It doesn't matter if this is your personal finances or your business, the most valuable asset you own is your ability to make money in the future. The Question Is: What are you doing with that money? Are you investing in yourself and saving? Likewise, are you investing in your customers and creating new sources of revenue, either from existing or prospective customers?
As a Certifed Financial Planner, many people have been crushed by the latest market malaise. If the market goes down 50%, it will need to go up 100% so that you are just back to "even".
Companies are in a similar conundrum. How do you make sure that you do not get too bent out of shape?
In both instances, future earnings, savings, or customers is what will deliver future value and dictate how much you will have in the future, either net worth or market share.
This is why you still need to contribute to your 401k and why you need to keep investing in your customer experience, because some day, we will emerge from this. Once that happens, where will you be standing? Hopefully with the winners.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
July - Personal Case Study Follow Up - USAirways vs. AirTran
You may recall in July I posted on my experience with USAirways and with AirTran. Since then my experiences in both cases have been validated.
USAirways did response to my complaint:
=======================================================
Dear Mr. Corrigan:
Although Customer Relations is unable to process refunds, as a courtesy we have submitted your request for a refund to our Refund Department. Due to the circumstances you have described, as a one time courtesy I have authorized a refund of your move up fee. Please allow up to 30 days for posting back to the original form of payment.
Please direct all future inquiries on the status of your refund to the Refund Department. Customer Relations is unable to confirm the status of a refund inquiry as this department cannot view the system the Refund Department uses.
To check the status of a refund, contact our Refund Department via our website www.usairways.com/contact. Click on the Refund Inquiry link. Proceed to the Check Refund Status link. On following screen input your13 digit ticket number 0372355996569.
Your comments and concerns regarding the agents at the airport not being able to issue the refund immediately have been documented and will be forwarded to the Senior Management Team.
Thank you for choosing US Airways.
==========================================================
So, let's look at this. Given my situation, a unique situation, I am given a homogeneous form letter. That makes me feel really special. Second, "one time courtesy" really burns me up. What they are telling me is that if I go stand-by again and then I end up on my original flight, that I will be charged regardless. Third, they make me feel like an idiot because I directed my inquiry TO THE PLACE WHERE THEY TOLD ME TO WHEN I CALLED. Total lack of coodination, command, control, and consistency is what this form letter revealed to me.
Let's move to my positive experience.
Same situation with AirTran. The beauty about my frequent trips to Atlanta is that I have developed quite a bit of precision in my time from office to gate. When I discovered after finishing some work early one time that I could make an earlier flight with about 5 minutes to spare, I decided to take my chances and go.
When I arrived at the gate, there was no stand-by fee and because I was so appreciative of the gate agent, he actually bumped me up to first class. I don't know if he did this because he saw how much I fly AirTran, or because he liked the way I treated him with respect, but the bottom line is that (1) he was empowered to do it, (2) he had the resources (available seats) to make my experience better, and (3) guess what? it didn't cost AirTran anything.
In short, I was on first class with USAirways, and felt like I was treated like a coach-class commodity, and with AirTran, I was in coach and was treated like I was the most important person boarding the flight.
I would love to hear your stories about USAirways and AirTran to see if you've had similar experiences. I would also appreciate you forwarding this story to others that fly and in particular these airlines. It will really increase the power of social media and I will track hits to see how much impact a negative and positive experience can have when discussed together.
I will run similar experiments with just negative and positive experiences separately as well.
USAirways did response to my complaint:
=======================================================
Dear Mr. Corrigan:
Although Customer Relations is unable to process refunds, as a courtesy we have submitted your request for a refund to our Refund Department. Due to the circumstances you have described, as a one time courtesy I have authorized a refund of your move up fee. Please allow up to 30 days for posting back to the original form of payment.
Please direct all future inquiries on the status of your refund to the Refund Department. Customer Relations is unable to confirm the status of a refund inquiry as this department cannot view the system the Refund Department uses.
To check the status of a refund, contact our Refund Department via our website www.usairways.com/contact. Click on the Refund Inquiry link. Proceed to the Check Refund Status link. On following screen input your13 digit ticket number 0372355996569.
Your comments and concerns regarding the agents at the airport not being able to issue the refund immediately have been documented and will be forwarded to the Senior Management Team.
Thank you for choosing US Airways.
