Allegiance Blog

I say “to-may-to,” you say “to-mah-to.” I say “customer interaction map,” you say “customer journey map” – or customer corridor or service blueprint or … well, you get the idea. Whatever you call it, it plays a crucial part in defining your overall VOC initiative.

So, where do we begin? Let’s go back to a blog I wrote a couple of months ago about the brand promise. Recall that the brand promise is the expectation that you set about your brand with your customers. Each of your touchpoints reinforces and fulfills the brand’s promise. Creating a customer interaction map forces you to think about the customer lifecycle and to consider or visualize the experience at each touchpoint – and ultimately, it identifies where the brand promise is broken.

During this process, it is important to remember that the customer should always be at the heart of any decisions made or actions taken by your company.  The experience cannot be designed without giving the customer a seat at the table.

Before you begin to create your interaction map, you must first identify who your customers are. Do you segment your customers? Do you cater differently to different types of customers? Do different customer types have different interactions or touchpoints with your organization? Will the map look different for different customers?

Next, identify the touchpoints along your customer lifecycle. Start not with the purchase, but long before that – when you’re just a thought in the customer’s mind, part of the consideration set. End with the customer’s exit or cancellation; remember that, even when a customer cancels your services or terminates usage of your product, it is an important interaction to do well.

Finally, identify the following for each individual touchpoint. Lay out the map in such a way that you identify which of these are customer-facing and which are behind-the-scenes.

• which specific interactions occur at that touchpoint
• which processes support that touchpoint
• which people support those processes
• who owns the touchpoint and its related interactions and processes
• who the customer interacts with what the specific outcome for that touchpoint should be
• which tools are used during the interaction at the touchpoint
• what customer data are gathered at the touchpoint
• which metrics are tracked at the touchpoint
• which pain points you’re aware of, and
• what the ideal customer experience ought to be

From a practitioner’s viewpoint, this map clearly helps you understand when, where, and with whom interactions occur; it’s important to do prior to designing surveys (both customer and employee) for each touchpoint. It also helps you to identify other customer and operational data that you’ll want to pull into the initiative in order to make your surveys, analysis, and action planning more relevant, personalized, and actionable. It might also identify other customer feedback inputs besides surveys (e.g., online communities, tech support forums, support calls, etc.) that should be tied back to the survey data for that touchpoint.

The customer interaction map is important to introduce as you roll out your program to the larger organization. It can help the various departments and business units understand the customer lifecycle while helping to break down silos and pull the organization together to work toward one common goal: a superior customer experience.

It’s simple. Start with the brand promise, identify touchpoints and determine which are most important/influential (not all touchpoints are created equal); outline the optimal experience (from the customer’s perspective) at each; and rally the organization to deliver it!

I love Wikipedia. It’s great for confirming or denying facts, pseudofacts, rumors etc.

I was curious this evening about ostriches. Specifically, whether ostriches really bury their heads in the sand to avoid facing things. This is what I found: “Contrary to popular belief, ostriches do not bury their heads in the sand…When threatened, ostriches run away.”

I guess the same thing can be said of some organizations when it comes to listening to their customers. They don’t exactly bury their heads in the sand–they just run away or abandon an avenue for customer feedback.

I recently read an article about a decision that a major airline made to drop a customer call center that took compliments or complaints after a flight, telling customers to send a letter or e-mail instead. The airline said it would stop publishing its customer relations phone number, which will be turned off altogether at the end of April. A spokeswoman for the airline said that the company is able to respond better to customers who write, since they often include more detail, making it possible to provide a more specific response. “We did a lot of research, we looked into it, and people who e-mail or write us are more satisfied with our responses,” she said.

I’m not saying that the above statement is false. In fact, those who wrote or sent an e-mail may have been more satisfied with the responses they received. But after reading the article I asked myself why the aforementioned customers would be more satisfied with those answers vs. a phone call.

I thought about my own role as a director of customer care, as well as the last complaint that I personally made to a company as a consumer/customer. Take a walk with me for a minute…

Do you recall the last thing that really annoyed or upset you about a product or service? Why do I immediately jump to a complaint? Well, because let’s be real – Most people don’t have the same sense of urgency when it comes to paying a compliment as they do in getting a problem or concern that they have resolved. I’d also like to point out (as a director of customer care) that when customers complain, it’s one of the best opportunities to increase their loyalty and engagement–as long as the company that the customer is dealing with responds promptly and positively to their complaint.

