Omni-Channel Customer Experience

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CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

June 2013

Lord March on Goodwood’s winning formula Pages 8 and 9

PLUS: René Carayol l Pizza Hut chief Jens Hofma l Sky TV’s Fiona Ball Sitel is a world leader in outsourced customer care services

Sitel provide clients across the globe with predictable & measurable Return on their Customer Investment by: Building customer loyalty Increasing sales

Improving efficiency sales-emea@sitel.com www.sitel.com Freephone: 0800 444 221

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Customer experience

Industry event ‘went off without a hitch’ This April saw more than 200 senior-level executives and customer service specialists attend the Customer Experience Strategy Summit 2013, hosted by Business Reporter Inner Circle.

The summit, held at the London Film Museum along the South Bank, focused on the key business challenges around improving the customer experience and reconfiguring business strategy with the latest in innovation and technique.

Hosted by Bill Turnbull of BBC Breakfast, below, more than 30 industry leaders shared how they have increased productivity and engagement with their customer service initiatives, with talks from global companies including Barclays, Sony, Virgin Media, Citigroup, E.ON, SwissCom, Pizza Hut and Hay Group.

Bradley Scheffer, managing director of Business Reporter Inner Circle says the day “went off without a hitch”. “I’m thrilled with the turnout and the running of this year’s Customer Focus event. As well as some insightful speakers and useful debates, the feedback has been really great. The industry is moving very quickly, and I look forward to next year’s event,” he says.

The 2014 event will address integrating mobile and social experiences, management of feedback, contact centre transformation and budget management .

Visit bu sine ssr e p o r t e r. c o . u k / inner-circle/events/ customer-focus/

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would like to thank everyone who joined us at our Customer Focus 2013 event in April

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Opening shots René Carayol

Why it’s essential for businesses to learn from the 3 per cent club Retailers including Waitrose have the happiest customers

Proof that customer satisfaction is good for your bottom line

By Bonnie Gardiner Marketing has always been the traditional, no-brainer approach to promoting a brand, but new research shows good customer service now does more to attract and retain new customers.

“The organisations that perform well are those that ruthlessly focus on customer service as a key differentiator,” says Jo Causon, CEO for the Institute of Customer Service (ICS). The latest UK Customer Satisfaction Index, carried out by the ICS, has proven a direct bottom line effect from customer satisfaction with fewer complaints, improved loyalty, and more willingness to recommend a brand.

Word of mouth is particularly pertinent to firms in the UK, as Brits are far less likely to read and respond to marketing than other countries, according to an international survey by Verint Systems and Ipsos-Mori.

Also disconcerting is the passive nature of UK consumers; 38 per cent would never complain to organisations, while very few would speak to the manager (9 per cent). This is despite 61 per cent admitting to getting angry when a company makes a mistake.

“Looking at the UK in particular, they suffer in silence, but when we do get angry we get very angry,” says Claire Richardson, EMEA VP of Workforce Optimisation with Verint. “It’s that British stiff upper lip where we just don’t say anything.”

Instead of rejoicing in fewer complaints, this should be a major concern for companies.

“The real test of a relationship is how your supplier deals with a problem that you’ve experienced,” says Paul Clark, CEO of Charter UK, which specialises in enterprise complaints and feedback management solutions.

“A complaint is a cry for attention. Somebody is

Publisher Bradley Scheffer...............................info@lyonsdown.co.uk Editor Daniel Evans.............................................dan@lyonsdown.co.uk Production Editor Amy Dickson ..................amy@lyonsdown.co.uk Reporters..........................................Dave Baxter and Bonnie Gardiner

‘Looking at the UK in particular, they suffer in silence, but when we do get angry we get very angry’ – Richardson

saying, we’ve had a problem here, so tell me why I should stay a customer.”

An interesting trend noticed by the UKCSI – research carried out by the ICS – is that though customer satisfaction is increasing, our propensity for complaining in general is actually increasing, while Verint consumer research shows that 32 per cent will resort to online channels to voice their dissatisfaction.

“The internet has created an environment where a user can complain to anybody that’s prepared to listen, and in the social media arena that could be hundreds, if not thousands of people,” adds Clark. “It’s important that customers know that if they come to you with an issue, you will deal with it effectively and appropriately.”

The UKCSI, which has covered 13 different industry sectors since 2008, has seen UK customer satisfaction improving, with an overall mark of 78.2 out of 100, slightly up from 78 the previous year; but for firms to be doing really well they need score more than 80.

Retail came out on top of UK customer satisfaction rankings, followed by the automotive industries. Further down the table were services in insurance, finance, and building, while utilities, transport, telecommunications and the public services rated low.

Retail companies with the highest customer satisfaction also posted the best results in terms of marketshare and sales growth, with high performers such as Waitrose, Iceland and Aldi serving as good examples, followed closely by Asos, John Lewis, Amazon, Debenhams and the Co-op bank.

“This shows customer service isn’t a bolt-on; it’s not what goes on in one department, it needs to be fundamental and woven into the whole fabric of an organisation,” says Causon. “Those that focus on a deep and genuine level of service will be the ones who win on the day.”

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It was December 2011 as I pulled up to the front of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles, where I was involved in a leadership event for a global insurance business.

The Beverly Wilshire is where Pretty Woman, the iconic movie was shot; it was imposing and spectacular.

As I entered, the receptionist said: “Welcome back to the Beverly Wilshire hotel, Mr Carayol.” This threw me. I couldn’t remember staying in this fabulous hotel, I looked puzzled, and she keyed something into her PC and said: “June 1998 – you were with a small group from Marks & Spencer.”

It all came flooding back and I replied: “Now that’s what I call service.” She smiled and said: “And as you’re so obviously thrilled, I’m going to upgrade you to a suite.”

What a great start to my stay. When I got to my suite, I knew I only had an hour before the event rehearsal. I grabbed my iPhone and tweeted the outstanding experience and dived quickly into the shower.

As we took a break from the rehearsal and the hotel staff cleared the empty cups and glasses, one of them placed a bottle of Dom Perignon in front of me. I smiled and said: “I was just after a black coffee.” He responded: “My name is Ben Trodd and I’m the general manager of the Beverly Wilshire. Thank you for your generous tweet about the service, this is for you.”

I’ve retold that story to many audiences around the world. In our ultra-competitive world, word of mouth and advocacy far outweighs expensive marketing campaigns.

Why is so much of the business world out of touch with both the concept and importance of customer experience?

Historically, customer experience didn’t matter as much to businesses as it does today. At the start of the previous century, in the age of manufacturing, if you owned the factory, you effectively owned the market. Factories were expensive to build but, once established, generated products at prices others couldn’t compete with. The Model T Ford was a huge commercial success because it was affordable, nothing else. It was difficult to start, noisy and slow – not the best customer experience – but it still sold.

Fast forward to the 1990s and the age of information where data-driven companies such as Google and Amazon initiated the fundamental shift of power from sellers to buyers. This was a huge game-changer.

