Customer Focus The Competitive Edge

As business technology is becoming an even playing field forcing competing companies into match play duals for market share, the customer has once more come into focus and the primary competitive force. The drivers of this refocus include:

1. Product development timelines have shortened
2. Product lifecycles have shortened
3. Brand loyalty has faded
4. Stickiness is reducing

The two ways in which technology can help a company gain this competitive customer edge are:

1. improving how data is collected and analyzed to better serve customers.
2. deploy technology to improve customer product and service support.

Customer Data

Over years of consulting in large companies I have been staggered at how little relevance appears to have been given to the value of customer data held is a variety of legacy systems. Even today - many companies do not use the valuable asset they have to their advantage to really get to know their customers and understand thier needs.

Customer Support

Many of us have experienced the frustration of fledging attempts to automate customer support. How many times have you dealt with:

• IVR systems that take you everywhere except where you need to go
• IVR systems that make you go through expanded advertisements or announcements before you can get to any action point
• badly designed customer care portals that seem determined to hide contact phone numbers of email addresses under layers and layers of FAQ's
• Voice Response systems that don't understand what you say, or give you the options you need.

Neither of these two items are difficult to get right, yet time and time again I am amazed at how poorly implemented they are.

Social-Technical Systems

A common mistake in deploying customer facing technology is not making compensating changes in process.

If you design a technology, you have to also design the process of the humans doing the work. The technology is purely a command center. Customers need to learn to trust that if they interact with the technology, what they are asking will be done.

There has to be sufficient incentive for the customer to input the data required and play their part in the support interface.

This also applies to new technologies. How can VOIP possibly gain favore when so many customers are struggling to get a reasonable broadband service for their Internet browsing.

Overcoming Technology Blocks

To overcome the block many customers have developed to initial attempts to improve customer service using technology, several things can be done:

1. Give customers tracking capability on their action input.
2. If using a voice message - provide recordings by email to customers
3. Provide incentives for using new technology such as customer care portals
4. Perform regular surveys on customers who have used, or attempted to use customer technology. Then follow up on their suggestions!

Product Centric Vs Customer Centric

Companies often confuse "product-centric" with "customer-centric"

• A product-centric company will try to find as many customers as possible for their product.
• A customer-centric company wil try to find as many value enhancing products and experiences as possible for your customers.

They key is to be solutions focused as opposed to product focused.

Being customer-centric means knowing a great deal about your customer; then designing a product and service line to benefit them.

There are times that warrant being product-centric, for instance, if you have a product that is competitively distinct. In most cases, product advantages erode quickly as time to develop like versions or more evolved products is today, rather short.

Products can be made distinctive by appending supporting services around them. Such bundles help deepen customer relationships in a more enduring manner, than a line of one-off transactions. The experience the customer has in engaging and using these services helps to build their brand experience with you, contributing to loyalty value.

Product Roadmaps

Rapid product development and introduction of supporting services is giving more power to your customers.

Use technology to communicate with your customer in multiple ways to get feedback,references and referrals. As consumers are becoming more technology savvy and more demanding, they welcome the opportunity to input into new product and service features.

Reward them for their efforts - make them an integral part of your product roadmap process.

Overall, using technology as a touchpoint to your customer MUST be a positive experience for the cusotmer, and not just a cost saving benefit for your company. Keep the human element alive as much as possible and get as much feedback as you possibly can.

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