Customer experience

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Customer experience is the sum of all experiences a customer has with a supplier of goods or
services, over the duration of their relationship with that supplier. It can also be used to mean an
individual experience over one transaction; the distinction is usually clear in context.

Contents
[show]

[edit] Growing recognition

The concept of customer experience was first introduced by Pine and Gilmore in their 1998
Harvard Business Review article. They believe that successful businesses influence people
through engaging, authentic experiences that render personal value (Pine and Gilmore 1998).[1]

Analysts and commentators who write about customer experience and customer relationship
management have increasingly recognized the importance of managing the customer's
experience.[2] Customers receive some kind of experience, ranging from positive to negative,
during the course of buying goods and services. Thompson and Kolsky say that “an experience is
defined as the sum total of conscious events. As such, a supplier cannot avoid creating an
experience every time it interacts with a customer” (2004). Furthermore, it has been shown that a
customer’s perception of an organisation is built as a result of their interaction across multiple-
channels, not through one channel, and that a positive customer experience can result in
increased share of wallet and repeat business.

A company's ability to deliver an experience that sets it apart in the eyes of its customers serves
to increase their spend with the company and, optimally, inspire loyalty to its brand. "Loyalty,"
says Jessica Debor, "is now driven primarily by a company's interaction with its customers and
how well it delivers on their wants and needs." (2008) [3]

To create a superior customer experience requires understanding the customer's point of view,
say Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D in Rules to Break and Laws to Follow. "What's it
really like to be your customer? What is the day-in, day-out 'customer experience' your company
is delivering? How does it feel to wait on hold on the phone? To open a package and not be
certain how to follow the poorly translated instructions? To stand in line, be charged a fee, wait
for a service call that was promised two hours ago, come back to an online shopping cart that's
no longer there an hour later? Or what's it like to be remembered? To receive helpful
suggestions? To get everything exactly as it was promised? To be confident that the answers you
get are the best ones for you?" (Peppers and Rogers 2008)[4]
[edit] Emerging Business Requirement
With products becoming commoditized, price differentiation no longer sustainable and
customers demanding more, companies – and communication service providers (wireline,
wireless, broadband cable, satellite) in particular – are focusing on delivering superior customer
experiences. A 2009 study of over 860 corporate executives revealed that companies that have
increased their investment in customer experience management over the past three years report
higher customer referral rates and customer satisfaction (Strativity Group, 2009) [5]. This finding
is also supported by research completed by software company Chordiant in 2008 into the
customer experience management performance of large organisations across Europe[6]. The
research surveyed 450 large organisations to create a maturity model and the results showed that
over ¾ of the organisations surveyed achieved level 3 (of 5) or less for CEM performance (5
being best possible result). The results also showed that performance in four key business areas
(market share, retention, profitability, and customer satisfaction) was directly related to CEM
performance[7].

The customer experience has emerged as the single most important aspect in achieving success
for companies across all industries (Peppers and Rogers 2005).[8] For example, Starbucks spent
less than $10MM on advertising from 1987 to 1998 yet added over 2,000 new stores to
accommodate growing sales. Starbucks popularity is based on the experience that drove its
customers to highly recommend their store to friends and family.[9]

[edit] Customer Experience Management

The goal of customer experience management (CEM) is to move customers from satisfied to
loyal and then from loyal to advocate. Traditionally, managing the customer relationship has
been the domain of Customer Relationship Management (CRM). However, CRM strategies and
solutions are designed to focus on product, price and enterprise process, with minimal or no
focus on customer need and desire. The result is a sharp mismatch between the organisation’s
approach to customer expectations and what customers actually want, resulting in the failure of
many CRM implementations.

Where CRM is enterprise-focused and designed to manage customers for maximum efficiency,
CEM is a strategy that focuses the operations and processes of a business around the needs of the
individual customer. Companies are focusing on the importance of the experience and, as
Jeananne Rae notes, realizing that “building great consumer experiences is a complex enterprise,
involving strategy, integration of technology, orchestrating business models, brand management
and CEO commitment.” (2006) [10]

According to Bernd Schmitt, "the term 'Customer Experience Management' represents the
discipline, methodology and/or process used to comprehensively manage a customer's cross-
channel exposure, interaction and transaction with a company, product, brand or service."[11]
Customer experience solutions provide strategies, process models, and information technology
to design, manage and optimize the end-to-end customer experience process.
[edit] CEM systems

One of the key features of successful CEM implementations is their ability to manage multi-
channel interactions. Customer experience solutions address the cross-channel (contact center,
Internet, self service, mobile devices, brick and mortar stores), cross-touchpoint (phone, chat,
email, Web, in-person), and cross-lifecycle (ordering, fulfillment, billing, support, etc.) nature of
the customer experience process. By contrast, CRM solutions tend to offer point solutions for
specific customer-facing functions such as, but not limited to, sales force automation, customer
analytics, and campaign management.

Experience-based providers also integrate both internal and external innovations to create end-to-
end customer experiences. They evaluate their business models as well as business support
systems and operational support systems (BSS/OSS) from the customer’s point of view to
achieve the level of customer-centricity necessary to improve customer loyalty, churn and
revenue (Lopez, 2007).[12]

Customer experience transformation (CxT) is a strategy that uses business process

management to radically enhance customer service experience from any customer touchpoint.

