Stretch people's thinking and provide new perspectives as to where customer service excellence strategies have headed and what you might add to your strategies to stay at the competitive edge. This is an advanced strategy but it is where customer service excellence is going. Think about it and adapt it to your current level of customer service excellence.
This is a simple yet strategic formula for predicting customer behavior:
Hindsight plus Insight equals Foresight
Hindsight is the information gathered from a well thought out Customer Satisfaction Index. Why did people buy a certain product or go to a specific resort, invest in a particular property, etc? What did they like about the experience? Would they return, buy again or refer someone? Basically, these are very valuable hindsight questions.
What is the Insight part of the formula?
The Peppers and Rogers Group (a customer service consulting firm) explains, "....In the old direct marketing paradigm, the predictive problem was- which customers are the most likely to buy product X. From a customer-focused perspective, however, the question is transformed to which product (service) is most likely to be needed and wanted by customer X."
In other words, traditionally, a group of customers would have been identified as most likely to buy a certain product and with a reasonable data base, and with astute sales people, and multiple channels of advertising, a certain number to products or room nights or services would be sold.
In the new paradigm companies need to know what are your customers going to need or want that will keep THEM competitive and be loyal to you. This moves customer service to the very sophisticated side of customer service excellence - insight, predicting customer behavior.
How do you build Insight into your customers' business?
Acquire Knowledge - Please keep in mind as a more advanced strategy this is not about finding out what customers liked about your service, would they buy again, etc., but about who they are, what are the primary issues in their business, who are their competitors, what are their major concerns, and so on. Knowledge is gathered to predict what your key customers might want and need, that they could buy from you which in turn keeps them more competitive AND more loyal to you.
For example, to acquire knowledge:
Create a list of all the ways your customer comes into contact with your business. These are called touch points. Do customers call or go to your website before they buy? Do they call after they buy or during the buying process? Do people come to you or do you deliver to them? Your sales people, doormen, technicians, etc.
Then:
1. Identify your key accounts
2. Create a named file for each account
3. Develop a list of questions appropriate to ask your customer at each touch point about their business or personal preferences.
4. Create a dialogue with the customer, build the relationship.
Take Action
1. Post all information into one database. For larger companies there are excellent software programs for this - not only for input but also for data extraction. For smaller companies, sometimes employees will do this manually.
2. Train your people into the art of relationship building. If you already have a company with a customer service excellence culture, this will be easier but if your company is only training at the frontline or not training at all, this strategy might not be where you want to start. Just learn about it and know where you are headed.
3. Have brief daily or longer weekly meetings to discuss the findings, determine what other information is needed and get your innovative staff working on the next generation of product or service that your key customers will want and need. As the relationship continues to build with your key accounts, they will share more information with you to do an even better job at predicting their behavior.
Your job in customer service excellence now becomes helping your key accounts be more competitive in their market place and more loyal to you.
Measuring Results
Measuring results is easier because of the relationship with your key account. The feedback is immediate and so are the successes or failures. Basically, it allows you to make quicker adjustments to this entire process. At that point, the cycle begins again - acquire knowledge, take action, measure results.
The Biggest Surprise of All
In a few companies today where the relationship between customer and provider is built on a high degree of trust, the books of the customer are opened to the provider to help the provider predict what the customer might need or want. It is true; the world of customer service excellence is changing rapidly.
How does the Hindsight plus Insight Equal Foresight?
Foresight is when we ask and can answer this question - What is the worth of your company to your customers? Really, this is a question for the local dress shop, the auto mechanic, car manufacturers, global data management centers, hotels, etc., etc. Is your company a good service provider or does it provide foresight?