==========================================================
So, let's look at this. Given my situation, a unique situation, I am given a homogeneous form letter. That makes me feel really special. Second, "one time courtesy" really burns me up. What they are telling me is that if I go stand-by again and then I end up on my original flight, that I will be charged regardless. Third, they make me feel like an idiot because I directed my inquiry TO THE PLACE WHERE THEY TOLD ME TO WHEN I CALLED. Total lack of coodination, command, control, and consistency is what this form letter revealed to me.
Let's move to my positive experience.
Same situation with AirTran. The beauty about my frequent trips to Atlanta is that I have developed quite a bit of precision in my time from office to gate. When I discovered after finishing some work early one time that I could make an earlier flight with about 5 minutes to spare, I decided to take my chances and go.
When I arrived at the gate, there was no stand-by fee and because I was so appreciative of the gate agent, he actually bumped me up to first class. I don't know if he did this because he saw how much I fly AirTran, or because he liked the way I treated him with respect, but the bottom line is that (1) he was empowered to do it, (2) he had the resources (available seats) to make my experience better, and (3) guess what? it didn't cost AirTran anything.
In short, I was on first class with USAirways, and felt like I was treated like a coach-class commodity, and with AirTran, I was in coach and was treated like I was the most important person boarding the flight.
I would love to hear your stories about USAirways and AirTran to see if you've had similar experiences. I would also appreciate you forwarding this story to others that fly and in particular these airlines. It will really increase the power of social media and I will track hits to see how much impact a negative and positive experience can have when discussed together.
I will run similar experiments with just negative and positive experiences separately as well.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
FCR and Customer Surveys
Yesterday, I was a guest speaker for Nexidia's webinar on FCR and the impact on Customer Experience.
One of the questions I received was what is the problem with using Customer Surveys for FCR. After giving this more thought, I think I could have answered this question better.
First and foremost, Customer Surveys are an important line of bearing in judging the Customer Experience, but that's just it, it is simply a line of bearing. So if you are paying $42 per survey for a company to collect and compile these results, you better be getting solid actionable results, especially given the sample size you would need (I recommend 12,000 to facilitate segmentation).
Let's look at a customer experience where a customer receives their statement on the 9th, calls in on the 10th, calls again on the 13th (either for a separate reason or the same reason as the call on the 10th), and gets a customer survey on the 14th regarding the call on the 10th. How many opportunities for false positives have you just introduced? What call is the customer thinking about for the survey? What issue? What if the customer gets another statement the next month on the 9th and the issue isn't resolved?
A typical company will have these results compiled monthly and you will receive the results early in the month, but other metrics on your dashboard aren't available until later in the month and the executive that you are reviewing the metrics with aren't available until even later in the month.
Admittedly, this probably isn't unique to customer surveys, but whenever you are looking to solve for FCR, make sure you have results that are available to analyze and act upon and not be dependent on a monthly compilation. Otherwise, moving the needle will be incredibly difficult.
I have had a lot of success with diagnosing and solving for FCR with Nexidia. If I can answer any questions you have, please contact me at customeranalyticsconsulting@gmail.com.
The webinar should be available later this week at http://www.nexidia.com/
One of the questions I received was what is the problem with using Customer Surveys for FCR. After giving this more thought, I think I could have answered this question better.
First and foremost, Customer Surveys are an important line of bearing in judging the Customer Experience, but that's just it, it is simply a line of bearing. So if you are paying $42 per survey for a company to collect and compile these results, you better be getting solid actionable results, especially given the sample size you would need (I recommend 12,000 to facilitate segmentation).
Let's look at a customer experience where a customer receives their statement on the 9th, calls in on the 10th, calls again on the 13th (either for a separate reason or the same reason as the call on the 10th), and gets a customer survey on the 14th regarding the call on the 10th. How many opportunities for false positives have you just introduced? What call is the customer thinking about for the survey? What issue? What if the customer gets another statement the next month on the 9th and the issue isn't resolved?
A typical company will have these results compiled monthly and you will receive the results early in the month, but other metrics on your dashboard aren't available until later in the month and the executive that you are reviewing the metrics with aren't available until even later in the month.
Admittedly, this probably isn't unique to customer surveys, but whenever you are looking to solve for FCR, make sure you have results that are available to analyze and act upon and not be dependent on a monthly compilation. Otherwise, moving the needle will be incredibly difficult.
I have had a lot of success with diagnosing and solving for FCR with Nexidia. If I can answer any questions you have, please contact me at customeranalyticsconsulting@gmail.com.
The webinar should be available later this week at http://www.nexidia.com/
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Why Customer Experience Efforts Fail, Part 4: Data rich, information poor
Most operations, and specifically contact centers, are at a competitive disadvantage in helping shape the company. Often, they are the ones that are shaped.