The objective is to provide companies and their customer service organizations with the tools
needed to move customers from satisfied to loyal, and then to avid brand advocates.

Customer relationship management vs. customer experience transformation:

Strategy Focus area Description

Enterprise
Designed to focus on product, price, and enterprise process with
CRM focused, inside-
minimal customer need and desires driving the initiative.
out
Customer Uses BPM technology to transform the operations and processes of
CxT focused, outside- the business around the needs of individual customers, delivering
in high value and memorable experiences.

Customer service
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.

According to Jamier L. Scott. (2002),[1] “Customer service is a series of activities designed to

enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met
the customer expectation."
Its importance varies by product, industry and customer; defective or broken merchandise can be
exchanged, often only with a receipt and within a specified time frame. Retail stores will often
have a desk or counter devoted to dealing with returns, exchanges and complaints, or will
perform related functions at the point of sale.

Customer service may be provided by a person (e.g., sales and service representative), or by
automated means called self-service. Examples of self service are Internet sites. However, In the
Internet era, a challenge has been to maintain and/or enhance the personal experience while
making use of the efficiencies of online commerce. Writing in Fast Company, entrepreneur and
customer systems innovator Micah Solomon has made the point that "Online customers are
literally invisible to you (and you to them), so it's easy to shortchange them emotionally. But this
lack of visual and tactile presence makes it even more crucial to create a sense of personal,
human-to-human connection in the online arena."[2]

Customer service is normally an integral part of a company’s customer value proposition. In

their book Rules to Break and Laws to Follow, Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D. write that
"customers have memories. They will remember you, whether you remember them or not."
Further, "customer trust can be destroyed at once by a major service problem, or it can be
undermined one day at a time, with a thousand small demonstrations of incompetence."[3]

From the point of view of an overall sales process engineering effort, customer service plays an
important role in an organization's ability to generate income and revenue.[4] From that
perspective, customer service should be included as part of an overall approach to systematic
improvement.

Some have argued[5] that the quality and level of customer service has decreased in recent years,
and that this can be attributed to a lack of support or understanding at the executive and middle
management levels of a corporation and/or a customer service policy.

Contents
[show]

[edit] Instant feedback

Recently, many organizations have implemented feedback loops that allow them to capture
feedback at the point of experience. For example, National Express, one of the UK's leading
travel companies invites passengers to send text messages whilst riding the bus. This has been
shown to be useful as it allows companies to improve their customer service before the customer
defects, thus making it far more likely that the customer will return next time.[6]

[edit] Setting the right KPIs

 This section contains instructions, advice, or how-to content. The purpose of Wikipedia
is to present facts, not to train. Please help improve this article either by rewriting the
how-to content or by moving it to Wikiversity or Wikibooks. (August 2009)

A challenge working with Customer Service is to ensure that you have focused your attention on
the right key areas, measured by the right Key Performance Indicator. There is no challenge to
come up with a lot of meaningful KPIs, but the challenge is to select a few which reflects your
overall strategy. In addition to reflecting your strategy it should also enable staff to limit their
focus to the areas that really matter. The focus must be of those KPIs, which will deliver the
most value to the overall objective, e.g. cost saving, service improving etc. It must also be done
in such a way that staff sincerely believe that they can make a difference with the effort.

One of the most important aspects of a customer service KPI is that of what is often referred to
as the "Feel Good Factor". [1] Basically the goal is to not only help the customer have a good
experience, but to offer them an experience that exceeds their expectations. Several key points
are listed as follows:

1. Know your product - Know what products/service you are offering back to front. In other
words be an information expert. It is okay to say "I don't know", but it should always be followed
up by... "but let me find out" or possibly " but my friend knows!" Whatever the situation may be,
make sure that you don't leave your customer with an unanswered question.

2. Body Language/Communication - Most of the communication that we relay to others is done

through body language. If we have a negative body language when we interact with others it can
show our lack of care. Two of the most important parts of positive body language are smiling,
and eye contact. Make sure to look your customers in the eye. It shows that we are listening to
them, not at them. And then of course smiling is just more inviting than someone who has a
blank look on their face.

3. Anticipate Guest Needs - Nothing surprises your customer more than an employee going the
extra mile to help them. Always look for ways to serve your customer more than they expect. In
doing so it helps them to know that you care and it will leave them with the "Feel Good Factor"
that we are searching for.

[edit] Standardization
There are few standards on this topic. ISO and The International Customer Service Institute
(TICSI) have published the following ones:

• ISO 9004:2000, on performance improvement

• ISO 10001:2007, on customer service conduct
• ISO 10002:2004, on quality management in handling customer complaints
• ISO 10003:2007, on dispute resolution
• The International Customer Service Standard (TICSS)
There is also an Information Technology service management standard: ISO/IEC 20000:2005. Its
first part concerns specifications and its second part the code of practice.

