Most business owners and executives would concur that customer satisfaction is key to long-term business success. And yet, it doesn’t take much these days to lose a customer. Even if customers are satisfied, they may switch companies. After all, Business Week has reported that 60% and 80% of defecting customers describe themselves as “satisfied” or “very satisfied” just before they leave. Especially in today’s challenging economic environment, customer satisfaction is not enough.
Customer actions should be measured by more than customer satisfaction. A more accurate metric to measure and improve is Customer Engagement, i.e., how passionate, loyal, and energetic customers are when doing business with a firm. Engaged Customers will jump at the chance to advocate for your brand, simply because they are so happywith their own experience with your company. To maintain engaged--rather than simply satisfied--customers, it’s crucial to consistently gather customer feedback. Today, we’ll highlight the importance of organizing such feedback, so that managers can quickly respond to customers’ problems.
Why focus on the administrative, organizational side of things? Because it's very difficult to efficiently respond to customer complaints if your organizational system is broken. In fact, the ability to quickly, enthusiastically resolve customers’ problems is often what distinguishes organizations with sky-high levels of Customer Engagement. To see how swift, satisfying problem solving can win lifelong customers, consider the Ritz-Carlton. The Ritz-Carlton is well known for doing whatever it takes to form positive emotional relationships with their customers. And their guests reward them for it: the 2009 MEC report found that 80% of the Ritz-Carlton’s customers are engaged.
Unlike many research companies, PeopleMetrics delivers both aggregate trends and day-to-day tools for helping managers drill down on specific customer complaints. PeopleMetrics’ CEM (Customer Engagement Management) tools can help any organization quickly spot, respond to, and remember customer issues. They show actions taken on each customer account, and they can easily work with an organizations current CRM software. Here’s a brief overview of the CEM tools PeopleMetrics offers:
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Action Alerts: Action alerts are sent out right after a customer submits feedback. The alerts are sent to designated people in the organization who are responsible for that particular client or business area. These alerts are categorized based on the clients' feedback. There are four types of Action Alerts: Recover, Grow, Recognize, and Market. Our clients love that customer feedback is immediately labeled, shared and tracked.
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Action Alert Management: Once an Action Alert is sent out, a case is created in the CEM hub. It is assigned to a certain employee of the organization who is responsible for follow-up. As the case is resolved, the manager or supervisor can track it and close it once the customers’ concerns have been fully resolved. PeopleMetrics also provides suggestions on which actions will be the most effective for each type of Action Alert. Results can be tracked, recorded, and shared with the entire organization.
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Manager Dashboard and Action Taking Hub: This tool identifies which areas offer the greatest opportunities for improving Customer Engagement. Included in this tool is PeopleMetrics’ proprietary library of best-practices actions for increasing Customer Engagement. Managers who are incentivized according to Customer Engagement scores will find these assets especially useful.
With these tools, PeopleMetrics’ clients have been able to organize customer feedback, optimizing operations and enabling them to take targeting action to increase Customer Engagement. Click here to learn more about PeopleMetrics’ Customer Engagement Management solution.
–Kate Feather
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