We’ve rung in the new year and 2016 is off to a rip-roaring start. However, now is a good time to reflect on last year. More importantly, how did your customers think you did? Were you on their naughty list? Or will they reward you with their loyalty throughout 2016? To find out more, let’s look at what customers had to say.
So Who Was the Worst? Telco.
In Illustration 1 below, we have analysed a sample of clients from different industries and the least happy customers were in Telco. In fact, their NPS score was negative. When compared with their counterparts in finance, you can see the significant gap.
Illustration 1
Telcos and financial services institutions both have highly complex customer journeys and significant regulatory environments. However, it wasn’t operational challenges that caused this gap. Instead, it was how the customer felt about the employee.
When analyzing ‘Satisfaction with Employee’ following a Call Center interaction, Telco fell well below their financial services counterparts. As you can see from illustration 2, banks and insurance companies had employee satisfaction scores into the 90’s where Telco’s struggle to make the 70’s.
Illustration 2
In this example we’ve seen that employee interaction is critical. However, there are numerous factors that can affect customer experience such as the efficiency of a channel or making sure that your self-service options don’t have dead ends. The best way to know where these road blocks are is through data and listening to the customer.
For the data to be meaningful, it has to be real time and in context. For instance, you want to do frequent pulse checks as you engage with customers. This may mean a traditional survey or a quick text. It may also mean, trying to understand customer emotion when they called you. Regardless, the first step is to make sure you have programs set up to not just ask questions, but listen—and not just to what they say, but how they say it.
A Final Reflection on 2015
If 2015 did not go the way you wanted, don’t be discouraged. Your current NPS or customer satisfaction scores are not etched in stone. In fact if you look at Illustration 3, you’ll see that every vertical we measured improved over 2015. Our quick checklist will help you get started in 2016 and ensure that you are ringing in the New Year with your customers.
Illustration 3
Your New Year’s Customer Resolution Checklist
Download our checklist to make sure that you get off to a great start by having the right kind of data, an aligned team and the right partner. That way you can be sure to be on the NICE list for 2016 and beyond.
Do you have good data on your customers?
- Is it real time?
- Is it easy to interpret and share?
- Does it show you where to take action?
- Can you get more data in flexible ways?
- Are you merely surveying? Or are you capturing emotion?
Is the team aligned behind the goals?
- Do you know where the problems are?
- Have you set improvement targets?
- Are all the stakeholders aligned?
- Do you have shared goals and metrics?
Do you have the right partner?
- Is your program designed to capture the customer experience end-to-end?
- Do you have experts who can share industry best practices and benchmarks?
- Is your system a silo or can you leverage information from other parts of the organization?
Lee Mostari works for NICE Voice of the Customer as the lead for the Customer Success Business Consulting division. Lee’s role is to deliver CX consulting engagements with many brands from the Telco, Retail Bank, Insurance and High Street Retail sectors delivering truly transformational initiatives.