When it comes to customer experience, any company that ignores this gold mine will clearly be left behind in the wake of their competitors.
One of the problems that companies have is that they don't know how to mine and integrate contact center data so that it provides meaningful insight into customer behavior and subsequently, the customer experience.
If your website, billing system, IVR, and call center data does not have the ability to show the complete customer, you are data rich and information poor.
Let me share another personal case study where I knew more that company that was helping me.
My internet/cable/phone provider provided me with a promotional rate and I was making my monthly payments on-line. However, my payments were not being allocated among the divisions of this company, specifically, the internet division.
The first month this happened, I first thought I was hacked. When I called the company to get this resolved, they had to escalate it because from the agents perspective I was paid up and my account was restored.
The next month (on the 17th again) the same thing happened. So the company had treated the symptom, but not the disease and it cost them another phone call, a less loyal customer, and negative word of mouth.
Yes, it happened again the following month, but this time we got it resolved.
When you are looking to evaluate the customer experience, make sure you have the complete view. This may not be easy, but it will pay huge dividends in the end.
When it comes to customer experience, any company that ignores this gold mine will clearly be left behind in the wake of their competitors.
One of the problems that companies have is that they don't know how to mine and integrate contact center data so that it provides meaningful insight into customer behavior and subsequently, the customer experience.
If your website, billing system, IVR, and call center data does not have the ability to show the complete customer, you are data rich and information poor.
Let me share another personal case study where I knew more that company that was helping me.
My internet/cable/phone provider provided me with a promotional rate and I was making my monthly payments on-line. However, my payments were not being allocated among the divisions of this company, specifically, the internet division.
The first month this happened, I first thought I was hacked. When I called the company to get this resolved, they had to escalate it because from the agents perspective I was paid up and my account was restored.
The next month (on the 17th again) the same thing happened. So the company had treated the symptom, but not the disease and it cost them another phone call, a less loyal customer, and negative word of mouth.
Yes, it happened again the following month, but this time we got it resolved.
When you are looking to evaluate the customer experience, make sure you have the complete view. This may not be easy, but it will pay huge dividends in the end.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Why Customer Experience Efforts Fail - Part 3: Inability to translate intangible CE elements into tangible ROI
If you are reading this blog, you have probably been challenged to quantify the value of Customer Experience at some point in your career. Any project requires the due diligence of a Cost-Benefit analysis in today's corporate environment (and rightfully so).
However, it seems to me that operational projects and specifically Customer Experience projects go through another layer of scrutiny. They go through political and cultural barriers of needing "guaranteed" results that marketing seems to be immune to.
Other than quoting other studies and looking at your own customer past behavior data, there are other things you can do as well.
Other studies: There are quite a few out there. I will try to post as many as I can here as I run across them.
Past Customer Behavior Data: This can be very challenging to get to your own data that is retained in data management systems that are harder to penetrate than the political and cultural ones that exist with people. However, this is where the facts and the experience reside. Just make sure you have a control group to stand up to the scrutiny of the eggheads within your company.
I did an analysis where I wanted to promote self-service and how customer behavior would change. Showing two groups of customers with similar, tight credit ratings and how the customer purchasing behavior was different between the two groups based on the channels they chose for service. Those that used on-line, low effort servicing, spent 3 times more than those that did not. Both groups had made purchases on the internet, but the servicing x-factor moved this company up for those that performed self-service.
Best-Worst-Most Likely: One thing that has been very useful for me is to provide a range for people to see and visualize within their own skepticism. If your worst case scenario is still positive, you are in good shape. If it's not, while unfortunate, it does provide your analysis with another degree of credibility that you are just not cooking the books for your own hidden agenda. Working with your biggest critics to define this lower limit also pays huge dividends.
Personal Experience: If you still have your skeptics
Best solution: Use all of them. Triangulating to a solution and then putting a personal experience story on top of it is likely to deliver the fastest approval from the decision makers.
Due Diligence can not be overlooked in today's economy. Make sure you are putting tangible numbers and a documented approach in front of the decision makers as well as a post-implementation measurement plan so the results will speak for themselves. They always do and they are most often, very positive.
Forrester actually published a Bank of America study on the change in customer behavior by length of low effort, online banking. I'm sure B of A spent a lot of time and effort to prove this would happen beforehand.
However, it seems to me that operational projects and specifically Customer Experience projects go through another layer of scrutiny. They go through political and cultural barriers of needing "guaranteed" results that marketing seems to be immune to.