A combination of rapidly advancing technology and the global downturn has now moved us into the age of the customer. The prevailing competitive advantages have been commoditised; global factories and global supply chains are now available to all. With online reviews, social networks and mobile access, customers can instantly understand your products, services, competitors and pricing.

Forrester’s recent research differentiated the customer experience and, strikingly, most brands scored in the ‘OK’ or ‘very poor’ categories.

Only 3 per cent were ranked as ‘excellent’; a sharp decline that started with the downturn in 2007 and is now at an all-time low.

These 3 per cent are the ones always referenced in 90 per cent of all the industry books, articles and blog posts on examples of superior customer experience.

Friends and colleagues who have travelled to LA recently have stayed in the Beverly Wilshire hotel and have told so many more people my story about a founder member of the 3 per cent club.

Discerning customers demand a discerning customer experience.

Business Reporter 路 June 2013

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

Business Reporter · June 2013

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

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Customer experience

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You’ve got to give to get Helping a good cause is good for business – because your customers will love you for it

By Bonnie Gardiner Organisations that partner with charities should be praised. Not for their good deeds, but for demonstrating how corporate altruism is not just good karma, it’s good business strategy.

In 2010, the Edelman’s Good Purpose Study found that 66 per cent of customers prefer to buy products from businesses that support good causes over similar products, while 62 per cent of global consumers would even switch brands.

Customers today don’t just want to buy, they want their actions to contribute towards a good cause, or indeed be helped themselves. This leads to happier patrons, more transactions – and earning brand loyalty – all while giving back to society.

“

Fiona Ball, head of environment, Sky

Sky has been managing our own environmental issues since 2005 by minimising our operational footprint and taking a leadership stance against climate change. We were looking into opportunities to engage our customers in the issues, so in 2009 we went out and asked them directly what areas they would like us to focus on.

From this we got the importance of rainforests in managing climate change issues, which we agreed was really nice and unique. We contacted the WWF, who were looking into building corporate partnerships at the time, and together we built Sky Rainforest Rescue.

In our partnership we have a number of initiatives, namely we’ve set about saving a billion trees in the Amazon rainforest. We’ve also built a more in-depth knowledge for our customers with regards to the values we hold as an organisation, while raising awareness of the issues.

Our research shows we’ve now made 44 per cent of our customers aware of Sky Rainforest R e s c ue a nd t he impact it has, which is obviously great because it adds real value to the cause and to Sk y as a company.

Our customers Ball: working together with WWF

are also our employees and 98 per cent of them know what we do with Sky Rainforest Rescue. They feel proud that Sky is involved and think we’re a responsible business as a result.

We set out very clearly from the outset what the key targets were: understanding which role WWF can lead on with respect to their expertise and reach, and where we help with ours.

“

Nimrod May, marketing vice president, GetTaxi

We’re proud to be involved in a number of social ‘do-good’ campaigns. Our

first partnership was with the Association of the Deaf, where we enable people with hearing problems to order a taxi by using our phone app. Now they can order a taxi at the click of a button, know where a taxi is located, who their driver is, and estimated arrival time.

We sponsored an expedition called “It’s on the Meter”, above – a crew circumnavigating the world in a 20-year-old London Black Cab to

raise £20,000 for the Red Cross.

They only managed to raise £15, 000 so we supplemented the rest of the funding to fulfil the dream.

We’re also involved in the Make a Wish Foundation; customers can donate and we issue a coupon that, whenever people use them, we also donate an amount. It’s an exciting organisation that touches so many less fortunate families and kids; helping them is a big honour.

With our Closed Door Policy, we made 6,000 drivers sign an agreement to ensure whenever they drive women home at night, they are obligated to wait until she enters her house safely.

Security is a big part of the application – the fact that you know who the driver is, what their rating is based on user feedback, their phone number and car type – it’s very safe.

Doing good is win-win. You contribute to responsible and social causes, and it works great inside the company. It’s part of our corporate DNA to see how we can always bring smiles to our passengers.

“

Peter Bainbridge, director of pharmacy, Boots UK

Boots has a long-term strategic partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support that started back in 2009, because we wanted to help patients and customers who suffer from cancer.

A p a r t ne r sh ip w a s a r e a l opportunity for Boots and Macmillan to work toget her to prov ide information, advice and services to people who currently have cancer, to help people understand how they can prevent cancer, and also to support the 16 million people who are a relative or a close friend of people who have cancer.

Because of the treatments available, people now survive cancer, but this brings its own challenges where people are living with the consequences of the treatments; physically, emotionally and financially.

With Macmillan we wanted to do whatever we could do to help people be more informed about the condition.

We trained our pharmacists with Macmillan expertise so they could provide outpatient care. We weren’t sure how our pharmacists would respond. We hoped that in the first year we might have somewhere between 300 and 500 people involved, but by the end of the first year we had 1,300 pharmacists trained, with another 300-400 currently in training.

The partnership required time, energy and commitment from both organisations to really want to make a difference. As a result of that, we have regular strategy meetings to discuss where we want to go on healthcare, f undraising and awareness, and any other areas that we can help people.

Feedback at the moment has been Bainbridge: extremely working with positive.

Macmillan

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Channelling the experience Multiple channels are not enough, says David Turner, CEO of Webhelp TSC INDUSTRY VIEW

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ompanies that think they’re doing well by offering their customers several channel choices for customer service and sales need to think again before patting themselves on the back. Unless those channels are connected – so that conversations started on one channel can be continued on another – the customer experience is likely to be disappointing, cost more than it should to deliver and deliver less revenue than it might.

The truth is, says David Turner, CEO of outsourced customer management business, Webhelp TSC, customers expect you to interact with them across a range of channels. They’ll only be impressed if you can follow them from one to the next. Here he describes what a truly omni-channel customer experience feels like, why it’s good for business and the steps needed to achieve it.

Customer first If there’s one big problem with the approach organisations have taken towards channel adoption, it’s that they have too often focused on technology ahead of the customer.

“We need a strategy for mobile,” they say. Or for tablets.

For Twitter, online, social or phone. But what they need first is a strategy for the customer.

There is a simple concept at the heart of omni-channel thinking; to understand what customers want to do, and make it seamlessly easy for them to do it, using whatever channels or devices it takes. In pursuing a raft of wellintentioned but isolated channel strategies, organisations have simply reinforced the managerial and technological silos that get in the way of a seamless customer experience. Breaking them down will mean changing the way organisations think and work.

The retail sector has probably gone further down the omni-channel route than most. They focused first on bringing the in-store experience online and are now working assiduously to bring the online experience in store. In financial services, Virgin Money is taking its lessons from the same book, converting its newly acquired branches into ‘stores’ and ‘lounges’, where consumers can browse financial products, bank online or meet face-to-face with an adviser. What these early adopters have recognised is that they can use the myriad channels technology makes available to us to mirror customer behaviour and drive transactions. Customer first, technology second: the golden rule of omni-channel.

The omni-channel two-step To my mind there are two steps towards an ideal omnichannel approach. The first is to facilitate customer

Customer experience in figures NOW

FUTURE

Today, 90 per cent of interactions are agent assisted; our target is that only 50 per cent should be.

