GDS International - Ushering in the New Era of Customer Experience

WHITE PAPER MAY 2012

USHERING IN THE NEW ERA OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

By Marchai Bruchey, Chief Customer Offi cer

Thunderhead.com

01USHERING IN THE NEW ERA OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Both of these terms imply that it is all

about the customer; either managing

their relationship or managing their

experience. But unlike CRM, which is

largely focused on internal people,

processes and technologies; an inside

out view, CEM has taken a fundamentally

diff erent approach by focusing on driving

processes from the customer’s point of

view; an outside-in view. Customer

experience is a business issue that has

profound impact on overall business

objectives including but not limited to

customer retention, increased customer

loyalty, increased revenue per customer

and competitive diff erentiation. It can be

a game changer for organizations that

get it right.

At Thunderhead.com, we believe that

the world has changed forever driven in

large part by the adoption of social and

mobile technologies. It has been

reported that the average person carries

as many as four mobile devices at any

given time. Knowing when, where and

how to reach these customers and

prospects has become a daunting

challenge for most companies. The

diff erence between which companies

will win or lose will depend upon how

deeply they engage with their customers

and partners across all touchpoints.

Companies can’t avoid providing a

customer experience, so it is important

to make it meaningful and relevant.

Making this new world even more

complex are the customers themselves.

As terms go, the defi nition of Customer Experience Management (CEM) is as varied as its distant cousin Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

It is often said that we are living in the

age of the consumer, meaning that the

customer is in the driver’s seat. Gone

are the days where customers will

accept the status quo. Their options are

virtually unlimited in the digital world

and today’s customer doesn’t mind

switching. Back to the world changing

forever; just look back at employee

loyalty. It has direct correlation to the

thinking of today’s customer. Let’s look

at the traditional generation that came

into the workplace in the 1940s and

1950s. It was considered rare if

someone of that generation had more

than two jobs in a lifetime. When you

joined a company, you expected to

work there for life. This generation was

all about loyalty both to their employers

and to the companies they did business

with. The next generation, the baby

boomers, as they are called, started

experiencing the shift in employee/

employer loyalty in the mid to latter part

of their careers and can be expected to

have three to fi ve jobs during their

working life. They were not nearly as

reluctant to make a change as previous

generations and their mindset started

the shift to focus on customer

satisfaction. Now, let’s look at what is

known as Generation X & Y, you know

those children from what I like to call

the “fast food” world, a world where you

should never have to wait on anything.

This generation is expected to have

between 15-20 jobs in their work career.

Customer Experience Management has taken a fundamentally diff erent approach by focusing on driving processes from the customer’s point of view; an outside-in view.


This generation takes the customer

experience agenda to a whole new

level. They are the digital society and

use every channel available to them

to connect; mobile, Facebook,

Twitter, etc… Not only do they

connect but they will tell you

everything that you wanted to know

about themselves and then some.

It is diffi cult to reach this audience

that has little tolerance for mass

market messages and push

advertising, unless you can make it

fast, easy, relevant and in a language

they can understand. They tend to

travel in packs and therefore trust

their peers more so than the

companies they do business with so

peer recommendation is extremely

important. While this particular

demographic is quick to adopt social

media we have seen recently that

even unlikely demographics are

adopting its use – who would have

thought that middle aged women and

grandparents would be great

adopters, but research tells us they

are. Whether it’s to stay connected to

kids, grandchildren or friends in far

fl ung places. So even in this context

peer recommendation becomes

increasingly important. And don’t

forget those mass connectors and

mass mavens-the people out there

infl uencing the conversations with

millions of followers or those who

are beacons for a cause, service

or product.

Building an engaging relationship

with this vast set of customer

demographics, all of whom have

diff erent expectations, is hard and is

one of the biggest challenges for

companies today. Delivering the right

information, at the right time, on the

right device to your customer or your

employee serving that customer is

business critical. This opportunity can

be a company’s dream or nightmare

depending largely on how well you are

equipped internally from a customer

experience perspective.

Through the years, companies have

spent millions upon millions of dollars

on technology to manage the

customer relationship. These systems

by-in-large did a good job of creating

a system of record. But managing

customer experience is all about the

engagement, so companies need to

assess how they can tie all of the

disjointed, disparate systems together

and empower their employees to be

able to manage all customer

touchpoints across the business.

CRM systems were largely deployed

in a siloed fashion to meet specifi c

business objectives. Marketing

executives acquired marketing

automation solutions to create

demand for their product/service

and to handle both inbound and

outbound marketing needs for

customer acquisition. Sales executives

deployed sales automation solutions

to get their arms around pipeline and

forecast management and to manage

prospect/customer contacts.

Customer service executives designed

systems to better support the

customer after-sell and to insure that

customer issues were tracked and

ultimately solved.

Building an engaging relationship with this vast set of customer demographics, all of whom have diff erent expectations, is hard

and is one of the biggest challenges

for companies today


Technology that used to help now gets

in the way because it isn’t integrated.

Increasingly, companies see the need to

drive this type of change not only in

their systems, but in conjunction with

employee engagement focused on

providing employees with the tools to

enable improved experiences, because

today’s customer doesn’t wait for IT

timeframes or massive deployment of

new customer solutions. Our point of

view is that companies must determine

how to leverage the investments that

they have made in technology and their

employees to design new ways of

managing the customer engagement

across all touch points. And if

technology barriers weren’t enough,

there is still a good bit of infi ghting

within organizations as to who “owns”

the customer; sales, marketing or

service.