After all, put yourself in your customer’s place. When you’re upset and ready to “vent your spleen” what do you reach for first? Your keyboard? Your pen? Your phone? Etc. I know which one I’d go for first, but I’ll get into that in a minute.  

My point is that I’m willing to bet that if I took a survey asking which form of communication people would prefer to voice a complaint, I’d get a number of different answers. Because each individual is different, their choice for communication is different. But what is critical is that a customer has a choice! By removing one of those choices (no matter what the justification) you cut off a way for a certain group of customers to communicate with you–many of whom can provide you with valuable feedback. You also send a message to your customers that you don’t care enough about them to listen to them–in whatever way they choose to communicate with you. You can tell your  customers that they’ll provide you with more valuable feedback by communicating differently with you, but you’re telling and asking *them* to change (i.e. that’s not good for building loyal and engaged customers) instead of taking a look at what your business needs to do and/or how your business needs to change to better meet your customers’ needs and resolve their concerns.  

O.K. Back to the last time that I personally had an issue with a company. What did I do? I picked up the phone and called first. I didn’t feel like composing a letter or sending an email. I wanted another human being to hear me and acknowledge I was being heard. By the way, I never got a hold of anyone to register my complaint, so I then composed an e-mail to them to let them know that they needed to contact me to avoid losing my business. I haven’t heard anything back yet (it’s been several days).

Oh and by the way,it was an airline.

Did anyone just hear the sound of a running (and flying) ostrich?

Kevin Mellander
Director, Customer Care

In the consulting work that I do with companies, I find that businesses looking for ways to increase their sales and profits often overlook a critical ingredient: employee engagement.

The reason this is an important ingredient is because there is a direct connection between employee engagement and customer engagement, otherwise known as “The Spillover Effect”.

For example, in their book, Return on Customer: A Revolutionary Way to Measure and Strengthen Your Business, Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, founders of management consultancy Peppers & Rogers Group, emphasize that “Motivated employees are clearly more productive and keep a company’s employee churn rate down, which lowers expenses. Yet they also have a profound impact on customers as well by creating positive experiences through efficient and smart customer service.”

And, my colleague, Dr. David Whitlark and I, have also found this to be true. For example, in a large research study that we conducted on engagement, we found that one out of every 10 customers was hurt by disengaged employees. We also found that the work environment combined with employee attitudes has a significant impact on a customer’s perception of quality. For this reason, it’s important that companies lead with their strengths, emphasize the positives, and remove the barriers that lead employees to be disengaged with their jobs, their organization and customers.

After all, in the end, the Spillover Effect is much more than a discussion about employee happiness. It is about emotional engagement that is continually shared from employee to employee, employee to customer and customer to customer. And it is a concept that encompasses and impacts all aspects of a business, ranging from company culture to profits.

Companies that understand and leverage the Spillover Effect to their advantage will realize higher customer and employee engagement, and ultimately, greater profits.

To learn more about this topic, read the new Allegiance “Spillover Effect” white paper.

Dr. Gary Rhoads, Allegiance Loyalty and Engagement Expert

It is interesting to sometimes eavesdrop on shoppers and listen to their candid comments about an establishment they have visited. You will definitely hear different comments and points of view. If a company would like to know the needs and desires of its customers, then conducting a customer survey is one of the best tools to use.

There are 3 areas of customer survey which are all essential for the company to know.

Customer Service Survey

The objective here is to provide the company with valuable data from customer feedback. Management could then improve the service of the company to become more competitive in its field. It could also provide the management team with guidelines for strategic planning and decision-making.

Customer Satisfaction Survey

This area concerns the products, services, pricing, and satisfaction with the business relationship. The details in this survey directly give vital feedback from customers regarding their desires, wants and needs. These data are essential for the growth of the company. Here, the behavior of the customers is revealed through the answers they give. With it, management could make adjustments to suit the satisfaction of customers.

Customer Loss Review Results

Being able to win back one customer is like winning back a thousand or more. It is therefore important to know the reasons why the customer has stopped doing business with the company. There is a need to identify the root cause of the problem. If winning back the customer is no longer possible, it is imperative to take corrective measures so as to prevent the future loss of customers.