Improving your customer experience requires the incorporation of new forms of customer interactions into your business strategies and processes. But how do you know where to start?  Forrester research summarized a recent Fifth Quadrant in-depth study that surveyed 1,000 consumers across the US and Canada to better understand how consumer contact preferences are evolving with the rise in consumer adoption of mobile devices and social media.  This report identifies key areas to hone in on in order to offer customers better service with every interaction. Not only does this Forrester research report give you a bird’s eye view into what your customers contact preferences are but it also provides tips how enterprises can boost their multichannel capacity and achieve higher levels of consumer satisfaction, both now and in the future.

Below are the top two things I think are the most relevant within this study, click here for the full report

1. Consumers want access to a wider range of contact channels, indicating there are opportunities for organizations to improve the level of customer service delivered. While much has been said about how self-service channels, such as the web, will reduce calls to a customer support center, our analysis of the Fifth Quadrant research shows that there has been an increase in consumers preferring access to a wider range of ways to interact with the companies they do business with across both self-service and agent-assisted channels. Short of the automated voice systems, the research shows that consumers like the diversity of contact channels across the board.
   
2. Social media reinforces the imperative for a multichannel strategy. Managers of enterprise customer support centers are struggling with social media interactions because currently the volume is small as compared to voice interactions. But a focus on volume misses the point. It’s not about the volume, it’s about the impact.
   

At the end of the day customers’ needs are changing, and you want to evolve with them.  I hope this report helped you start to think about your Customer Experience strategy.

If you want more information we are hosting in partnership with Fifth Quadrant Research a 3-part webinar series that will explore “The Consumer Empowered Economy” where these and other findings will be discussed in detail with Dr. Catriona Wallace, Managing Director of Fifth Quadrant Research.  Catriona advises companies on how to respond to the rapidly changing consumer landscape including the rise of new service channels social media and mobile apps.

• Webinar 1 - Tuesday May 10 – The Cost of Business as Usual
  
• Webinar 2 - Thursday May 31 - Customer Service through Social Media and Mobile Devices
  
• Webinar 3 - Tuesday June 19  - The Multi-Channel Customer Service Roadmap
  

Register to attend the  “The Consumer Empowered Economy’ webinar series.

Ken Redekop

Director, Customer Experience Solutions

TELUS

It all started about 18 years ago when I was shopping in a store and was quite unhappy with the customer service. I complained to the manager and after telling me he was very sorry he asked for my name and address, which I presumed was because he wanted to follow up with an apology. Much to my surprise a bouquet of flowers was delivered to my home from the manager apologizing for the lack of customer service at his store. I phoned him up and said that the flowers were nice but all I wanted was for the experience in his store to be better for myself and other customers, not a gift to help ease my pain.

At the years passed it soon became apparent I could make quite a living out of complaining: I have been offered gift cards, free meals, a free holiday, and much more but it’s not what I want! How on earth can freebies make me feel better when I buy a product or use a service that is so sub-standard that I have to take the time to complain—and wasting time means wasting money.  Every time a customer walks away without letting the business know why, it means the next customer will suffer the same fate as the last one and nothing gets better.

Recently the BlackBerry has been in the news because of a problem, which meant many users were unable to use certain features of their phones for about four days. The makers of this very clever smart phone, RIM, decided to make a video where the CEO apologised to all the customers. As well as promising to fix the problem they also offered a freebie: $100 worth of free apps. It was interesting reading the mixed tweets on Twitter, as some of the customers were really pleased with this peace offering and others were saying, just fix the problem once and for all.

Another example is Microsoft when they launched a Valentine’s Day edition of the Zune, which was red. Due to popular demand they were unable to deliver to all their customers on time so gave away free Zunes to the customers who had to wait.

The late, great Steve Jobs offered a free iPhone case to Apple’s customers who were unhappy about the iPhone 4’s signal issues. What is important here is that the iPhone 4S that followed had a new antenna system, which fixed the original problem. Apple obviously listened to its customers and made sure the problem was not ongoing. While everyone was talking about this supposed issue, only 1.7% of iPhone 4’s had been returned, and just 0.55% of buyers had called Apple to complain, Jobs said.

One size does not fit all!

Toyota had a serious problem with their gas pedals which meant recalling millions of vehicles in the US and Europe. An apology was forthcoming but no apparent repair procedure was put in place at that time. This gave a message to the customers that Toyota did not care and ignored the customer complaints for the problem to be fixed.

The message, I think, is that whether you are a large or small business you are gambling with your reputation and customer loyalty when you make decisions that they do not understand or feel are best for them. You might get away with it if they are really passionate, as in the case of Apple and RIM, but generally customers will not come back.

Some tips below on how businesses can better their chances of keeping their customers happy and loyal:

• Be honest with your customers. If there is a problem with a product admit it. If you receive a complaint about customer service ensure procedures are put in place and that your employees are trained efficiently.
• Making empty promises does not make loyal customers.
• Ignoring customer complaints does not mean there are no complaints—it makes the problem worse.
• Be transparent, if you do not have solutions to fix a problem let your customers know and assure them this is a work in progress.
• If you offer freebies without dealing with the issue at hand you will lose customer loyalty eventually.

Customers want great customer service not a pay off. Get it right the first time and ensure your customers see value for money. Today more than ever when a customer is not happy a gift card is offered, a discount on their next purchase or a free item of sorts.

I would love your comments on my thoughts, whether you think giving freebies is a good way to apologise to customers for not coming up to their expectations or if you think like me and just want things to work from day one!

As Donald Porter, V.P. British Airways says, “Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.”

"Let them eat cake."

- Marie Antionnette

(You cant solve anyones problems if you don’t know what they are)

Linda Ockwell-Jenner is the Social Sweetheart. She is President of Motivational Steps and Co-Founder of the Small Business Community Network (SBCN) based in Waterloo Region. Find out more about Linda at www.motivationalsteps.com and www.sbcncanada.org