Today’s customer views themselves as a

customer of the organization, not any

one group and companies serving those

customers need to do the same. For

instance, if a customer were to interact

with the customer service organization,

either by phone or web self-service,

they expect you to have a view of their

interactions across the entire enterprise

not just in the service organization.

Understanding and managing the

customer journey across the business

silos has become mission critical.

Today’s customer wants personalized,

contextual and relevant information at

every touchpoint whether they are

talking to someone on the phone or

interacting via the web or app. This will

require companies to know their

customers preferences, behaviors and

interactions like never before.

It is a great feeling to walk into an

establishment and be recognized

immediately and to be able to have a

conversation that takes into account my

previous history with the business and

to determine my current needs, fi nding

the vendor respond with the perfect

solution. This is the ultimate in customer

engagement. Your customers should

not have to put up with digital

interactions that are less satisfying than

face-to-face. The challenge is how to

create this same experience in the

digital world where you don’t have

face-to-face interactions.

Your customers should not have to

repeat themselves when moving

between channels or service

representatives. This is the biggest

complaint I hear regarding customer

experience. How many times have you

started an interaction in one channel,

let’s say the web, and could not

accomplish the task you set out to do,

having to email or phone the company

only to have to start all over and repeat

yourself suff ering broken conversations

at every turn.

Your customers should not have to put up with digital interactions that are less satisfying than face-to-face. The challenge is how to create this same experience in the digital world where you don’t have face-to-face interactions.


Or better yet, enter your ten digit

account number in the IVR only to

have to repeat it again to the customer

service rep when he/she answers the

phone after your fi ve minute hold

time. These broken conversations can

have very adverse consequences from

a customer retention perspective and

they cost the business millions of

dollars. Fixing these simple issues can

improve the customer experience and

reduce cost for the business. A win/

win for everyone.

Your customers should not receive

communications that disregard their

stated preference for privacy or

contact. Remember the discussion

around know your customer?

Personalized, relevant and contextual

communications are a must for today’s

digital customer. Nothing can ruin a

brand’s reputation quicker than to

send irrelevant information to the

customer who has a twitter

community of over a million followers.

This may be an exaggeration but we

can agree that customers today have

a platform for sharing opinions like

never before and this digital savvy

customer doesn’t mind sharing

experiences online. One negative post

that goes viral can have dire

consequences for a brands value.

Your customers should not have to

read content that was designed for a

website but has been resized onto a

mobile phone. Not only should they

not have to read it, in most cases, they

won’t even attempt to. At this point

you have not only missed an

opportunity for engagement but you

have created an unpleasant experience

that, depending on the customer’s

journey with your organization, could

also mean a defection.

At Thunderhead.com, we believe that

there is a fundamentally diff erent

approach to better customer

engagement, ultimately leading to a

better customer experience. It’s about

removing friction within the business,

it’s about personalizing the digital

interactions, it’s about empowering

employees to serve your customers,

it’s about enabling collaboration and

changing the way businesses engage

with their customers.

Businesses are built on relationships.

In order to provide superior customer

experiences, companies need to

enable two-way interactive

conversations with customers. Every

communication, regardless of

touchpoint needs to have unmatched

real-time personalization across every

channel. In order to provide this level

of personalization you must combine

behavior, outcomes and experience.

It’s about knowing the customer so

well, they never need to contact you

because you anticipate their needs and

deliver moments that matter.

It’s about removing friction within the

business, it’s about personalizing the

digital interactions, it’s about empowering employees to serve your customers, it’s

about enabling collaboration and changing the way

businesses engage with their customers.


Consistent customer experience goes

beyond the channel; it’s about the

customer journey. It’s about maintaining

a consistent, intelligent conversation

across all touchpoints while marrying

opportunity, engagement and servicing.

It’s about blowing up the silos and

realizing the full potential of integrating

back-end and front-end systems and

delivering the optimal content for every

conversation. Companies that can adapt

quickly to changing customer needs

proactively, managing the customer’s

journey across all digital touchpoints,

print, call centers and more will

ultimately improve the customer

experience, increase revenue potential

and infl uence brand value.

Adapting quickly to changing business

needs requires business software that is

purpose-built to give business users a

contemporary, intuitive user interface

that is easily embedded into daily work

life. Technology should be transparent,

relevant and empowering allowing you

to engage in real-time collaboration

with partners and customers. The

business user must be able to manage

every aspect of the customer’s journey,

being able to listen, adapt, engage, and

improve with little or no IT intervention.

In closing, the digital customer has

come of age and is driving many

forward thinking organizations to

rethink their customer experience

strategy producing a shift in the

technology market from systems of

record to systems of engagement.

While this shift is driven in large part by

the customer, there are many benefi ts

to the business for putting the customer

at the center of your strategy. The

left-hand column overleaf outlines

strategic business initiatives of many

companies today while the right-hand

column is the resulting benefi t to both

the business and the customer.

It’s about blowing up the silos and realizing the full potential of integrating back-end and front-end systems and delivering the optimal content for every conversation.


We are Thunderhead.com. Creating a powerful new force for business. Leading the advancement of customer experience by fundamentally changing the way businesses engage their customers and partners through utilizing a powerful suite of contemporary SaaS solutions delivered on a purpose-built cloud platform. Remarkable software for business users. Memorable experiences for your customers.

Brand Health

Loyalty

Lifetime Value

Cross/Up-Sell

Competitive Response

Enter New Markets

Off ers and Promotions

Budget Optimization

Deliver a consistent experience

Personalize every interaction

Manage the customer journey

Appropriate, informed interactions

Superior, diff erentiated experience

Change strategy at new speeds

Improved response rates

Leverage SaaS & existing IT investments