CEM Gets a Complement

Schwarts said it is important to capture feedback at the point of interaction with the customer rather than after some analytics or when it is convenient to do a survey. One of the ways the company does this is by integrating their software with its customers’ Customer Relationship Management systems in order to automatically solicit information from customers at the point of interaction, such as when a new service is used or an existing service interrupted.

CRM data can be combined with the Confirmit Horizons solution to identify and solicit high-value versus low-value customers. This helps operators send dissatisfaction alerts directly to customer service departments who can then reach out to customers either in response to particular questions from a survey or at the point of interaction.

“Having alerts set up around the point of experience can help you manage individual cases and plays a big role in turning a bad experience into a good one,” Schwartz said.

This also addresses one of the main problems with relying on simple surveys. According to Gartner, not enough companies keep their customers in the loop regarding their feedback. Ninety-five percent of companies collect feedback from customers, but only 5 percent inform customers what they have done with that feedback. In a report from 2006, Gartner identified seven key initiatives for feedback management. Acting on feedback was number one.

“Companies that fail to respond to customer feedback are throwing away the chance to increase the number of satisfied and loyal customers,” the report said.

There’s another problem with surveys. “Everybody in the company wants in,” Schwartz said. “They think it might be the only time they’ll talk to the customer so surveys get bloated with 50 or more questions. By focusing around the point of experience, you can be more focused, ask fewer questions and define the drivers behind satisfaction.”

Besides, Gartner said that feedback collected immediately after an event is 40 percent more accurate than feedback collected just 24 hours afterwards. Response rates also increase by 10 to 12 percent.

As technology evolves, so too do the ways of reaching out to customers. Comcast has adopted Twitter as one of them. The University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index recently attributed Comcast’s 9 percent improvement in customer satisfaction in part to its use of Twitter and blogs. Business Week recently called Comcast’s director of digital care, Frank Eliason, the most famous customer service manager in the U.S. for his use of Twitter for customer service contacts.