The benefits and best practices of a unified CEM program

Using case study examples, Russ Haswell of Medallia, Inc. looks at unifying organisational siloes with customer experience management.

 

 

 

Imagine a world of CEM unification. Does the CEO of a Fortune 500 company have his finger on the pulse of what millions of customers think about his company?

 

When he logs into his company’s metrics dashboard, he sees 'Promoter Score: 62', a high rating. By itself, that number is a single measure of customer health, but, similar to key financial measures like Net Profit and Revenue Growth, it doesn’t tell him enough about what areas of the company are driving that number. To find out why customers value his company so much, he can, with one click, break down the score by touchpoint (brick-and-mortar, ecommerce, contact centre), by brand, or even further - by individual stores or agents. He can also track performance over time.

 

The health of the organisation from the perspective of the customer is at his fingertips. The information is not overwhelming, but it is not too simplistic, either.

 

Does a call centre agent in the same organisation have real-time access to how the 50 customers he served today feel about his performance and, by extension, the company’s?

 

When the agent logs into his dashboard, which is customised to his role, it displays 'Promoter Score: 59'. To find out why customers value his service so much, he can, with one click, delve into verbatim customer comments. He can also benchmark himself against his top-performing co-workers to discover best practices that might help him improve.

 

This system unifies the organisation around a single metric by making it relevant to everyone. It tells the CEO that his company is a leader in experience, which delivers value to customers and shareholders across the organisation. It tells the call centre agent that he is a leader in experience whose performance impacts that of the overall organisation. This level of unification is possible only when the entire organisation leverages a single platform to embrace a single metric.

 

The benefits of a unified system are measurable. When a global athletic merchandiser consolidated its multiple programs - for stores, web channels, and call centres - onto one metric (Promoter Score) and one platform, it achieved a 5-7%score increase across channels, as well as a 10% decrease in dissatisfied customers. Other benefits include cost savings (one subscription vs. many) and internal consistency (no need to train inside transfers).

 

 

Unfortunately, too often, companies end up with separate, siloed programs by happenstance. They shop around for a contact centre solution, then add a separate platform for point-of-sale surveying. And so it goes as the company grows until, before long, it has too many platforms to keep straight. The result is less than optimal.