Keith Schorah
Member Since: 29th Apr 2010
Managing Director at Maru/Syngro - passionate about enhancing customer experiences.
Maru/SynGro is a leading Customer Experience technology company providing next generation Customer Experience reporting, analytics, and performance management software to empower enterprises with the customer insight they need to drive profitable action. Our global clients integrate omnichannel customer feedback with financial, operational, and CRM data to make business improvements of unambiguous value.
Our clients collect and act on customer insight from more than 80 countries and in 30 different languages.
Managing Director Maru/SynGro
My answers
Hi Robert,
Thanks for this article. I agree wholeheartedly that organisations simply cannot afford to ignore their customers nor their feedback. If they choose to ignore customer feedback they will ultimately lose out to competitors who are more than happy to listen and engage with the ‘voice of the customer’.
As you mention times are changing especially when it comes to social media, with negative referrals often spreading like wildfire! Just look at Eurostar as an example of this.
In summary organisations that wake up and smell the coffee now will be miles ahead of others in the future. Organisations need to start taking customer feedback seriously and they need to start doing it now!
All the best,
Keith Schorah
http://www.syngro.com
http://blog.syngro.com
I recently saw some Forrester Research on customer experience programmes which cited a lack of senior management involvement as one of the main obstacles for improving the customer experience. I have written a few blog topics on CEO involvement in customer experience initiatives. These can be viewed on the SynGro blog if anyone is interested in reading more about the CEO and his/her involvement in customer feedback programmes. http://blog.syngro.com/post/2010/06/23/Customer-engagement-the-CEO-you-should-be!.aspx
The FSA are cracking down on our top banks, criticising the way the deal with unhappy customers, and rightly so. Dealing with customer complaints and issues is part and parcel of a service industry, which banks surely are. At SynGro we have seen an increase in companies seeking (complaint handling) strategies to help them to manage customer feedback in an efficient, timely manner. Banks should now be forced to recognise the importance of handling customer complaints effectively, realising that strategic efforts in this area can result in increased customer loyalty and retention, which benefit everyone in the long run.