As we move forward into a new decade, where consumers are now able to publish their opinions on a particular company in the public domain at the click of button, it seems more important than ever to make sure that your business is truly customer centric; i.e. designed so that every element works in harmony to deliver maximum value consistently, and delight your customers rather than just satisfy them.
However, while customer centricity is certainly a hot topic in many boardrooms, making it a reality is often easier said than done. In Fizzback’s experience, gathered from our work with leading global brands, customer centricity means different things to different companies. In order to deliver tangible benefits there must be a clearly defined set of outcomes and a strong alignment with the company’s broader strategic goals. However, while there is no such thing as a “one size fits all” methodology, there are two important areas we believe are essential for any successful programme, namely ownership and operational integration.
In last month’s report we focused on the key steps organisations can take to create and sustain ownership. In this, the second of our two part customer engagement report on customer centricity, we will focus on what companies can do to integrate their customer centricity programmes into their day-to-day operations.
Operational integration is the process of translating high-level strategic objectives into measurable, accountable activities. In order to achieve this, Fizzback identifies six key stepping stones. These are:
- Develop a plan. Priorities change across different departments throughout an organisation, it is important to put together a written plan ensuring that everyone involved in the execution of the programme shares the same view of the desired outcomes and the process for achieving them. The plan should define a roadmap that establishes clear objectives, identify clear phases and milestones for implementation, set consistent KPIs, and prioritise those customer segments with the highest potential value. Again, the plan must be aligned to the company’s broader strategic goals.
- Engage customers at key moments of truth. Your customer is your “true north”. Research conducted by Strativity Group indicates that 40% of loyal customers are willing to pay a premium of 10% or more to continue doing business with a company that delivers great experiences, while only 9% of dissatisfied customers are willing to do the same; so it certainly pays to be guided by customer sentiment. However, it is obvious from each of own direct experiences as consumers that people in real world situations rarely take time to reflect upon all the separate elements that go into making up their overall experience; or form a considered view of how they feel about the service they received. Rather, the opposite; we respond spontaneously to events as they happen and seldom connect the dots. This is evidenced by the fact that the most significant events that shape consumers’ overall impression of the customer experience they had are those at the beginning and the end of that experience. Therefore in order to understand the real factors that generate a good or bad experience for customers, companies need to offer them the option to give feedback at key points during the experience rather than after it.
- Capture reliable and actionable customer feedback. The quality of data is crucial to the success of the programme because it forms the basis for conclusions and actions. Reliable information starts with what you choose to measure as well as when, and how you measure it, from the metrics you select to the channels you use to reach out to your customers.Our clients tell us that the most useful data for driving customer centricity is direct feedback from customers themselves. Most consumers don’t have the time or inclination to complete detailed surveys, preferring to give concise, pointed feedback in their own language. It’s critical to make it as easy as possible for consumers to get their view across. The challenge this creates is to interpret large volumes of unstructured feedback so that it provides the actionable insights required to drive desirable business outcomes.
- Interpret. It is important to understand the real drivers behind your customers’ behaviour. If you allow customers to freely express what’s important to them, you must apply technology that automatically categorises their unstructured feedback into groups of sentiment drivers. These could include employee elements such as friendliness and knowledge, product elements such as range, availability and price and in-store factors such as layout, cleanliness and ergonomics. To determine this strongest drivers, Fizzback recommends conducting root cause analysis to identify and prioritise the most common sources of positive and negative feedback. One of the most common techniques is inferential driver analysis, based on regression.
- Act. While many organisations now have voice of the customer programs in place, they often struggle to use the feedback they gather to take effective action. In our experience the key is to reduce the time between collecting feedback and acting upon it. Because of the infinite variations possible in any given interaction between a customer and a member of staff, circumstances can change from day to day and even from hour to hour. Traditional processes that may take weeks or months to generate results from feedback often fail to act in timescales that customers consider reasonable. Our most successful clients gather feedback in real time and use it to measure performance and drive immediate action.
- Measure and Refine. In order to make investment in customer centricity generate the best returns on investment, it is important to put measures in place to sustain the changes the programme initially creates over time and incorporate them into business as usual. At Fizzback we have seen many of our clients implement and sustain change programmes successfully. The common theme in these cases is consistent sponsorship of the programme at Board level, with regular management reviews to evaluate the progress of the programme. It is also important to encourage an open dialogue with front line staff as well as customers. If they are rewarded for raising questions and suggesting improvements, it becomes much easier to share best practices and address performance gaps.
In conclusion, a customer centricity programme is as much about what you measure as it is about the decisions you take and the way you implement them. While the details will differ from one organisation to the next, there are two basic elements that set the foundations for a successful programme: ownership and operational integration. The bottom line is: if no one owns it, no one acts upon it; and even if there is an owner, there must be clear processes to make the whole organisation accountable for customer experiences, ensuring that this valuable information is acted upon immediately. The outcome is a continuous customer experience improvement process that leads to customer delight and significant economic benefit.
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