Customer experience
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Customer experience management)

Jump to: navigation, search

Customer experience is the sum of all experiences a customer has with a supplier of goods or
services, over the duration of their relationship with that supplier. It can also be used to mean an
individual experience over one transaction; the distinction is usually clear in context.

Contents
[show]

[edit] Growing recognition

The concept of customer experience was first introduced by Pine and Gilmore in their 1998
Harvard Business Review article. They believe that successful businesses influence people
through engaging, authentic experiences that render personal value (Pine and Gilmore 1998).[1]

Analysts and commentators who write about customer experience and customer relationship
management have increasingly recognized the importance of managing the customer's
experience.[2] Customers receive some kind of experience, ranging from positive to negative,
during the course of buying goods and services. Thompson and Kolsky say that “an experience is
defined as the sum total of conscious events. As such, a supplier cannot avoid creating an
experience every time it interacts with a customer” (2004). Furthermore, it has been shown that a
customer’s perception of an organisation is built as a result of their interaction across multiple-
channels, not through one channel, and that a positive customer experience can result in
increased share of wallet and repeat business.

A company's ability to deliver an experience that sets it apart in the eyes of its customers serves
to increase their spend with the company and, optimally, inspire loyalty to its brand. "Loyalty,"
says Jessica Debor, "is now driven primarily by a company's interaction with its customers and
how well it delivers on their wants and needs." (2008) [3]

To create a superior customer experience requires understanding the customer's point of view,
say Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D in Rules to Break and Laws to Follow. "What's it
really like to be your customer? What is the day-in, day-out 'customer experience' your company
is delivering? How does it feel to wait on hold on the phone? To open a package and not be
certain how to follow the poorly translated instructions? To stand in line, be charged a fee, wait
for a service call that was promised two hours ago, come back to an online shopping cart that's
no longer there an hour later? Or what's it like to be remembered? To receive helpful
suggestions? To get everything exactly as it was promised? To be confident that the answers you
get are the best ones for you?" (Peppers and Rogers 2008)[4]

[edit] Emerging Business Requirement

With products becoming commoditized, price differentiation no longer sustainable and
customers demanding more, companies – and communication service providers (wireline,
wireless, broadband cable, satellite) in particular – are focusing on delivering superior customer
experiences. A 2009 study of over 860 corporate executives revealed that companies that have
increased their investment in customer experience management over the past three years report
higher customer referral rates and customer satisfaction (Strativity Group, 2009) [5]. This finding
is also supported by research completed by software company Chordiant in 2008 into the
customer experience management performance of large organisations across Europe[6]. The
research surveyed 450 large organisations to create a maturity model and the results showed that
over ¾ of the organisations surveyed achieved level 3 (of 5) or less for CEM performance (5
being best possible result). The results also showed that performance in four key business areas
(market share, retention, profitability, and customer satisfaction) was directly related to CEM
performance[7].

The customer experience has emerged as the single most important aspect in achieving success
for companies across all industries (Peppers and Rogers 2005).[8] For example, Starbucks spent
less than $10MM on advertising from 1987 to 1998 yet added over 2,000 new stores to
accommodate growing sales. Starbucks popularity is based on the experience that drove its
customers to highly recommend their store to friends and family.[9]

[edit] Customer Experience Management

The goal of customer experience management (CEM) is to move customers from satisfied to
loyal and then from loyal to advocate. Traditionally, managing the customer relationship has
been the domain of Customer Relationship Management (CRM). However, CRM strategies and
solutions are designed to focus on product, price and enterprise process, with minimal or no
focus on customer need and desire. The result is a sharp mismatch between the organisation’s
approach to customer expectations and what customers actually want, resulting in the failure of
many CRM implementations.

Where CRM is enterprise-focused and designed to manage customers for maximum efficiency,
CEM is a strategy that focuses the operations and processes of a business around the needs of the
individual customer. Companies are focusing on the importance of the experience and, as
Jeananne Rae notes, realizing that “building great consumer experiences is a complex enterprise,
involving strategy, integration of technology, orchestrating business models, brand management
and CEO commitment.” (2006) [10]
According to Bernd Schmitt, "the term 'Customer Experience Management' represents the
discipline, methodology and/or process used to comprehensively manage a customer's cross-
channel exposure, interaction and transaction with a company, product, brand or service."[11]
Customer experience solutions provide strategies, process models, and information technology
to design, manage and optimize the end-to-end customer experience process.

[edit] CEM systems

One of the key features of successful CEM implementations is their ability to manage multi-
channel interactions. Customer experience solutions address the cross-channel (contact center,
Internet, self service, mobile devices, brick and mortar stores), cross-touchpoint (phone, chat,
email, Web, in-person), and cross-lifecycle (ordering, fulfillment, billing, support, etc.) nature of
the customer experience process. By contrast, CRM solutions tend to offer point solutions for
specific customer-facing functions such as, but not limited to, sales force automation, customer
analytics, and campaign management.

Experience-based providers also integrate both internal and external innovations to create end-to-
end customer experiences. They evaluate their business models as well as business support
systems and operational support systems (BSS/OSS) from the customer’s point of view to
achieve the level of customer-centricity necessary to improve customer loyalty, churn and
revenue (Lopez, 2007).[12]