Other than quoting other studies and looking at your own customer past behavior data, there are other things you can do as well.
Other studies: There are quite a few out there. I will try to post as many as I can here as I run across them.
Past Customer Behavior Data: This can be very challenging to get to your own data that is retained in data management systems that are harder to penetrate than the political and cultural ones that exist with people. However, this is where the facts and the experience reside. Just make sure you have a control group to stand up to the scrutiny of the eggheads within your company.
I did an analysis where I wanted to promote self-service and how customer behavior would change. Showing two groups of customers with similar, tight credit ratings and how the customer purchasing behavior was different between the two groups based on the channels they chose for service. Those that used on-line, low effort servicing, spent 3 times more than those that did not. Both groups had made purchases on the internet, but the servicing x-factor moved this company up for those that performed self-service.
Best-Worst-Most Likely: One thing that has been very useful for me is to provide a range for people to see and visualize within their own skepticism. If your worst case scenario is still positive, you are in good shape. If it's not, while unfortunate, it does provide your analysis with another degree of credibility that you are just not cooking the books for your own hidden agenda. Working with your biggest critics to define this lower limit also pays huge dividends.
Personal Experience: If you still have your skeptics
Best solution: Use all of them. Triangulating to a solution and then putting a personal experience story on top of it is likely to deliver the fastest approval from the decision makers.
Due Diligence can not be overlooked in today's economy. Make sure you are putting tangible numbers and a documented approach in front of the decision makers as well as a post-implementation measurement plan so the results will speak for themselves. They always do and they are most often, very positive.
Forrester actually published a Bank of America study on the change in customer behavior by length of low effort, online banking. I'm sure B of A spent a lot of time and effort to prove this would happen beforehand.
Attend my free webinar on FCR - Register below with CRMxchange - August 18th, 1pm ET
FREE WEBINAR: The Evolution of FCR – Evaluating the Experience, Not Just the Call - August 18, 1:00 pm EDT
Register here: http://www.crmxchange.com/webcasts/nexidiaaug09.fcr.asp
While most contact centers rely on quality monitoring and data from telephony and CRM systems to measure first call resolution, these approaches usually don’t explain WHY customers call back. However, your customers DO. As a follow up to our April webinar, “The New FCR – Reinventing First Call Resolution with Speech Analytics”, join Nexidia and JC Corrigan, President of Customer Analytics Consulting, at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 18th to learn how you can use advanced speech analytics tools to gain rapid insight into WHY customers call back for targeted improvement. You’ll discover new and innovative ways of thinking about FCR, including: • FCR as an enterprise-wide indicator of inefficient policies, processes, products and agents • Approaching problem resolution from a customer perspective • The importance of understanding what happens before, during and after calls • Leveraging data AND the voice of the customer for a complete view of FCR • Going beyond analyzing calls to evaluate the experience of repeat callers Hear how a global financial services provider used Nexidia’s new FCR analysis tools to identify the root cause of an issue driving 53% of repeat call volume in just 3 days.
If you didn't attend "The New FCR" webinar in April, view the recording to see what you missed at: http://nexidia.com/resources/the_new_fcr__reinventing_first_call_resolution_with_speech_analytics .
Register here: http://www.crmxchange.com/webcasts/nexidiaaug09.fcr.asp
While most contact centers rely on quality monitoring and data from telephony and CRM systems to measure first call resolution, these approaches usually don’t explain WHY customers call back. However, your customers DO. As a follow up to our April webinar, “The New FCR – Reinventing First Call Resolution with Speech Analytics”, join Nexidia and JC Corrigan, President of Customer Analytics Consulting, at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 18th to learn how you can use advanced speech analytics tools to gain rapid insight into WHY customers call back for targeted improvement. You’ll discover new and innovative ways of thinking about FCR, including: • FCR as an enterprise-wide indicator of inefficient policies, processes, products and agents • Approaching problem resolution from a customer perspective • The importance of understanding what happens before, during and after calls • Leveraging data AND the voice of the customer for a complete view of FCR • Going beyond analyzing calls to evaluate the experience of repeat callers Hear how a global financial services provider used Nexidia’s new FCR analysis tools to identify the root cause of an issue driving 53% of repeat call volume in just 3 days.
If you didn't attend "The New FCR" webinar in April, view the recording to see what you missed at: http://nexidia.com/resources/the_new_fcr__reinventing_first_call_resolution_with_speech_analytics .
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