Customer Service Performance
How to Achieve Differentiation Through Superior Customer Service
In this time of converging services, new competition and emerging alternate business models, communication service providers (CSPs) who focus on providing superior customer service will have a higher customer retention rate and increase their probability of customers adding on new services. Shifting to a customer-centric service delivery model includes some challenges. In this paper, we will examine those challenges and provide recommendations on how to address them.
Much like the products they bring to the market, communications service providers (CSPs) must be innovative, quick to adjust to the newest technology and intuitively interactive. And that’s just the minimum requirement to keep up with the competition.
To really pull ahead, CSPs need a new edge, one that supports and aligns with the rapid growth and convergence that these companies are challenged with every day.
EDS leaders suggest that a customer-centric service delivery model may yield exceptional results in this exceptionally competitive landscape. Research shows that companies with high customer satisfaction ratings outperform the S&P 500 with an average shareholder return of 40 percent. Further, customer satisfaction increases usage, drives growth and encourages adoption of new services. A reputation for customer satisfaction also attracts new customers and keeps them loyal.
What Is the Best Way For Communications Service Providers To Achieve High Customer Satisfaction?
CSPs face three major challenges in the area of customer satisfaction:
- Why will CSPs customers continue buying a particular product and service when there are multiple options to choose from?
- What roadblocks will prevent a CSP’s customers from continuing to buying from them?
- How will CSPs attract new customers and entice them to leave a competitor?
This is further complicated by an often unspoken but underlying pressure – in a corporate climate where margins are squeezed, the costs of implementing service-related solutions might seem counterproductive.
However, it is important to remember that you are selling not just a service, but a relationship. It takes very little to move a customer from being your biggest advocate and brand champion to being your worst nightmare. And in today’s Web 2.0 environment, an individual can spread his thoughts across social networks and online communities that can reach hundreds or thousands of readers within hours of posting.
The solution is two-fold. First, communications providers should be able to identify what they are trying to achieve. Common and powerful patterns that define a truly superior customer service experience include the following:
- Easy to use: World-class organizations understand that each customer interaction is an opportunity to reinforce the company’s image and standing, and for that reason, they strive to understand and meet customer wants and needs, making their services easy and intuitive to use.
- Effective: Loyal consumers know what to expect and receive a consistent service that exactly matches their wants and needs from these popular brands.
- Desirable: Through both product design and marketing communications, effective organizations position themselves as distinct from and superior to their market competitors, thus creating emotional ties for consumers with their brand and services.
- Targeted: Forward-looking organizations know and understand both their customers and prospects, and craft and personalize every aspect of their business in response to those very specific consumer requirements.
Second, CSPs should make internal changes to align with their customer needs. A superior customer service model, says EDS experts, is one that leaves no room for a misstep. It covers the entire customer service lifecycle and meets customer expectations across all touch-points.
Providing a Superior Customer Experience Across All Consumer Touch Points
For each step in the value chain – from when a consumer first learns about an offer through purchase, service calls and ongoing evaluation – service providers should make choices that contribute to customer satisfaction and loyalty. By examining key processes in sales, marketing, delivery, customer service and other functional areas, CSPs can identify positive characteristics in all customer-facing activities and include them in the design during product development.
Superior Customer Service Model
| Characteristics of Superior Customer Service | ||
|---|---|---|
| Consumer Activity | CSP Process | Characteristics |
| Learn | Marketing | Consistent brand image Attractive product design, packaging and display Clear and transparent service offering |
| Buy | Sales | Easy-to-use store front Proactive recommendations True multichannel experience Personalization of offerings Seamless and automated service activation Welcome call |
| Accept/Use | Service Delivery | Intuitive easy-to-use user interface Self-help Personalization options Seamless service delivery without service interruptions |
| Pay | Billing | Bill accuracy Intuitive and easy to read format Delivery options |
| Seek Help | Customer Care | Customer intimacy Competent and friendly responses Zero failures True multichannel experience One-stop shopping experience Short response and resolution time |
| Grow/ Evaluate | Analytics | Personalized offerings Proactive campaigns |
Traditional communication service providers who adopt this model will be better positioned to withstand the growing competition and new entrants into the marketplace. In fact, they may have a distinct advantage by better retaining existing customers, building brand loyalty and winning the trust of their audience. This differentiation, in an industry with no room for error, could prove to be the key to success in a service-oriented world.