CCW: Future Mapping for Customer Satisfaction and Revenue Boost
Written By Randy Arellano, VP of Sales and Marketing
I’m looking forward to the Customer Contact West event hosted by Frost & Sullivan later this month. It’s taking place on October 22-25 at Huntingdon Beach, CA, and the agenda is packed with interesting speakers and ideas.
Frost & Sullivan excel at hosting events that really focus on mindshare – a process they call MindXchange. I think this is something that is missing at many conferences where speakers deliver PowerPoint presentations to an audience that often knows just as much about the industry – tapping into the skills and knowledge of the audience is an important part of these events.
I’m going to be presenting on Day 3 with my colleague Ali Karim, the director of engineering at DATAMARK. Ali has a very interesting career history with some time working on an Apple Genius Bar and as an aerodynamics engineer for Boeing. He knows engineering inside out, whether it’s your phone or the wing of an enormous Boeing jet.
This attention to engineering detail is useful because our session at Customer Contact West is focused on ‘Structuring Your Process Improvement Mapping.’
Process Improvement Mapping
Ali and I will host a collaborative think tank session that explores our approach to transformation. This is a subject that I think is often overlooked when people talk about Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).
Our company manages many different processes for our clients. It might be customer service, data capture, or document processing and storage. Our clients usually manage these processes in-house and turn to us for advice and expertise. Sometimes they may already have a partner, but they want to transition to a new partner with a different approach.
No matter how the transition appears, there will be a shift of processes from one company to another. In this case, Datamark assumes responsibility for the processes that were initially handled by the client.
Opportunities to Improve
This transition is where the opportunity exists to transform these processes. When a client says to our team ‘this is how we manage this today’ we don’t just make notes and emulate the process. We dig into every single process and ask why? Why was this process designed like this? How could it be improved? What are the issues you face at present?
The moment a process is handed over to a partner presents an ideal opportunity for transformation. This transformation may not occur immediately. Perhaps the safest approach is to handle everything exactly as it was previously, and then gradually develop a roadmap to transition from the current state to a significantly improved future state.
Process improvement can be applied in many different ways. Improvement may mean greater productivity, lower costs, a faster process, or the ability to do something entirely new.
Ali and I will be demonstrating how to approach a business process with an open mind – to understand what is taking place today, but also how to think about what could be changed tomorrow and what impact that change will have on the process.
The Value in Process Improvement
This is a critical skill inside BPO. Customer service is a great example of a business process that is often considered to be a necessary cost – you sold the customer a product, so you need to be available if they have any problems.
But this discussion can be approached entirely differently. What is the value in retaining customers compared to the cost of marketing to new ones? Can you charge a premium price if you deliver best-in-class customer service? Can you create a strong focus on growing the total-lifetime-value of each customer?
McKinsey research has suggested that customer experience leaders dramatically outperform their peers on revenue growth. Since 2016, companies that are seen as leaders in their approach to designing a great customer experience grew revenue over twice as much as peer group companies. Twice!
One perspective is that customer service is a cost to the business. Another is that well-designed customer service processes make it easier to retain customers, easier to attract new ones, and can directly contribute to business growth. Which do you agree with?
The difference between these perspectives is how you design your process improvement roadmap. Can you see a future where your business operates more efficiently and productively and delivers exactly what your customers need?
Want to Know More?
Please come and join our session live at Customer Contact West where we will be discussing these ideas and how to get started on mapping and prioritizing which processes can be improved – and how.
For more information on Customer Contact West with Frost & Sullivan please click here – and if you are planning to attend then please do say hello at the event!
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