Though 91 per cent of organisations have supplemented voice with digital channels, only 9 per cent have integrated them – the first step towards omni-channel. Dimension Data

behaviour, the second is to begin to shape it.

We know that customers’ channel choices are based on several factors; where they are (work, home, on the move), the devices available to them at these locations (phone, computer, tablet, smartphone) and what they want to do.

An organisation that’s taken the first omni-channel step will, at the very least, be able to recognise the customer across each of those channels and acknowledge previous interactions. So, if a customer calls the contact centre after attempting an online purchase, it’s reasonable to assume that’s what they’re calling about and get straight to the point during the call. If they’ve entered their customer

Customer first, technology second: the golden rule of omni-channel details via an IVR (interactive voice response), they shouldn’t have to repeat them to an agent. The brand experience – from look-and-feel to tone of voice – should be consistent, differentiated and reassuring.

However they’ve made contact, customers should feel they’ve entered your world and that they can get things done there.

To take the second omni-channel step, organisations must use what they know about customers to encourage cross-channel journeys that drive towards a desirable conclusion – the completion of a purchase or the resolution of a problem. Picture the scene: you see an advert for that perfect summer outfit in a magazine, you scan a QR code from the advert that takes you to the retailer’s website, where you can buy direct or find a conveniently located store.

The steps in that journey have been carefully orchestrated by the retailer, moving you from one channel to the next to satisfy your desire to purchase and the retailer’s desire to sell. Understanding what customers want to do enables us to design optimal customer journeys and use appropriate channels to make them happen.

Business sense At the beginning of this article I suggested strongly that omni-channel makes sense for the business as well as the customer. In this retail example – the use of connected

channels to maximise sales opportunities – the benefit is self-evident. In a customer service environment the benefits are less obvious, but no less real. The omnichannel service operation we deliver for a recently launched on-demand brand, is aimed at creating self-service customer journeys that are so smooth, agent assistance isn’t needed.

Today, 90 per cent of interactions are agent assisted; our target is that only 50 per cent should be. The value is in the cost efficiency this will deliver. We’re using a shared knowledge base to make sure customers get consistently accurate information across each self-service channel, a unified CRM system to ensure they are recognised and that our conversations with them can hop from channel to channel, and cross-channel analytics so that, over time, we can model customer behaviour and refine our services to match it.

Unlock the potential You’ll note that I’ve listed an impressive array of technology items there and, certainly, technology is needed to unlock omni-channel potential. It’s one of the reasons many organisations are turning to outsourcers to help, because their own technology environments are either too old or too disconnected to join the dots in omni-channel customer journeys. But the technology challenge isn’t the only, or even the biggest, challenge.

The biggest roadblocks on the omni-channel journey are entirely manmade. Breaking down the organisational silos and creating common purpose between the departments that own each channel is the painful but necessary first step. It can only be achieved if directed from the top. Understanding why you’re doing it is the key to getting buy-in.

It isn’t about delighting customers or jumping on any killer app bandwagon; it’s about designing and delivering customer experiences that unlock previously unimaginable opportunities for revenue gain and cost reduction. A board-level executive with that remit and silo-straddling powers should be in with a shot of achieving it.

David Turner is CEO of Webhelp TSC 01324 575000 www.webhelptsc.com/experience

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Jens Hofma on how he gained a better understanding of his customers

Why I went from Pizza Hut’s chief executive to a waiter

By Bonnie Gardiner Jens Hofma, chief executive of Pizza Hut UK, was once told that hospitality is the first experience you ever experience in your life.

“When your mother smiles at you, when your mother feeds you, and when your mother gives you a big hug at the end of it,” he says. “That is what hospitality is all about; it is a very warm and welcoming experience that people are seeking to have, time and time again.”

As the leader of a hospitality business, Hofma believes that the secret to great customer service is not only doing what’s best for your customer, but ultimately what is best for your staff.

“Our guests are never going to feel better than our team members. The mood of the servers will transfer onto your guests, so they’re both part of the same principle,” says Hofma.

But with 10,000 employees working across 330 locations, serving three million people every month, this is easier said than done.

After joining Pizza Hut in 2009 when the restaurant chain was struggling, Hofma decided that he would have to regrow that winning connection between employees and guests.

Hofma was able to gain valuable insight and appreciation of his team members after doing shift work as a waiter in a number of his restaurants.

He was also able to develop a much deeper understanding of his guests, specifically why they were coming to Pizza Hut. “I remember speaking to a lady in our Oxford Street restaurant. She was dining on her own, and not in a particularly good mood. I asked her why she was there and she said she lived in Leeds, but was in London to have therapy because of a brain tumour,” explains Hofma.

The woman explained to Hofma that she chose to eat at Pizza Hut every night she was away, because it reminded her of her family.

“It makes you realise how important every guest’s visit is and what huge responsibility we actually have as hospitality providers to make these occasions special,” he says.

Following some in-depth research into what people enjoyed about Pizza Hut, Hofma set to work on making his employees share these same experiences.

Quality leadership played a part, ensuring to take on board employee feedback, recognising a job well done, and offering continual development

Look beyond a CV to find best recruits Recruiting experts are cautioning companies that a good CV does not always equal a good attitude.

Melody Hermon, client development director with ResourceBank, says a good hiring process for customer service requires communication skills, service tactics, while also assessing cultural fit with the company.

“We telephone-screen everybody and do a short interview. The focus becomes getting underneath the personality, trying to understand the energy levels of the individual, rather than just their specific experience,” she says.

“You’ve got to focus on how engaged they are, and the way they answer questions as much as what they say, and their willingness to share information.”

Hermon believes that as long as they have the right attributes, new recruits will be capable of delivering great customer service.

Hofma: we have a huge responsibility to make our guests feel special

and supporting for employees.

Hofma ditched the traditional service standards – all 150 of them – and replaced them with basic instructions, such as greeting a guest on arrival, and making them feel welcome.

“We don’t really care how they do this – so long as they bring a smile to the customer,” he explains.

“That way you give people licence to be themselves; to provide customer service they are comfortable with and, as a result, it feels real and heartfelt rather than contrived and scripted.”

Lastly, Hofma encourages the incorporation of empathy at all levels of the business, claiming this is the key to a great customer experience.

“When people are sitting in Pizza Hut, they’re thinking about themselves – ‘Am I happy? Am I having a good time?’

They’re not wondering what they think about your brand. Therefore Pizza Hut is whatever we make people feel,” he says.

“It’s a more humble and, I think, often more difficult approach, but it is more real.”

Brands use NFC to gain insight into consumers The evolution of near field communication (NFC) technology is driving a new paradigm for mobile consumer engagement.

NFC is a short-range, low power wireless link that can seamlessly transfer data between two devices held only a few centimetres

away from each other.

“This is a fundamental shift in how people engage and use their devices,” says Neil Garner, founder of Proxama.

“Instead of open phone – unlock app – search, then get data, it becomes a case of unlock phone – tap it onto

whatever you want to engage with, and it will just appear.”

