CSM: Implementing Feedback for Customer Satisfaction
by Richard Stevenson
There is no doubt that Customer Relationship Management (CRM) remains a hot topic for many companies. Whether prompted through disparate organization stemming from rapid growth, or simply a fear of being left behind, executives are driving high-dollar projects to implement the best practices.
CRM projects are excellent catalysts, both as an agent of change and as a quantifier of existing solutions and processes. However, they are also excellent opportunities for project sponsors and beneficiaries to step back and fully consider the implications of change.
Organizations have begun to realize that, while CRM adds significant value to their infrastructure, it doesnt necessarily complete the picture and cement the relationship. Numerous surveys have shown that the cost of soliciting new customers far exceeds that of ensuring loyalty and customer retention. Yet, organizations continue to take orders, generate invoices and assume that their products and services fully meet customer expectations.
How do your customers view you?
A CRM solution will successfully build a history of transactions with your customers. What it does not always provide for are mechanisms to identify and capture customer responses or feedback the customers view of your relationship an essential element for successful forecasting and future growth.
If you need to know, for example, how many of xyz product was sold to the European headquarters of ABC Company at full price in the last 6 months, CRM should provide instant answers. Unfortunately, it doesnt tell you how happy the customer was with his purchase, whether he will purchase again, or even if he is considering alternative, competitive products.
Customer Service Management
Forward-thinking executives are now extending their requirements analysis to address this shortfall. Providing customers with easy access to service and support is a significant step forward, but adding the ability to pro-actively solicit and capture customer feedback considerably enhances value by completing the relationship cycle. CRM projects should consider and fully address the role of Customer Service Management (CSM). CSM is evolving into next generation software solutions that complete the customer relationship picture.
Primary amongst CSM offerings should be the ability to solicit and capture customer feedback. Whether initiated following a purchase or a service request, or pro-actively via a more generic how are you survey, the ability to capture such information significantly adds to an organizations arsenal of knowledge about a customer.
Enabling and managing feedback provides executives with a more complete picture of the customer. In addition to knowing what the customer purchased, we now know, for example, the customers opinions on the quality of service or products received during the purchase process. If the customer subsequently accessed your service or support center, we can analyze why he did so and solicit further and more detailed feedback.
Defining Feedback Mechanisms
Capturing qualified feedback, however, is not always as simple as it sounds. Organizations need to consider natural human tendencies in that, once a transaction is complete, the customer may have no further interest in communicating with you. We also have to take into account that different mechanisms will potentially yield different results.
Whilst following up with customers by telephone is a positive step forward, it can often paint a less than accurate picture. The customer, even if responsive to your advance, will likely give less thought to his response if only to shorten the length of the call. Additionally, voice responses still require interpretation and subsequent data entry by the person making the call, thus increasing the potential for inaccuracy.
To encourage responses, feedback should ideally be requested in the form of short, easy surveys, delivered via personalized email, or online via CSM. The majority of customers will prefer the perceived anonymity, and are likely to spend more time deliberating their response. To achieve maximum benefit, surveys should be relevant and ideally related directly to the customers activity. Providing single-click, multiple-choice answers to questions makes it easy for the respondent, while each survey should always include an area allowing free-form text.
Your Employees are also your Customers
The term customer, as used above, relates to the traditional concept of a customer. However, customers are not just external organizations that purchase product and pay your invoices. Each and every one of your employees is also a customer, with a wealth of information about your organization, your processes, and your external customers. For example, virtually all of your employees are customers of your Human Resources, Payroll, and Information Technology departments.
Customer retention, therefore, must naturally extend to employee retention. The more your employees understand how to make your business successful, the more valuable they become to you. Consequently, the solicitation of feedback should propagate throughout your organization, thus promoting positive attitudes while increasing the chances of collating hitherto unknown information about your external customers.
In Summary
Feedback is a valuable tool that will help you to determine the probability of continued business from a customer. If feedback received is positive, a simple follow-up and thank you will go a long way to ensure his loyalty. If feedback is negative, it provides a valuable opportunity to correct the situation by allowing for relevant personnel to address the issue directly.
About CobbleSoft and CSM
CobbleSoft International is the developer of COIGN Enterprise, the industrys first true CSM solution. Through COIGN, CobbleSoft promotes comprehensive CSM best-practice functionality from areas such as helpdesk, web self-service, knowledge-based solutions, and survey management for complete customer satisfaction and organizational profitability.
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