CRM - June 2008 - (Page 10)

CUSTOMER CENTRICITY BY IAN JACOBS We Are What We Expect Shifts in customer satisfaction need to take into account shifts in customer expectations shift in expectations is even more pronounced among younger consumers who had little experience with the “good old days.” One take on the shift in expectations is that we have all come to expect less. But let’s examine that notion of the good old days. Were they really that good? I can now call my bank at 11:30 p.m. and expect to reach an agent. Getting money out of a bank used to require standing in line between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 3 p.m., but I can now withdraw money from thousands of ATMs—not just outside of banks, but also in convenience stores, supermarkets, bars, etc. I can even withdraw money while paying for my groceries. I can buy goods and services over the Internet at all hours of the day and the plethora of goods available is mind-blowing. My expectations as a consumer in that context have been greatly heightened, not reduced. So consumer expectations have gone up in some ways and have decreased in others. Where does that leave a company trying to puzzle out technology-spending priorities and customer-interaction LONG BEFORE COMPANIES AND CRM VENDORS TALK ABOUT TECHNOLOGY, THE COMPANIES strategies? Clearly, companies need flexible technological sysTHEMSELVES NEED TO MAKE DIFFERENTIATED CONSUMER EXPERIENCE A PRIORITY. tems that help them identify— and then match—the wax and ACSI scores, even with the declines, still remain signifi- wane of consumers’ whims. But, more important, they need flexible processes that allow for differentiated expericantly higher than they were in 1996 and 1997. But in a larger sense, the problem with the surveys ences. The Beatles once sang, “I am he / as you are he / as themselves is that they essentially ignore any shift in cus- you are me / and we are all together,” but, Summer of Love tomer expectations—and, as a culture, our expectations optimism aside, consumers want individual experiences. My grandfather, for example, would still prefer to do of the interactions between consumer and company are definitely shifting. Companies should be paying atten- his banking as if it were 1972, while I require that “altion to those slippery shifts, and should be using technol- ways on” nature of the modern experience. My expectaogy to help bolster processes that support any new needs. tions and my grandfather’s have shifted—but they have If that sounds like “analyst-speak,” there’s a way to make not converged. And companies need to recognize the difthis more concrete: Fifteen years ago, an American con- ference between us. Vendors of CRM technologies cersumer calling a large company’s 800 number for customer tainly have some ideas of how companies can best service would not have thought it unusual to have the call accomplish this, but long before such conversations can answered directly by a native English speaker. Today, that have much utility, the companies themselves need to same interaction might well be viewed as extraordinary. make differentiated consumer experience a priority. Consumers are now completely acclimated to self-service technology such as interactive voice response systems and Ian Jacobs is a senior analyst in Frost & Sullivan’s contact center practice. to offshore agents with nearly impenetrable accents. This Contact him at ian.jacobs@frost.com. N F E B R U A R Y of this year, a brief flurry of news stories covered the second consecutive quarterly decline of something called the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The ACSI is an economic indicator, based on modeling of customer evaluations of the quality of goods and services purchased in the United States, developed by the National Quality Research Center at the University of Michigan. Such stories are now commonplace—it is almost as if the public’s mood toward service (and the companies that provide it) can be covered as a horse race: “Poor customer service due to offshore outsourcing is ahead by a neck, but, rounding the far turn, personalized and relevant customer experiences based on integrated CRM efforts are gaining on the outside!” Not only are stories like these commonplace, but they can also be a misleading way of looking at the data, since they tend to ignore one key point: The current I 10 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JUNE 2008 www.destinationCRM.com http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - June 2008

CRM - June 2008 Contents Front Office Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point Making Mashup Masterpieces Trouble in the Air CRM on Twitter Is SaaS Ready for Its Contact Center Close-up? CRM: In the Public Interest Required Reading Lollipop Loyalty Best Practices Series: CRM & eCommerce eGain NetSuite Infor Longwood Software Vovici The Second Coming of 2.0 Believe the Hype About Hosted Contact Centers All Talk So Hot It’s Cool Linksys Gets Shaken, a Community Is Stirred The Risky Risk Business Awana Hears a SaaS Sermon Secret of My Success Re:Tooling Scouting Report Pint of View

CRM - June 2008

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