In the past, information that reports the “voice of the customer” has been challenging to track and analyze. When coupled with the fact that most companies have very different internal perceptions of where they stand on the service spectrum when compared with their customers’ actual experiences, you can be left with an organization facing an identity crisis and customer service firestorm.
To get to the bottom of this perception issue, organizations must move outside traditional measures that track success based on internally established metrics. By enabling companies to go a step further to collect direct customer feedback, they can gain first-hand, actionable intelligence. According to research, more than two-thirds of all customer interactions are relevant for such feedback. For example, it has been found that more than half of a company’s customers will consistently provide feedback on initiated interactions if the survey is in context, intelligent and a part of a single process.
Therein lies the opportunity. But what does this single process look like? While different communications channels, distributed service centers, and internal processes and systems all capture fragments of the customer experience, they don’t provide a comprehensive picture of customer perception. As a result, organizations can overlook critical information that affects repeat sales, customer loyalty and the bottom line. By implementing a customer feedback management solution that can be integrated into existing back-office, contact center software and CRM systems, organizations can truly listen to the “voice of the customer” to gain real-time perspective on issues and drivers impacting sales, service and the customer experience.
Customer Insight, Corporate Intelligence
If you want to know what your customers are really thinking, ask them! Customer feedback allows customers to express what’s working, vent about what’s not, and share their perspective on how you can make them happier consumers – as well as provide you with a goldmine of valuable intelligence.
With a customer feedback management solution, companies can collect, report and incorporate customer-driven information, performance data and satisfaction level metrics. More specifically, customer feedback can help organizations:
• Make informed business decisions by capturing and analyzing customer feedback — and the context in which it was provided — in real time.
• Gain increased visibility into customer service processes and performance based on the specific people, products, and processes that impact the customer experience.
• Measure business and revenue drivers in detail — including customer loyalty — through net promoter scores and other metrics.
• Improve first-call resolution rates, decrease escalations, and enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Move beyond sampling to capture statistically valid, census-level data — even with large numbers of customers and multiple sites — across all contact channels, including IVR, Web and e-mail.
• Reference recorded calls from customer feedback and optionally integrate survey results with other workforce optimization metrics.
How Does it Work?
Customer feedback management engages customers immediately after their interactions with an agent over IVR, Web and e-mail. More than just a survey system, it enables organizations to gather data on products, processes, staff performance, and customer loyalty and satisfaction levels in real time. As a result, you can identify and measure the drivers of customer behavior, along with specific areas for improvement.
For example, you can use data to calculate your net promoter score — a metric that shows the percentage of promoters (customers who would recommend your products and services to others) minus the percentage of detractors (customers who cut back on their purchases and warn others to avoid doing business with you). Net promoter scores are a powerful way to gauge customer satisfaction and the effectiveness of your customer loyalty programs.
Because these surveys are intelligent, context-based, and timely, they engage customers and deliver response rates far greater than those obtained through traditional, one size-fits-all questionnaires. As a result, organizations can move beyond mere sampling to capture meaningful data — even with large numbers of customers and multiple sites.
With customer feedback, you can gain valuable “outside in” perspective. By capturing and analyzing the voice of the customer at all levels, organizations can accurately measure true customer loyalty, validate and understand drivers of satisfaction, and identify detailed areas of opportunity and improvement – taking a giant leap in cracking the customer perception code.