(How To_205 Pamper Your Custome...)

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How to... pamper your customersIf

customer care makes you think of smiley staff and comfy chairs youre missing

half the picture. Real customercentricity requires backroom gadgetry

The customer is always right. In theory. In practice, customers often get

trampled as companies forge ahead with short-term objectives. Yet gett ing to

know your customers and keeping them happy can be the most effective way tomeet financial targets in the long term; happy customers come back time and

again.

But smiles, free extras and simple courtesies all too rare and to be celebrated

will only carry a company so far. In the cut-throat world of modern business,

recognising a customers needs requires an investment in insight and that

means technology. To understand how best to serve your customers, you must

understand how and where they interact with your business and exactly what will

persuade them to stick with you through thick and thin.

Milking your data dry

The relentless march of IT services means there are now a plethora of

technologies to track customer details and behaviour. These can be bought off

the shelf, but the real art lies in managing the data to produce a meaningful

picture of the customer. The ultimate aim of database marketing is to build what

is known as the single customer view (SCV). This involves amalgamating all data

sources to produce as full a picture as possible of your customer.

Creating the SCV can take time, but, once in place, it can help a company make

informed decisions about how best to serve its customers. Once you have

access to all the transactional data you can see if a customer is worth 1,000 a

year to your business or 50. And once you know that, whose problems do you

want to solve first? says Andy Wood, managing director of database marketing

firm GI Insight.

Avoiding system overload

The killer software most companies will invest in is customer relationship

management or CRM. This technology has earned itself a mixed reputation over

the years, due to mishandling by the overzealous: People get caught up in the

technology and lose sight of the business objectives, says John Haigh, head of

CRM at software firm CPiO.

Used correctly, CRM software can revolutionise customer service, particularly in

smaller companies where manpower is limited and customer retention a vital

factor.

Online data storage company Clunk Click serves a diverse range of SME

customers and recently installed a CRM system to improve both inbound and

outbound communications: When someone calls we instantly know what they

have bought from us, when they bought it and what level of service they require,

says Jeremy Keane, head of operations. We have a three-man support team

and call turnover time is now a lot quicker than it was.

CRM efficiencies also come into play in outbound communications: If I need to

tell customers about a possible service interruption because of an upgrade, I can

do so in five minutes, adds Keane.

Touchy customers

Every time a customer comes into contact with a business, that organisation has

an opportunity to impress. Carefully managing these various touchpoints can

make all the difference to the customer experience.

Related Links

Premier Inn

Related Articles

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Beware of Word ofMouth

New Year, New Insight

"When used corectly,

CRM software can

revolutionise customerservice and retention"

w to pamper your customers - The Marketer magazine http://www.themarketer.co.uk/articles/how-to/how-to-pamper-your-cu...

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In the past the telephone was king and call centres dominated customer

relations. But the creeping presence of the internet means other channels are

now available in the form of e-mail and online forums, as well as mobile

technologies such as SMS.

Each channel has to be catered for if the whole audience is to be served: You

have to be able to respond to customers on the channel they choose, says Phil

Shuldham-Legh, director of communications at contact centre operators The

Listening Company. They dont want to repeat themselves, so if they contacted

you via a web form they expect you to have that information to hand if they ring acall centre.

Vodafone is one company taking customer service via the web very seriously.

Two years ago its customer service team noticed that more customers were

popping up in online forums with queries about the companys phone service.

Gradually we began to intervene on the forums, helping customers who were

having difficulty getting a mobile to perform, says David Morgan, head of eCare

for Vodafone UK.

The company then decided to take this process a step further by setting up its

own online forum. This allows the team to help with very specific technical

queries, as well as more general mobile questions, and we can use the contentmore effectively by linking to and from it, maximising value to customers, says

Morgan.

For Vodafone, the forum is one of many customer service channels, but one that

serves a particular niche: We believe were helping customers who might not

have otherwise contacted us and would have struggled on or just not used a

service properly or at all. We are filling a customer service gap, says Morgan.

Important though these new channels are, the telephone remains the weapon of

choice for customers with a complaint to make. When it comes to calming irate

customers, simple techniques such as picking the phone up after no more than

three rings are good practice. But todays demanding customer requires more

concrete results: Weve moved away from call pick-up rates as a measure of

good service to call resolution, says Shuldham-Legh.

If you focus on resolving a callers problem you will probably listen more closely

to what that caller actually wants. High call volume could actually be a sign that

the level of problem resolution is low. So ask yourself, are you taking 10,000

calls a day or just 1,000 customers calling 10 t imes to get their problem

resolved? he says.

Marks out of 10

Waiting for the customer to come to you could leave you under the mistaken

impression that everything is perfect. Ultimately, to know what your customersreally want, you have to go and ask them.

In the hotel industry excellent customer service is essential to retain market

share. Disgruntled guests often simply check out without reporting their

grievances.

Two years ago the UKs largest budget hotel chain, Premier Inn, realised its

customer feedback process was not working. Guests were invited to complete

feedback cards in their rooms but these often went missing, says Gerard

Tempest, marketing director at Premier Inn.

