Last week was Social Media Week in New York. A time to reflect then on how things have moved in customer service circles. One of the agenda items in the Big Apple was a debate about whether traditional customer research methods are more effective than social media when it comes to “capturing the voice of the customer”. The debate aimed to “hone in on the successes, challenges, and strategies for blending both distinct methodologies to enhance the understanding of customer sentiment”. So, pretty straight forward then?
Certainly social media is a new and exciting way of capturing and acting upon customer feedback. Twitter and Facebook have opened up a world where customers can do what they have always done – moan about bad service. The big difference is that now it reaches hundreds or thousands of people, rather than a handful of friends and family. The smart organisations have seen this as a positive too, because, whereas once they would never have known about it (remember that the majority of dissatisfied customers don’t tell anyone, they just leave), they can now view and even engage with these customers.
But, for some organisations, this is literally years away. For them, it is not about whether social media is better than traditional research, but whether they are gathering any feedback at all. And, if they are, is it effective and adding any value?’
And that’s just customer feedback. Delivering excellent customer service relies on a high level of customer intelligence, but it’s only useful if the other aspects are there too. For example, does an organisation have the right strategy? Do they have the right people? Are the processes and policies right? All of these need to be considered and put in the mix to be a service excellence provider.
It’s little wonder that organisations don’t know where to start. But for all the apparent complication, it really is quite simple. Organisations need to understand their customers and what they want. What steers their behaviour. What makes them stay, come back and tell others to do the same?
Then they need to put the strategy, processes, policies and above all, people, in place to deliver it. It’s not really complicated at all. That’s not to say it’s easy. It requires commitment and resource and a significant amount of patience (you don’t always see results – even in the first year!). And that’s a challenge in a world where we want everything now, including instant gratification for our efforts.
The reality is that it has to become cultural and that will only happen in the longer term, when the right strategy, people and processes meld together using the information about those customer “moments of truth”.
The truly excellent service organisations have understood this for a while. But for many more it’s only just beginning to sink in. So the starting place is surely to take a look at where you are now, identify the gaps and put a plan in place to fill them. It may take six months, or even six years, to get there but the journey will be worth it and the organisation that emerges will have a sustainable framework that means they can grow and develop their brand and reputation long into the future.
The next CSN Event “Service Excellence: Starting Your Journey” is on 15 March 2012 in London. For more details click here