By allowing smartphone users to tap their mobiles to NFC tags or contactless payment terminals, the technology presents a unique opportunity for brands to gain a wealth of

insight into their customers, as well as engage with customers on a one-to-one basis, wherever they are.

Garner believes that this will make users more comfortable with the use of their data as “it’s giving them more of what they want”.

The cost of anger to businesses Business leaders don’t realise the true value of an angry customer, writes one loyalty specialist.

Posted in his LinkedIn blog, Fred Reichheld, an author/speaker on customer loyalty, says that although the by-products of happy clientele are obvious, the cost of detractors is less clear to many business leaders.

“For one thing, they may still do business with you – even though they don’t like it.

And they make sure their friends and your employees know they don’t,” writes Reichheld.

By the time their irritation finally becomes evident in traditional metrics, Reichheld warns the cause of their discontent has often “ballooned into a widespread problem”.

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Our customers sit at th Erin Baker talks to Lord March

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he eternally sunny uplands of the British aristocracy can be roughly divided into two camps these days: Lord March, and everyone else. Everyone else presides, with varying degrees of success, over sumptuous but decaying country piles. Lord March runs, with awesome efficiency and business nous, the Goodwood Estate Company or, more simply, Goodwood, his family home.

The stunning West Sussex estate, built in the 17th century, is home to the Earl and Countess of March and Kinrara and their children. It is the historic home of the Dukes of Richmond – a title Lord March will inherit. For now though, he is up to his eyes in a daunting workload that came when he took over the management of the estate from his father in 1994.

The year before, he had founded the now-famous Festival of Speed and, four years later, he would reopen the Goodwood Motor Circuit and establish the estate’s other immensely successful annual motorsport event, the Goodwood Revival, a crazy, historic motor-racing extravaganza where everyone arrives in period costume.

Talk about hitting the ground running.

Then of course there’s Glorious Goodwood, several days of horse-racing at probably the most beautiful racecourse in the country, the stunning golf course and clubhouse situated in the old kennels, the estate’s hotel, the aerodrome in the middle of the circuit that offers private flying lessons and experiences in wartime planes, the organic farm shop, and the house itself, which is available for hire.

No wonder, then, that Lord March has

‘At Goodwood we continually look at how we can raise the bar in terms of innovation in the content and the development of the whole experience’ a slightly sharper business acumen than most of his fellow landowners, and no wonder that the estate is thriving, with a turnover in excess of £60m and a staggering staff headcount of 550.

Profit for 2012, I’m told by a me mb e r of t he management, was “not as much as we would like, but we have lots of assets to invest in and, of course, the continual investment in the content around our major events is key to our future success”.

Luxury brand appeal Both motorsport events are sell-outs each year, with 186,000 people coming to the Festival of Speed, and 148,000 to the Revival.

With such a large number of people visiting the estate, however, comes an inevitable threat to the luxury brand appeal of the Goodwood name. Careful thought, therefore, goes into how the business and the customer interact.

“Our customers very much sit at the centre of everything we do,” says Lord March. “Our attention to detail and delivering small twists that our customers

do this by making sure that even for a regular repeat customer we communicate clearly that the upcoming event’s content is new and engaging and different from previous years. We always need to look new and fresh while retaining the essence of each event that makes it uniquely ‘Goodwood’.

“We mystery shop all aspects of the customer journey at each event to see what we are doing well or what needs to be improved. This information is fed back to all the stakeholders and actioned for future events.

“We continually look at how we can keep raising the bar both in terms of innovation in the content and the development of the whole experience. That is what keeps people coming back.” notice and appreciate is the most important thing. Giving a great experience, delivered through great people and offering great value for money continues to be our approach.”

It’s an approach that’s paying dividends.

“Our repeat business is excellent and we know that, for example, 95 per cent of people that were surveyed from the Revival last year said they were ‘highly likely’ to return to the event,” says Lord March.

“The challenge for us as a business is to make sure that this repeat business follows through and translates to a purchase – we

Above: Lord March preparing for this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed

Gaining new customers Which is all very well, but what about at t rac t i ng new bu si ne s s? “ Wel l, recommendation is a big part of where our new customers come from, which is hugely valuable and important. PR is very important to us and alongside working with our media partners [Telegraph Media Group is the national media partner for The Festival of Speed, Revival and Glorious] who are very supportive; we actively seek to place really interesting stories in places where our potential audience are.

“TV is playing a greater part in telling

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he centre of everything

Above: Mr Bean appeared at the Goodwood Revival in 2009 to celebrate the 50th year of the Mini.

Left: The Goodwood Festival of Speed pulls in the crowds

the story about what we do at Goodwood and we are starting to see good growth in new international customers as a result.”

Then there’s the increasing importance of social media – there are Twitter and Facebook pages for each headline event and Goodwood’s social media team reserve exclusive material for these channels to drive more interest.

A look at how the estate’s staff are trained provides a fascinating glimpse of the rigour and detail that running a large house, grounds and business entails.

As Lord March explains, “We have a number of tools to train our staff, and the most important part of this training is getting everyone to understand what delivering brilliant customer service at Goodwood actually means.

On their first day, each new member of staff is given a ‘Golden Hour’ – a bite-size induction which involves an estate tour and the chance to see the company DVD. “This really helps set the scene for what our customers will expect when they visit Goodwood. There is also a much more in-depth induction that they will attend within their first month. This gives them a chance to see each area of the business and gives me a chance to personally explain how important their roles are for delivering a great experience to all of our guests.

“In addition, we work closely with our key service providers in the recruitment and training process to ensure we employ a great team of Goodwood ambassadors who are all working toward the same goal across our events.”

Sounds like an excellent recipe for the sort of successful legacy that Goodwood deserves.

Erin Baker is head of motoring at Telegraph Media Group

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Thank you for calling CCC – how may we help you?

One call may be all you need to secure first-class customer service, says Competence Call Center INDUSTRY VIEW

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t is increasingly the case that qualitative customer service helps to secure a decisive market advantage with competent customer service deciding a company’s economic success. Qualitative, superior customer service which is both transparent and efficient provides a competitive edge in a liberalised market.

This is why many companies choose to entrust their customer service to professional call centre partners.

The trend towards call centre outsourcing is a strategic decision spanning all sectors, organisations and countries. Market liberalisation, focus on core operations and variable costs are all reasons for customer care outsourcing. As a result, the rapid growth of the call centre sector will continue over the next few years.

As a professional call centre partner, Competence Call Center (CCC) has the required know-how, technical capacity and personnel resources to provide companies from many different sectors with professional customer care services.

Focus industry: eCommerce Since its foundation, CCC has established itself as an international full-service provider in the quality segment in all markets where it is represented. Our success has been rewarded with 41

international awards for cross-industry and interdisciplinary projects.

Competence Call Center works with partners in a variety of industries, such as telecommunication, tourism, consumer goods, finance and insurance.

Especially in the fast growing eCommerce industry, Competence Call Center offers the know-how for providing high-quality outsourcing services.