The company called on the services of research group ORC International and

together they streamlined the process. We now regularly email 100,000 guestswithin 48 hours of their visit and get a 35 per cent response rate, says

Tempest.

By asking the latest customers what they think of its service, Premier is able to

tailor its product to their needs. Were not interested in just satisfying our


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Case study: Betting on data for better customer service

Gathering customer information was never the issue for online betting service

Betfair the challenge was making sense of the information collected

customers needs, but in providing an experience that is so good they

recommend us to others, so we look for those who score us five out of f ive.

Some of the results of this intense feedback process are often surprising and

have led to significant tweaks in the customer experience: The scores for our

breakfasts were not as high as other parts of the process so we increased the

range and quality and in the process converted more sleepers into diners as

well, says Tempest. Business customers also suggested that the range of TV

channels wasnt all it could be, so were now rolling out Freeview.

Addictive quality

Excellent customer service is not the sole domain of the larger enterprise

SMEs also have the potential to shine.

At the opposite end of the scale from Premiers established hotel brand is Umi, a

start-up hotel business that has one outlet in London and is planning to open

another in Brighton this summer.

Founder and general manager Steven Lowy launched the company also at the

budget end of the market after an eye-opening backpacking trip: I noticed that

backpacker hostels in Vietnam charging 50p a night offered better customer

service than many London hotels.

Umi aims to offer five-star service in a three-star hotel and, after just a year in

business, Lowy is already reaping the rewards of its high service standards in

terms of customer loyalty.

We make a point of remembering details such as what a guest likes to drink, so

after five visits a chilled bottle will be waiting for them in their room, says Lowy.

This individual approach is obviously working to inspire loyalty: In its old guise

as The Westminster this hotel had just three regular guests. We now have a pool

of 35, he says.

In consumer markets loyalty mechanisms such as points cards can help ensure

customers stay faithful to a brand. In a B2B context, such simple mechanics are

frowned upon in favour of the personal touch. In B2B markets more than

anywhere else, people buy people, says Chris Hare, client service director of

B2B marketing agency Gyro International.

Customers have a lot of factors shaping their decisions they will constantly be

reviewing prices and loyalty comes from the account manager who

understands their issues and resolves them quickly.

A company that has built its reputation, and considerable market loyalty, on

excellent B2B service is Star Technology. This internet service provider focuses

on the SME market and has won numerous awards for the service it offers to

3,800 businesses nationwide.

Kevin Wright, customer service manager for London, explains how he keepsservices up to scratch: First, we are local, with regional offices serving local

customers. Second, we have face-to-face meetings with our top-line customers

at least quarterly to devise a support plan for them. Finally, every customer is

given an escalation document with the mobile numbers of the regional and

operations directors so that they know how to promote an issue until it is

solved.

Perhaps the policy of distributing the mobile numbers of senior managers to

customers is just whats needed to ensure excellent customer service across all

businesses.

Dos and donts

Do collate customer

information to build the

fullest picture of your

customer base and

preferences.

Do give relevant

customer data to

frontline staff so theyrecognise customers

contacting the business.

Do give frontline staff the

power to resolve a

customers problems

rather than fobbing them

off with excuses.

Do offer customers all

available channels to

contact you telephone,

mobile, e-mail and

internet.Do aim to build loyalty by

creating a closer

relationship dont t ry to

buy it through

giveaways.

Do remember its much

more cost effective to

retain a happy customer

than acquire a new one.

Don't make promises

you cant keep. Its

impossible to devote the

same resources to allcustomers. Some are

more important than

others and worth a

greater investment.

Don't assume everyone

picks up the telephone

when they want to talk to

you look to the web.

Don't expect technology

to answer all your

customer service issues.

Technology can help tobuild closer relationships,

but it is better to focus

on customer needs

rather than technical

capability.

Don't assume that all

feedback from

customers is genuine

not all complaints make it

through your feedback

loop and you may have

to go to the customer to

get a true impression of

your service.


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We had customers opening different accounts to bet on different sporting

events. It was hard to tell if these were the same customer at different life

stages or different customers altogether, says Martin Ruddy, previously head

of data and planning at Betfair and currently an independent consultant for the

company.

This situation was confusing for both the business and the punters, who might

be contacted by the company many times in one week.

To build a single customer view (SCV), Betfair turned to data specialists

CDMS to help clean up its database. Records were cross-referenced andduplicates removed so that customers could enjoy the benefits of personalised

communications, such as reports on betting patterns in specific sports.

Triggers were also monitored to spot situations where a customer needed

help: If someone signs up and doesnt bet or suddenly stops betting, we send

an e-mail to find out why and offer help, says Ruddy.

Better data means a clearer picture of the customer and the ability to predict

their needs: Now we can build propensity models that allow us to upsell and

cross-sell new services based on preferences those customers show.

As Betfair refines its SCV it is building closer customer relationships. We are

now putting customers into five or six segments, says Ruddy, but we hope toincrease that to five or six hundred segments.

Patrick Dye is a freelance journalist and former editor of Mad.co.uk


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(How To_205 Pamper Your Custome...)