No Easy Answers to Excellence? December 9, 2009
Posted by OnProcess Technology in Customer Care, Customer Experience Management, Customer Understanding Research, OnProcess.Tags: Customer Experience Management, customer satisfaction, customer service, differentiate on service quality, measure customer satisfaction, measuring satisfaction, no easy answers to excellence, real solutions vs. point solutions
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(a.k.a., Real Solutions vs. Point Solutions)
There’s an old saying; “When you sell hammers, every problem is a nail”.
There are companies who will make phone calls for you.
There are companies who have machines that will make automated phone calls for you.
They’ll read what you tell them to say, until you tell them to stop.
And when they’re done, you’ll get your bill: We made X calls, for Y dollars. Net 30.
Check the box. Next.
Lots of activity, some outcomes, but not necessarily a solution to the problem your business really has.
What about the customer? Does anyone care about him or her? What’s the experience like for them? Did you learn anything from all that activity? Did you really educate the customer? Did you truly capture their input? Can you drive action as a result that will measurably improve your business?
There are no easy answers to excellence.
Or maybe there is one – OnProcess Technology®.
Not a software firm, not a call center, not a survey company. OnProcess Technology is in the results business.
OnProcess provides CE360™; a comprehensive customer experience management solution that helps improve your customers’ experience in a number of ways. CE360™ combines process methodology, multi-channel communications services and powerful data analysis to give you the clear insights you need to maximize customer satisfaction.
Increased Understanding Means Increased Usage, Reduced Remorse Returns
You can use CE360™ to increase your customers’ understanding of your current solutions or to help your customers smoothly upgrade to your newest offerings. Your results are a more positive customer experience, increased use of your products and services, and loyalty to your brand.
Identify Service Problems – Maximize ROI
You can also use CE360™ to assess your customers’ install, start-up or upgrade experience, enabling you to find weak points in your customer experience processes. By focusing investment on the most impactful areas, you maximize ROI and lift in satisfaction scores.
Compete on Service, Instead of Price
Ultimately, what this all comes down to is differentiation on service quality. Taking price out of the equation, to whatever extent possible, frees you up to be more profitable; to keep your customers loyal; to recover from occasional service glitches more easily, and to increase share in a competitive marketplace.
You don’t get those kinds of results by just ‘checking the box’.
–sk
Article: Cable Improved J.D. Power TV Scores — But the Competition Did, Too October 9, 2009
Posted by OnProcess Technology in Customer Care, Customer Experience Management, Customer Understanding Research, OnProcess.Tags: Cable, customer satisfaction, J.D. Power, measuring satisfaction
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Original article by Todd Spangler
If you only glanced at the headline from the 2009 J.D. Power and Associates TV service satisfaction survey (see Satellite, Telcos Beat Cable On TV Satisfaction: J.D. Power) you may have missed a key point: Cable customers are happier than they were a year ago.
In fact, cable operators made gains virtually across the board, in each of the four regions measured on J.D. Power’s survey (see table, below).
The problem is, telcos and satellite operators raised the bar, too (with the single exception of AT&T U-verse in the North Central region, where it dropped 15 points vs. 2008 but still placed second behind WOW). Average satisfaction nationwide in 2009, across all TV service providers, was 632 on the 1,000-point scale — up 23 points from 609 last year.
As a result, the relative standings didn’t really change. It’s a “frustrating” situation, one cable executive told me, given the time and effort they’ve spent on this issue.
So the question is, why did nearly all the providers boost their satisfaction scores?
Frank Perazzini, J.D. Power’s director of telecommunications, suggested that after the poor showing in 2008 — the lowest overall scores for pay TV providers in five years — everyone redoubled their efforts “to better position themselves to retain and grow their customer bases.” Fewer TV customers reported outages on the 2009 survey (11% vs. 15% in 2008), and the industry cut time on hold to resolve a customer’s issue by 13% year over year.
Another factor that has surely moved the needle: There’s more competition. With as many as four (or even five) providers in some markets, there’s been a surge of special promotions, pricing deals, expanded HD lineups, more VOD, etc. How could such lagniappes, in tandem with other service improvements, not make you happier?
But try as it might, cable hasn’t won bragging rights on J.D. Power’s TV survey in the last three years (with the exception of overbuilder WideOpenWest), although MSOs like Cox, Cablevision and Insight have performed relatively well.
Is cable really just inferior to the competition? Or do the differences stem from lingering resentment about “the cable company” being the only game in town? Maybe U-verse TV, say, seems better because it’s a clean sheet of paper — and you’re inclined to be happy with the “alternative to cable” because you opted to switch in the first place.
Whatever the reason, cable providers will have to push even harder on the happiness levers, if they want to gain any ground.
OnProcess’ Take:
Now, more than ever, competition and success in the Pay TV market will be based on customers’ perceptions of service, as opposed to price. Understanding what levers to pull to most beneficially affect Customer Satisfaction levels has to be a key factor in achieving this goal. Do Pay TV and Cable MSOs have methodologies and data-driven insights in place to enable this kind of improvement?
–sk
Article: Completely Satisfied July 1, 2009
Posted by OnProcess Technology in Customer Care, Customer Experience Management, Customer Understanding Research, OnProcess.Tags: CE360, customer satisfaction, measuring satisfaction, proactive approach to customer care
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This article describes the beneficial effects of having a continuous, measureable, proactive outreach program to assess satisfaction and enable quick escalations.
While I could openly question the concept of “Completely Satisfied” (I mean, are we EVER completely satisfied?), it does show the beneficial effects of such a program not only to the end user but to the enterprise (no pun intended) and its brand.
See the 1to1 Media article: Completely Satisfied
–sk
Facts & Figures: 2008 UK Customer Care Survey March 30, 2009
Posted by OnProcess Technology in Customer Care, Customer Experience Management, Customer Understanding Research, OnProcess.Tags: CE360, Customer Care Survey, customer satisfaction, measuring satisfaction, OnProcess, proactive approach to customer care
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http://measuring-satisfaction.com/2009/03/27/facts-figures/
Here’s a nice summary of a recent Customer Care Survey (in the UK, but I suspect not much different here in the US), touching several of our larger vertical markets.
One Big takeaway: When it takes many multiple contacts to resolve problems, it contributes exponentially to dissatisfaction.
Could a more proactive, educative approach to customer care address this problem? Our CE360™ customers certainly are finding it so.
In this tough economic climate, every current customer relationship is even more important to maintaining profitability. By adopting a comprehensive, proactive approach to customer care, you minimize the potential for dissatisfaction, brand erosion and defection.
–sk
