Page 18 - DMGT308_CUSTOMER_RELATIONSHIP_MANAGEMENT

Unit 1: Introduction to Customer Relationship Management

Following points outlines an approach to assessing and managing customer experience across Notes
all your touch points:

1. Baseline your performance: Customer touch-point projects should begin with a review of
the customer insights you already have and a map of customer interactions to understand
where data collection is still needed. Gather supplemental data through various research
methods, such as direct interviews, short post-event surveys, etc.
The key is to ensure that the baseline assessment not only collects the relevant information
on customers’ needs and expectations at every stage in the customer lifecycle but also
seeks to objectively measure how well each interaction adds to or subtracts from brand
value. Are you delivering a consistent and relevant experience? How does a particular
interaction compare with your competitors?

2. Analyze value drivers: The next step is to analyze which interactions matter most to
customers and what dimensions of those interactions drive value from a customer
perspective.
Touch points with high volumes of customer interaction and those that can elicit potentially
strong emotions in customers (e.g., websites, customer service, service departments) tend
to have the most significant impact on your brand.
Understanding the value drivers, especially by customer segment, will help you target
where to begin improving value for your customers. In doing such an analysis, ask yourself:
What do my customers value in an experience? Which experiences are enhancing my
relationship with my customers? How do these experiences differ by customer segment?
3. Develop and implement an improvement plan: Kicking off initiatives to improve customer
experience usually requires the effort and support of several cross-functional teams. The
level of buy-in across the organization to deliver a consistent brand experience will make
or break your efforts.

For this reason, giving priority to a few quick wins—those that are easy to implement but
will have a big impact—will help show your customers (and your internal critics) the
benefits of managing the customer experience.
While mapping out the correct sequence of initiatives, ask yourself the following: What
are the needs of my most-profitable segments? What impact can I deliver in the short
term? In the long term? How am I going to align the organization to improve the customer
experience? Who do I need buy-in from?
4. Measure the impact: The goal of touch-point analysis is to drive customer value. Measuring
the improvement in customer experience and understanding movements in key
performance indicators (e.g., lifetime value of the customer, retention rates, customers’
willingness to recommend your brand) will help you understand how improving touch
points affects loyalty, brand equity, and overall profitability of specific customer segments.
The shifts in some of these metrics will likely occur over the long term rather than immediately;
therefore, they must be monitored over time.

The Customer Lens

Every organization, whether it starts with small steps or radically shifts its culture to become
more customer-centric, should consider customer touch-point analysis and management as a
tool to drive increased business value.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 13