Customer Experience Management: Putting yourself in the Customer's shoes.

The customer experience has long been considered an important factor in the telecoms industry. But is the industry doing everything it can to enhance existing customer relationships? Operators have to start putting themselves in the customer’s shoes, to really understand the service expected.

The reality of the market challenges operators have faced, such as reduced margins and ARPUs, as well as increasing competition, has meant customer service systems was not such a priority. However, investment is crucial. Traditional CRM systems are not able to provide the customer experience needed to ensure loyalty, especially with the popular rise in new technologies.

Traditional CRM issues

The trouble with traditional CRM systems is that they provide an introverted view of customer interaction. For far too long, companies have focused on quantitative measures, such as the Average Handling Time and First Call Resolution. None of these performance indicators addresses the way the customer felt and responded to the interaction.

An example; a customer calls up to enquire about altering his package because he keeps nearing his usage allowance. The agent informs him that he can’t until he’s been with them for six months and the call ends. Now, the call was quick and during that first call it addressed the customer’s question, but the customer was left with an unsatisfactory response. This most likely left the customer frustrated and created an unsupportive view of the operator.

The customer perspective

The challenge is for the service provider to see things from the customer’s perspective. An IBM whitepaper ‘From Social Media to Social CRM: What Customers Want’ shows just how out of touch businesses can be with what the customers really wants and expect. Demonstrated in the chart below by the misperceptions of the purpose of customer interactions through social sites.

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Operators need to understand the importance of good customer experience, before anything can be done about it. If customer experience is done right, it can be hugely beneficial to business – from driving profits and an upturn in sales, to creating a more valued and satisfied customer base. Part two of my series on customer experience management will explain more about how to do customer service, the way the customer would.

Read Part Two here

CoralTree Systems is a leading provider of innovative BSS solutions, whose clients include some of the market’s leading communications operators. 

You can find out more at our website www.CoralTreeSystems.com

This article was written by Craig Maxwell-Brown, Business Development Assistant for CoralTree Systems.