CCC covers the whole value added chain relevant for eCommerce companies through international partnerships with leading online market places, eTailers, ePayment systems, eGaming portals, logistics providers, mobile devices producers, online media and so on.

As a strategic partner, CCC provides solutions for all customer care relevant topics – both B2B and B2C – including: l Customer service – pre- and after-sales – via telephone, e-mail, fax, letter, live chat, forums, social media l Sales support incoming and outgoing according to the local legislation l Seller consultation l Risk management l Technical support, including remote service l Community management and moderation l Fraud prevention l Mediation services CCC partners benefit from multiple years of eCommerce experience providing

About Competence Call Center Competence Call Center is a financially strong, rapidly expanding company with a clear focus on quality. More than 4,500 service professionals at 10 locations (Berlin Friedrichshain, Berlin Prenzlauer Berg, Bratislava, Bucharest, Dresden, Istanbul, Leipzig, Paris, Vienna and Zurich) in seven countries (Germany, Austria, France, Romania, Switzerland, Slovakia, Turkey) offer first-class international call centre services.

At Competence Call Center, customer satisfaction through service quality is the focus of our attention. Continuous employee training and the latest methods and technologies ensure that we take top

place in many international competitions.

In our experience, only outstanding working conditions will produce outstanding achievements. All CCC locations are therefore identically furnished and offer the same additional benefits and an open-space policy with flexible workplaces within the teams.

We have proven to be competent many times over and kept our promises with incoming hotlines, outgoing campaigns, email communication and written customer communication in more than 100 million customer contacts.

CCC Call Center Convention solutions ranging from start-up companies to international market leaders. Being one strategic partner for all customer care relevant services we provide international solutions covering more than 25 languages. Combined with individually tailored solutions based on our partners’ specific requirements, we have all relevant customer care tools available.

In the branch publication “Best Customer InterACTion – Creating Exceptional Customer Experience in the Contact Centre”, Competence Call Center deals with the industry trends in the online and eCommerce sector.

Recently Competence Call Center presented its broad industry experience 2013 to the local and international participants at the eTail Europe, the premier multi-channel retail event in Europe.

Call Center Convention Since 1998, CCC has been hosting the annual Call Center Convention, the industry highlight for directors, decision makers and managers of the call centre and customer care world. In their keynote speeches, international experts present concise insider information and knowledge transfer of the best in Europe and discuss the latest developments and trends in the industry.

On Thursday, October 10, 2013 in Paris, the Customer Care Industry will meet for knowledge exchange while looking far beyond industry borders. To the topic of “Global Trends from Global Players - Discover new ideas for innovation and talent development on a global scale” you will hear keynote speeches from international top brands.

The speakers of this year’s Call Center Convention include:

l Marcus Nessler, Senior Manager Customer Relations, Samsung Electronics l Philip Vanhoutte, Senior VP and Managing Director E&A, Plantronics l Alfons Livers, Head Customer Service Center, UBS l Jean-Marc Codsi, Vice President, Global Customer Experience, eBay You will learn how these companies and more secure their international success, foster innovation and anticipate future trends at the 16th Call Center Convention.

The event´s moderator is Manfred Stockmann, president of the German Call Center association (CCV).

The highlight for the event in Paris will be the awarding of the 8th CCC Special Award, which is presented to an outstanding personality to recognise their achievements in the industry.

The Call Center Convention is an international call centre and customer care event and promotes the exchange of experiences among international industry experts. With the goal to professionalise and develop the image of the call centre industry, the Call Center Convention was launched in Vienna in 1998 and is now a fixed component of the international call centre industry.

Once a year, it brings together international experts who provide valuable business input on the topic of customer service and provides a foundation for an exciting exchange of ideas.

The highlight of the event each year is the awarding of the CCC Special Award to an outstanding personality within the industry.

16th Call Center Convention is on October 10, 2013, Le TapisRouge, Paris For information and registration, email callcenterconvention@yourccc.com

Business Reporter · June 2013

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

Like us: facebook.com/business-reporter

Business Reporter

Diary

Bonnie Gardiner

I

t’s time for the business world to wake up to the power of customer service. Research published on MarketingWeb found that, while 95 per cent of large companies collect customer feedback, only 10 per cent use the information to drive improvement, and just 5 per cent communicate this back to customers.

Those 5 per cent have a huge competitive advantage. Consumers like to be valued, and if they see the results of their feedback first-hand, it’s sure to create a strong advocate, and

a more personalised approach to customer service.

This will work wonders when trying to reach out to the various demographics in the way they prefer to interact, with presentation based on lifestyle and emotional characteristics, and personalised services.

Baby boomers are perhaps not as tech savvy as generations X and Y, while

Have callers had enough of Mozart?

ExpertInsight

As a large percentage of customers still choose to interact via telephone, optimising call centres will play a large role in customer retention.

Call-back technology breaks the stereotype where customers are resigned to 45 wasted minutes listening to Mozart for something that your company is ultimately responsible for.

It gives customers the option of hanging up and being contacted later in the day, while still maintaining their place in

the queue.

Research by the Future Foundation, commissioned by Netcall, found that 97 per cent of contact centre customers want more companies to offer this service, while 93 per cent of agents said this would make their job easier.

Customer experience

Find us online: business-reporter.co.uk

younger people will be less inclined to have a telephone conversation, resorting to social media.

On the basis that 80-85 per cent of customer data is in-house, more companies should use data analytics along with survey feedback, recording technology and social media to establish top trends and valuable material.

Lastly, trust and reputation will be paramount, considering how we utilise big data, with consumers not likely to share their data if they don’t feel they can trust the company.

By the time this report hits the shelves, finalists for the UK Customer Experience Awards 2013 will have been announced, with the finals and gala awards taking place on Thursday, October 17 at the Grand Connaught Rooms, London.

This will be the ceremony’s fourth year in a row, celebrating excellence in customer experience across a broad spectrum of industry, while providing the opportunity for networking.

The event is now partnered by the Cranfield Customer Management Forum, who will be producing a white paper and follow up event to the Awards, focusing on best practice in customer experience

Take a bite out of Apple’s ‘genius’ training to satisfy your customers Last year, Apple’s secret employee training manual was leaked.

Recognising that each customer who walked through its door was potentially worth thousands of pounds, the company is training its in-store ‘Geniuses’ to be perfect listeners, helping and solving machines, where a relaxed atmosphere takes priority over sales.

Covering things including empathy, body language and banned words, along with instructions in psychology and role-playing, the Genius Training Student Workbook is an exhaustive manual to understanding and pleasing customers.

As Geniuses are renowned for their technology skills, Apple also masters the single point of accountability, setting an example for other companies who keep disparate data in separate silos rather than a true omni-channel, seamless business strategy.

A seamless W omnichannel customer experience is key

By Matt Smith, web administrator u Editor’s pick ROCK! customersrock.net It may be a little while since Customers ROCK! has been updated but it’s a worthy pick just for its huge back catalogue of customer service and experience articles from speaker Becky Carroll.

Have a browse for tips on a range of subjects, from social media and the online experience to seeing your business through a customer’s eyes.

