s 4 year old, urging you to “Never wait on hold again!”), or with a real company, as I did. If you do, let us know how it goes.

Source: New York Times blog

9 Customer Service Principles Essential for Any Business

How do you apply your customer service principles in practice? Did you even list your principles?

Customer service is paramount for every business, whether it´s online or offline. That´s why customer service principles are so important.

Being a member of an online service provider (Karma CRM), Sarika Periwal knows what it means to apply them.

I agree with his Principles, but if had written them I would have called the first one Leadership and embedded commitment in it. This is the most critical one: No organization rises above the level of its Leaders.

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The customer is king for a company and to keep him happy and satisfied is the main aim of any solvent business. So how do you organize your company customer care services in such a manner that this all important goal is met?

You follow a set of essential customer service principles which allows you to keep your customer satisfied with the minimal of fuss.

1. Commitment – is required to serve the customer well at all levels. You need top management, middle management and supervisors to be just as committed as the actual individuals who come in touch with the client.

2. Credibility – a man’s word can make or break his personality. If the man delivers on his promises consistently his credibility increases over a period of time and so does his reputation. With a company it is no different. The credibility needs to be built by building trust with the customers.

3. Culture – the customer service ethos needs to be a built-in part of the company culture. The fact is that no company can survive without their customers and it needs to be driven into the heads of all employees of the company. Without any customers the company and their means of employment will not exist.

4. Competency – of the staff play an important role in keeping a good customer service ethos. The staff that is chosen during recruitment should fit in with the company’s vision. They should then be trained in the way the company does business and be assessed doing the job at frequent intervals. That way the staff of the company stays competent.

5. Responsibility – is the key. There must be one consistent authority within the company who is responsible for all customer service issues. There needs to be a clear head to approach within the company who is entitled to take decisions instantly in given customer issues.

6. Resources – are vital. No one can work without the right tools. Imagine sewing a button on a shirt without a needle. It can’t be done. So what the company needs to ensure is that there are always adequate resources available for the policies to be followed effectively.

7. Quality – as long as your product and service provides the customer with consistent quality there is little to fear. However a constant effort must be made to give the customers relevant inputs and review their reactions to hone your company systems.

8. Feedback – while the feedback from customers is important there is one aspect of feedback most companies tend to neglect. That is the collection of feedback from the employees who are dealing with the customers. There is so much your own staff can tell you if you would just care to listen.

9. Continual Improvement – is required to meet and exceed the expectations of the customer. The identification and management of all customer service issues is what helps the company to grow not just its customer base but also its reputation and profits.