Page 214 - DMGT308_CUSTOMER_RELATIONSHIP_MANAGEMENT

Unit 8: Managing Customer Relations

Customer Experience Management is valuable in any industry—and in both business-to-business Notes
and business-to-consumer relationships. Shaw and Ivens of Beyond Philosophy cite their own
research, which found that “85 percent of senior business leaders agree that differentiating
solely on the traditional physical elements such as price, delivery and lead times is no longer a
sustainable business strategy.” That’s why, tuning in to the customer experience is so important.
Unhappy customers can bolt to a competitor—or simply stop using a service. All it takes is a
computer browser set to any of the complaints sites on the World Wide Web to see the true story
of how easy it is to irritate and lose a customer.
“Because of one rude person you have put in charge, you no longer get that weekly cut out of my
check, but you also have lost a very loyal customer who did ALL of their shopping, fuelling and
video rentals” complained one person on www.complaints.com about a grocery store she used
to patronize. Now angry, she was willing to pay more money to pump gas from the more
expensive station across the street and travel farther from home for her groceries and videos.

How are companies doing today?

In CRM Guru’s research, only 22 percent of respondents agreed that companies “currently
provide an excellent customer experience.” As you can see, more than half of respondents had
no strong opinion one way or the other, and 18 percent had a negative response.

Full-service restaurants got the highest positive ratings and one of the lowest negative ratings.
At the other end of the spectrum, fixed-line telephone companies earned the highest negative
rating at 32 percent, perhaps an indication of the lack of competition in this industry. Electronics
companies had the lowest positive rating, and the long-suffering airline industry fared only
slightly better.
Experience and Cost Conundrum

Over the past decade, business executives have been cutting costs with automation, off-shoring
and, of course, the Internet. In recent years, as the economy has improved, attention has turned
back to revenue growth and building loyalty—hence, the current interest in customer experiences.
The problem is that some of these strategies may be in conflict—at least, in terms of how they
are executed and perceived by customers. We asked CRMGuru research respondents to rate
their agreement on whether, based on their own personal experiences, they believed that
employee training, Internet sales/support, off-shoring and Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
had improved customer experiences. Their reactions were dramatically different. As you can see
in the chart below, customers believe that “well-trained people” and “Internet sales/support”
have had a positive impact a bit more than one-third of the time. Only 15 percent had a negative
outlook.

Did u know? A significant number of respondents in a research said off-shore call centres
(38 percent) and IVR (35 percent) had adversely affected their experiences. Although some
companies attempt to spin these initiatives as attempts “to serve you better,” it’s clear that
most customers don’t see it that way.
A backlash against “IVR hell” led to the launch of GetHuman.com, where consumers rate service
quality, record their hold times and can find the shortcuts to bypass the phone menu and get
directly to a human being at many of the top American companies. One major bank in the
United States is running humorous TV ads touting its ability to enable customers to actually talk
to a real person. Imagine that!

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