Shep Hyken’s Customer Service Blog Institute of Customer Service hyken.com/blog

bit.ly/QNMBHR

Customer service expert and speaker Shep Hyken, left, gives tips and articles on how your business can offer the best customer service and experience possible – all accompanied by his amusing business cartoons.

What frustrates customers about high street shopping? Do they prefer formal or informal communications? How important is social media to customer service? The Institute of Customer Service’s blog answers all these questions and more.

SalesForce

Forrester

bit.ly/19XOb3M

blogs.forrester.com/customer_experience

This blog looks at customer experience and the culture surrounding it, covering everything from how to solve customers’ problems via social media to how top companies communicate positively with their customers.

With a collection of posts from customer experience professionals, this blog offers advice on innovation in customer experience – including why sometimes using the newest, shiniest technology isn’t necessarily an improvement.

INDUSTRY VIEW

Increasing expectations need to be satisfied, says Sitel

ithout any doubt customers are increasing their expectations. In a world of ever-increasing channels, omnichannel presents a huge opportunity for brands to differentiate themselves by delivering that exceptional experience.

Omni-channel is defined by delivering a consistent customer experience across all channels of interaction, focused on problem resolution within the customers chosen channel of interaction. Key here is never involuntarily forcing the customer to move from their chosen channel of interaction in order to receive unique problem resolution.

Multi-channel is quickly becoming passé as omni-channel gives way to the power of the customer to drive interactions. For 10 years, businesses have aggressively been chasing new channels and layering them on

11

operationally, trying to engineer to the lowest cost to serve. Logic has dictated that the more calls we push to IVR, web self-service and automation the lower our cost and the better our business. This logical approach, however, has been flipped on its head with the new customer experience pressure that now exists.

In a recent Customer Relations Trends to Watch in 2013 report, 86 per

cent of customers said that they would pay more for a better customer experience. This means that each interaction across channels and over time must be consistent, positive and on target with a company’s brand promise.

Social customer communities, multi-channel knowledge management, mobile virtual agents and natural language processing will have the biggest impact on the customer service experience in the following years.

Brands that don’t innovate around these trends - and that fail to serve customers where, when, and how they want to be served – will suffer. The winners will be the businesses that learn to run a thread through all channels and experiences by restructuring with omni-channel strategies.

Joe Doyle, vice president of global marketing, Sitel 0800 444 221 www.sitel.com

Business Reporter · June 2013

12

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

Customer experience

Find us online: business-reporter.co.uk

Follow us on twitter: @biznessreporter

How your business can Gripe

OTRS

Apple Store

their heads in the sand until they have to do something. You must put your hand up and say ‘yes, there is a problem, we are aware of it and we’re trying to deal with it’,” says Jones.

Once the first part of the crisis response is carried out, you have to keep it up. Get the message out on to social media channels multiple times a day, taking into account different time zones, as Jones reminds us that “the world is watching”.

If your social media influence is not large enough, then your ef for ts might not be reaching the customers.

“Then it’s just a drop in the ocean, and people will carry on speculat ing around you, ignoring what you have to say… so you need to Jones: companies need speed when reacting

Give your customer a voice Karine Del Moro shares her secrets of a thriving VoC programme

VI

AL

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EN

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IRE

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Act

Analyse

IND

There are six crucial stages in building a successful VoC programme.

Define: Agree clear objectives and success criteria.

It is imperative to define the key business issues that you need to address – increasing revenue, decreasing costs, or driving culture change – at the outset so you can build a programme that will influence business and customer KPIs. Map the customer journey to ensure you listen to customers at key touchpoints. Identify the key “moments of truth” for customers so that you understand which interactions most impact their experience.

Design: Design the programme to deliver both tactical and strategic benefits that meet your business objectives.

Select channels that customers will find engaging – for

RK

Six steps to success

MA

B

usiness leaders now expect tangible results from Voice of the Customer (VoC) programmes. To meet these expectations, teams tasked with building such programmes need to drive business change and generate significant ROI. Successful customer experience management provides insight to: l Increase revenue through reduced churn, improved cross-sell and attracting new customers l Reduce costs by improving processes and creating greater consistency l Drive cross-functional change and impact organisational culture.

example – web, mobile, telephone or paper, and plan the Strategically, collect aggregated data to identify key appropriate frequency of interactions. Consider drivers from your customers’ point of view to help you relationship surveys, which analyse the health of the prioritise long-term investments that will drive change. relationship, and transactional surveys, suited to Act: Close the loop with individual customers. This identifying issues and process improvements at key allows you to deliver quick wins, and is often easily touchpoints. linked to short-term financial benefits. Set up actionable Implement: Use multi-channel data collection to alerts that empower employees to retain customers, increase response rates and deliver deeper insight. produce leads and cut costs.

Identify a solution that will provide a secure and scalable Parallel to this, build foundations that will deliver way to gather customer feedback, automate alerts, and long-term results: tailored reports providing insights on generate tailored reports that provide stakeholders with a larger scale – i.e. what you need to know about your live insight. most profitable opportunities. Everyone in your Add information from across your organisation organisation has a role in improving customer – including ERP and CRM platforms, employee feedback experience but they need access to actionable systems and external benchmarking data. You need to information, at the right time, using the right channels. gather robust, representative information, using Review: It’s vital that you review your goals and IMPLEMENT appropriate channels and integrate it revise them regularly. Examine all with internal systems. aspects of the programme with a FINANC IAL Analyse: Improve results by cross-functional team of D B EH AN A BR analysing data and creating experts to seek continuous a clear view of the issues improvements, re-focus Voice of the Voice of the Market Business and opportunities. on new issues and Tactically, this adjust your priorities. means using alerts, for HUB example, about Karine Del Moro dissatisfied customers is vice president at Voice of the Voice of the Customer Employee or poorly performing Confirmit DI employees to improve 020 7648 8560 G RE EN CT problem resolution and www.confirmit.com E C N EX PE R I E retention, or about happy customers to motivate employees REVIEW and leverage positive word-of-mouth.

CH

INDUSTRY VIEW

BEN

ExpertInsight

A great example of what can be achieved in customer experience.

Apple Store visitors can book appointments or workshops and even request help.

Design

FREE

If you’re running a small business and are busy but still need to keep up with customer enquiries, this open-source system allows you to manage and answer queries.

Digital security expert Neira Jones encourages companies to embrace social media as a crisis response strategy.

Jones, partner with Accourt and head of risk and digital practice, believes social media provides the data, speed and influence required to take control of your own crisis which, if well handled, can reinforce trust.

Due to the growing interconnectedness and ease of social media over the past few years, everyone has the opportunity to be a publisher.

“Any news that breaks out will be available to everybody in seven minutes,” says Jones.

“People now bypass traditional contact methods and just say how unhappy they are on Twitter.

Depending on how much influence they have, this could spread like wildfire – and organisations need to be prepared for it.”

Even for large crises such as the BP oil spill off the Gulf of Mexico, or the Costa Concordia disaster, the response to these incidents proved almost as controversial as the event itself. This is not an effective way to respond to a crisis, argues Jones.

