Page 19 - DMGT308_CUSTOMER_RELATIONSHIP_MANAGEMENT

Customer Relationship Management

Notes The mechanics and steps necessary to improve the customer’s experience are not rocket science.
The challenge comes with developing a truly objective analysis based on a company’s cross-
organizational boundaries and functional implications.
Companies would benefit from hiring a third party to leads the effort or developing an internal
customer advocacy group to ensure that the customer is at the centre of the decisions being made
across the organization and to help align the organization behind the effort.
Customer touch-point analysis is akin to taking a really honest look in the organizational
mirror; the face you see is not always the one you thought your customers were seeing. And that
is also its greatest value: When conducted the right way, customer touch-point analysis can
provide invaluable insights that serve as a catalyst for change and increase customer value.
Each of us can recall good and bad customer experiences – whether an online buying experience,
the responsiveness from a supplier or the encounter with someone on the front line. We remember
and hopefully reward the stellar. And when it comes to the mediocre and downright terrible we
react by taking our business elsewhere or not making a referral.

As business leaders we understand the importance of every single interaction a customer or
prospect has with our company, especially in today’s environment of intense competition, low
switching costs, and increased commoditization. In the dynamic environment we’re in right
now, we need to recognize that customers are re-evaluating everything. Yet, we find that many
companies continue to flounder when it comes to managing customer experience and
engagement.
Customer experience and engagement have evolved from table stakes to points of differentiation.
More and more evidence strongly suggests that there is a link between customer experience/
engagement and the financial success of the company.

The vast number of touch points associated with the overall customer experience makes for a
complex process. Therefore it is important to understand how each touch point contributes to
the overall customer experience because an issue encountered at any one of these points can
dramatically influence the overall experience.
So what are some things your company can do to begin to understand how to improve customer
experience and engagement? We have found that companies truly focused on improving customer
engagement do at least three things: they identify all the key touch points a customer has with
their company, measure the effectiveness of these touch points and use them to create a map of
the customer experience.

It All Begins with Touch Points

A customer experience does not begin and end at a transaction, visit to a website, or conversation
with customer service. The customer experience process encompasses the moment the customer
becomes aware of your company and is comprised of multiple independent interactions,
transactions, and contacts along the way. Ron Shevlin, author of Everything They’ve Told You
About Marketing Is Wrong and an analyst at Aite Group, LLC, suggests the following definition
for customer engagement: “Repeated interactions that strengthen the emotional, psychological
or physical investment a customer has in a brand.”

All these repeated interactions are actually touch points. For our discussion, we will define a
touch point as any customer interaction or encounter that can influence the customer’s perception
of your product, service, or brand. A touch point can be intentional (an email you send out) or
unintentional (an online review of your product or company). As the stories at the beginning
suggest, touch points begin long before the customer actually makes a purchase and long after

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