We’re quickly reaching the end of January and many New
Year’s resolutions made with the best of intentions will have already fallen by
the wayside. However, it’s never too late to take look back and find areas for
improvement – whether it’s in your personal life or in your Voice of Customer (VOC)
programs.
Making a
genuine lifestyle change, of course, requires commitment and
discipline but much of the battle lies in choosing the right changes to make at
the beginning. To help you get started, here are NICE Fizzback’s top twelve
ideas for VOC New Year Resolutions:
1) Aligning objectives: All businesses have to achieve multiple objectives.
Satisfying customers is only one part of the equation and must be balanced
against other goals such as maintaining call quality, maximising profitability
and improving First Call Resolution (FCR). As we have mentioned in a previous blog, an agent who receives high
customer satisfaction scores, but takes too long on the phone is leaving
potential business value untapped. It’s all about striking the right balance.
2) Considering
the ecosystem: Employees, partners, third parties, your self-service
solutions and your marketing materials all contribute to the customer’s
experience and perception of your brand. Taking a holistic 360 degree view of
your business that considers feedback from all channels, touch points and stages
of the customer life cycle will empower you to introduce improvements across board
that will pay dividends in your CSAT ratings.
3) Leveraging text
analytics: The business world is obsessed by numbers but customers usually
aren’t. When a customer leaves a written comment, they may wonder if anyone’s
really listening. Companies should aim to converse with rather than just survey
their customers. Listen, learn, and act and the results will follow.
4) Avoiding analysis paralysis: In today’s world of Big Data many companies are
swimming in a sea of numbers and without appropriate prioritization this can
quickly become drowning. In order to avoid this, identify a few key actions,
deep dive for root causes, plan change, execute and follow up. Remember – he
who chases two rabbits catches neither.
5) Defining the right levels of Executive Sponsorship: “You don’t fatten the pig just by weighing it!” Where there is a need for action from managers and employees, it is crucial that the leadership provides appropriate support and conveys the right message across the business. Reaching your goals is much easier when everyone is pulling together.
6) Considering means as well as ends: There is often pressure to have a VOC solution in place and obtaining results as quickly as possible but sometimes companies don’t dedicate enough time and attention to survey design. Ask the wrong questions and you’re never going to get the right answers and insights. It’s amazing how often this is overlooked.
7) Closing the loop: One of the main objectives of gathering feedback is to recover dissatisfied customers. But closing the loop goes far beyond the level of the individual customer. Companies should also close the loop at the strategic level, using feedback to train employees and change the company’s processes, policies, and organisational structure in order to be more customer centric.
8) Standardising:
Global companies need to benchmark their customer experience across their
different markets. Cultural nuances typically generate some noise but it
remains an exceptionally valuable exercise. Looking at results against regional
targets and focusing on objective hard skills (i.e.: issue resolution) rather
than more subjective soft skills (i.e.: employee warmth and friendliness) helps
to cut through the noise and provide insights that you can rely upon to drive
global change in your business.
9) Capturing
transactional, relationship-based, and strategic feedback. Different
surveys serve different purposes. A relationship survey focuses on overarching brand
perception. Transactional surveys provide insight around the operational
aspects of the business, and strategic surveys are often used to address a
specific issue or capture feedback at key moments of truth in the customer life
cycle. Nonetheless, most of feedback these surveys provide is somehow
interrelated. Conducting impact analysis and calibration exercises can help
companies to better understand how results from some surveys relate to others.
10) Engaging
with your employees: Companies increasingly understand the importance of
getting employees involved in the customer experience challenge. However, to
maximise results, CEM should become a truly imbedded feature of their business
culture. Reward and recognition programs, incentives and employee feedback
mechanisms can all contribute to this end.
11) Understanding
what happens after the feedback: The comment is just the beginning. Looking
for clues and warning lights as to what the customer will do next is massively
important. Anticipating customer behaviour correctly could prevent a defection
or lead to an up-sell. A few things to consider
are:
· What percentages of polled
customers had to be recovered?
· What proportion of dissatisfied customers
churn?
·
How many customers who
threaten to churn actually do so?
·
How does query resolution
impact customer satisfaction?
· Does satisfaction affect a customer’s
propensity to respond to a survey?
12) Keeping in
mind the 4 Cs of ownership. As our Ownership and Operationalization white paper states , it is important to follow the 4 Cs framework: Culture, Commitment, Consistency, Continuity.
Having a Customer centric Culture, Committing to improve the Customer
Experience, being Consistent and not
setting contradictory objectives, and Continuously
seeking improvement.
Make a resolution today and watch the ROI of your VOC solution
climb!
Natalia Piaggio