“The first step you need to take is speed,” says Jones.

“Organisations need to act fast to capture the attention of the public, and to take control of the information surrounding your incident. So I’d advise them now, while they are not in the midst of a crisis, to create a page on their website which can be launched as soon as possible following a crisis.”

This web page will be a means of communicating and engaging with customers. Using this source, the organisation must acknowledge the problem, admit they are at fault, list answers to frequently asked questions, and let people know what actions they are taking – all within the first 24 hours.

“Too often, organisations bury

Define

FREE

The next generation of word-of-mouth marketing has arrived with Gripe.

Customers can post cheers or gripes relating to companies, which are in turn sent to the business.

By Bonnie Gardiner

Business Reporter · June 2013

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

Like us: facebook.com/business-reporter

Customer experience

Find us online: business-reporter.co.uk

13

turn public failure into success

ExpertInsight

Many consumers bypass traditional contact methods and head straight to Twitter

Great customer experiences can only come from people who create great content INDUSTRY VIEW

T

he battle for customer attention is on and the battlefield is more fragmented, chaotic and overwhelming than ever before.

According to market research firm Yankelovich, the resident of any urban area now probably sees more than 5,000 advertising messages per day.

As a result, consumers are now firing a return volley. They are savvier; becoming simultaneously researcher, publisher, reviewer, influencer and, ultimately, expert on any manner of product or service. The “ease” by which information can be published and shared across the web has resulted in an exponential increase of content worldwide.

According to technology firm EMC’s 2012 Digital Universe study, we will publish and replicate 40 zettabytes of data within the next five years. That includes whitepapers, Facebook posts, Instagram pictures of food, and on and on. How much is 40 zettabytes? If each byte of information is one grain of sand, that would be 57 times of all the grains of sand

amplify the message,” says Jones.

It will help to seek advocates in the industry such as partners, commentators, experts, and even your own staff, whose individual social networks you will be able to capitalise on in return for your help in the event of their own crisis.

Also very crucial to success, says Jones, is sticking to your company values.

“During a crisis is not the time to throw the baby out with the bath water,” says Jones.

“The organisation must still adhere to its brand value and corporate image and certainly must not surrender caution or governance. Making sure that there are not lapses in customer service is important – you’re still in business.”

Once the website has picked up some traction, and you’ve established some control, Jones says it’s time to prepare for the backlash.

“It’s all very well posting a message, but if that is the end of

‘Act fast to capture the attention of the public, and to take control of the information surrounding your incident’ – Jones it people are going to turn on you anyway. So you need to make the best of it to ensure you become the de facto hub for your own crisis,” she explains.

By monitoring real-time content on various networks, you can categorise and prepare the information coming in. It can be daunting, says Jones, but invite comments on your page and answer any necessary posts, removing hostile or offensive parties from the social sphere and communicating w it h t hem directly.

Jones also advises posting all

stories regarding the crisis on your web page, whether they are positive or negative.

“You will rapidly realise that you cannot control t he conversation. You are, however, in complete control of where the conversation appears on your web page – making sure your opinion and your content has prominent and favourable placement.”

By taking the appropriate steps, companies and their leaders are sure to win control over their own crisis, sometimes even having it work to their advantage.

Following the data breach of Heartland Payment Systems in 2008, the company’s chief security officer, John South, was last year named information security executive of the decade.

“The great standout from the mediocre not because they fail less but because they rescue more,” says Jones.

“We might – just might – be able to turn failure into success, very gracefully.”

Why today’s companies must earn their stripes on all the beaches on earth.

For businesses, developing long-term relationships with consumers is more important, and yet more complex, than ever before. Today’s marketer must continually earn attention, rather than relying on purchasing it. Any new technology or process to support engagement must be laser focused on helping them do exactly that. The good news for businesses is that technology is now beginning to really provide these capabilities.

Web content management systems have helped to make it easier for businesses to publish content since the beginning of the web. As they’ve matured, some of them have begun to truly evolve and provide ways for businesses not only to manage and publish content but also to learn about their audience, optimise content based on preferences and deliver contextualised experiences to all digital channels such as web, mobile and social.

For example, Hippo, a company based in Amsterdam, offers a CXM (customer

experience management) solution that not only personalises content per channel, but watches and listens to help marketers develop insight into where new audiences may need deeper engagement.

Hippo powers the new website for German retail giant Max Bahr. By using Hippo CMS, the company delivers personalised content based on geography and interests in real time. The mobile version of the site looks at the user’s GPS location, and highlights contact information showing the closest locations in a Google map. And, if a local store doesn’t have the service the customer searched for, it shows the address of the nearest one that actually does.

Tomorrow’s savvy marketing strategy will not revolve around buying access to more eyes across more and more media.

Rather it will be in creating more dynamic, useful and engaging customer experiences that not only earn, but keep the customer’s attention. Ultimately, great customer experiences can only come from people who create great, relevant

If each byte of our data was a grain of sand, we could fill the world’s beaches 57 times and useful content. It’s a big, challenging battle for attention for sure, and the right technology can optimise each experience and provide insight so that the business can ultimately win the war.

Robert Rose is content marketing strategist with the Digital Clarity Group 020 5 22 44 66 www.onehippo.com

Business Reporter · June 2013

Customer experience – Industry view

Business Zone

14

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

Find us online: business-reporter.co.uk

Follow us on twitter: @biznessreporter

The future

To get your point across, call a shed a shed

Real service, not lip service Companies must proactively seek feedback, says Syed Hasan

L

ip service. The Oxford Dictionary defines it as “the act of expressing approval of or support for (something) insincerely or without taking any significant action.”

Insincere and without significant action – words that companies do not want to have associated with their brand.

The brand promise proudly stands for top service and quality, but too often organisations aren’t able to answer the simple question of: “Did my customer have a good experience today?”

As a customer, can you hold this company accountable?

If only 5 per cent of customers formally complain, where do the rest go to vent their frustrations? Perhaps at the pub, posted as an #epicfail on Twitter, or you may end the relationship and take your business elsewhere.

Companies are starting to acknowledge the demand, as resting on their laurels and waiting for the customer to instigate the conversation is no longer an option. Businesses have the ability and technology to proactively ask for feedback immediately following an interaction.

Imagine this: receiving an SMS survey for your opinion on your way home from the store. The floodgates are wide open now, as 60 per cent of responses will

come back within the first hour. What’s more, 95 per cent of all responses will be collected in less than 12 hours. Within the same day, the customer’s voice is delivered back into the organisation.

Contrary to popular belief, only 25 per cent of incoming feedback is from unhappy customers. More than 43 per cent will write to share a positive experience. Customers want to share how they were wowed and want this to go back to the employee that made their day. The remaining 32 per cent, neither happy nor unhappy, are still willing to provide their opinion.

There are some great organisations leading the way in pushing aside this lip

service. Global, iconic brands such as Disney and Apple, along with Three, MBNA, and Vodafone, provide customers with the means to speak at every transaction in a way that is quick and accessible. They know which of their customers have had a good experience today. Businesses are slowly realising the power and necessity of listening to their customers continuously, and not just when convenient for them. There’s a long way to go, but customers must be persistent in demanding real service and having their voices heard.

0203 102 5160 www.responsetek.com

In focus: engaging experiences Bill Gates

“

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning

The business landscape, and the wider world around us, has changed forever.

Knowing where, when and how to reach customers in this rapidly evolving space makes for a formidable challenge to brands, but one that is essential for companies to rise to.

Customer experience management is a business issue that has a profound effect on company objectives and offers the opportunity to really differentiate themselves, shifting the focus from the inside-out approach afforded by its distant cousin customer relationship management, towards the outside-in view: placing the customer at the

centre of the business.

Get it right and it will lead to greater customer retention, increased customer loyalty, increased revenue per customer and competitive differentiation. Get it wrong and it could make the difference as to whether

your business succeeds.

The focus shouldn’t stop at the experience, however, although it is vital, as a brand, to ensure that each interaction results in the best possible experience and value for the customer.

These individual

experiences matter, but what matters more is the allimportant relationships we build with the brands we come to know, love and trust.

Personal and relevant engagement that delivers value and strengthens these relationships over time is what we reflect on as positive, memorable experiences, which lead to brand loyalty.

Whichever way we look at it, your customers will have an experience, so let’s make it meaningful and the best that it can be.

Glen Manchester is chief executive of Thunderhead.com www.thunderhead.com

Do you think about your IVR when you talk about your customer’s experience?

People tell us that more than 25 per cent of their experience when calling you is completed before they even speak to a person.

Using your IVR – interactive voice response – to get your callers to the right member of staff first time sounds obvious, but often fails.

Reducing the customer’s frustration helps them, and also helps your staff.

Most people would rather hang up and try again or, even worse, call a rival, than work their way back through the maze of menus.

All it takes is a regular review.

So when you do, as your first point of contact, use your staff. They’re the ones closest to the customer.

So, how do you improve the audible face of your business, from your customer’s perspective?

You can reduce your call abandonment rate by nearly 40 per cent by simply using one voice for your whole IVR platform. But make sure you use a professional voice that reflects your brand. And nothing distances you from your callers more than using language that you wouldn’t use in a customer-facing situation. If you’re not sure whether your IVR is written correctly, try reading it out loud.

You wouldn’t say, “Please dial extension one if you wish to purchase a horticultural implement storage solution”, when you only need, “Press one if you’d like to buy a shed.”

IVR should be short, concise and user-friendly.

Just because you know what buttons to press doesn’t mean your customers do. If you have more than four options and two levels, you’re probably overcomplicating it.

Don’t believe us, call yourself.

Richard Eva, above, is director of sales and marketing at Advitel 01277 88 88 55 www.advitel.com

Business Reporter · June 2013

an independent report from lyonsdown, distributed with the sunday telegraph

Like us: facebook.com/business-reporter

Find us online: business-reporter.co.uk

Customer experience – Industry view

15

The debate

The future of customer experience Joe Doyle Vice president of global marketing Sitel

David Ryan Managing director EMEA Ektron

Richard Pennington Managing director 4net Technologies

Marchai Bruchey Chief customer officer Thunderhead.com

Jonathan Gale Chief executive NewVoiceMedia

In an era when products and services rapidly commoditise, the customer experience has become the point of brand differentiation.

A good experience has the power to unlock a lifetime of loyalty and advocacy. A bad one can be relayed across the world with just the click of a mouse.

More than 86 per cent of customers say they will simply stop using a brand after one bad experience and 82 per cent of customers will communicate their bad service experience with others.

The quality of a customer interaction is becoming one of the top reasons for recommending a company.

The new role of the contact centre is connecting the dots to deliver customers the experience they want, when they want it, in the channel of their choosing. The new contact centre must demonstrate the ability to truthfully engage with customers, valuing their opinions, and demonstrating they are prepared to adapt products and services to the needs of a new consumer that is emerging.

Great customer experiences require consistent, targeted messages across digital channels and help increase website traffic, leads and sales. However, historically this has been extremely expensive and difficult. Digital marketers finally have easy-to-use tools to create consistent brand experiences across the web, social and mobile channels.

With better insight into information across systems of experience, such as CRM, marketing automation, analytics, and social networks, combined with a visitor’s location and search queries, marketers will have a unified view of the customer. That in turn will help marketers target highly contextual, relevant content and offers to website visitors that move those visitors toward the next step in their intended digital journey.

Marketers will no longer have to rely on technical resources to create high-impact digital experiences. They will combine deep content targeting with new tools to craft content and web pages on mobile devices. A mobile-first web experience will now become the norm for all organisations.

Improving customer service and personalising customer experience – and the explosion of the mobile channel – are key trends driving change and improvement in contact centres now and in the future.

In a consumer-driven, internetenabled world, your customers aren’t just calling you. They want to reach you on the device of their choice via, for example, email, instant messaging and text. Simply taking calls isn’t enough to keep customers loyal – you need to proactively reach out to build relationships, upsell, and solve problems before they become deal-breakers. You need to reach your customers using the channels they want, and balance inbound and outbound communications so that no one is left waiting.

Customers are increasingly expecting a joined-up contact experience. Through intelligently managing all your contact media types – phone calls, email, text, web chat, self-service and fax – in a single, fully integrated solution, you can enhance service levels, meet customer expectations, boost staff productivity, and increase first time call resolution.

Technology innovation is accelerating at an epic rate. Smart metering for energy and utility firms, as well as health monitoring devices such as the Nike FuelBand, have been designed to enable companies to serve their customers better – often before customers realise their needs.

Taking the outside-in approach to customer experience – listening to the customer to understand what they need, and building processes around these insights – will enable brands to put the customer at the centre of their business. The ability to convert customer data into intelligence, by understanding and anticipating the customer’s needs, will enable brands to provide a seamless and superior customer journey which will, over time, create engagement.

Take customer service. We believe that in the future it will evolve to require no service at all; a customer’s needs and wants can be anticipated and service needs are met automatically and in real time, thanks to the conversion of the right data.

This future is a rapidly evolving reality: welcome to the new era of customer experience.

Our technological landscape is changing and customers have more ways than ever in which to engage with brands. Today, voice is still the channel of choice for a quick response, but organisations need to look to the future and prepare for the next generation of customer service.

Research commissioned by NewVoiceMedia showed the generational importance of social media as a contact channel – and it’s likely to rocket as Gen Y consumers’ spending power increases.

For businesses to remain relevant, they have to change the relationship that they have with customers – treating them as individuals, understanding their buying patterns, likes and dislikes, and the overall experience they have with the company. By harnessing cloud technology, businesses can benefit from that level of customer insight and offer a completely personalised customer service. In the future, social media may challenge voice as the preferred contact channel, but personalisation will continue to be the key differentiator for a great customer experience.

0800 444 221 www.sitel.com

01628 564600 David.ryan@ektron.co.uk

0333 323 0700 www.4net-technologies.co.uk

020 7494 5000 www.thunderhead.com

0800 280 2888 www.newvoicemedia.com