How Giving the Client Full Control to Further develop Client Experience : Anand Natarajan, Head of Technique and Business Execution, Fullerton India Credit Organization Ltd

The consumer market is undergoing a tectonic change, with new technologies and computing capabilities challenging current structures. Customers are getting more proficient in using emerging technologies, have a stronger presence, are communicating more vigorously across channels, and are more active on online platforms shopping, comparing, recommending, and reviewing products.

Instead, customers are comparing them against an overall range of consumer products, across channels, and media. Customer service, hitherto an ‘add-on’ (and often an outsourced function) in a company’s product delivery, is now coming up front and center and is now engaging the Board Room’s attention. Companies are focusing on enhancing the customer experience – of all the initiatives, the following are perhaps the most relevant and the most influential:

Mobiles offer an easy way for consumers to search, obtain information and interact in real-time at a point of sale, making mobile the first line for customer service, and an area that many companies are focusing their efforts on. Features increasingly available in the handset offer more opportunities for customer interaction. For example, using a mobile video chat, a customer service agent can more easily understand the customer's issue and resolve the issue on the fly.

Studies have established that however strong your service platform is, customers prefer solving issues by themselves first – before reaching out for assistance. Companies are increasingly looking to deliver robust self-service options that proactively identify, create, review, publish and maintain multimedia content that customers can use for self-service. Social media is a major intermediary - with a variety of engagement tools - blogs, how-to videos, webinars, infographics – that reaches out to customers to manage their ‘issue’ before they experience the issue – but more importantly, providing assurance to the customer that the information bank is available to assist, should the moment ever arise.

Mobile and Social media – Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp (or even SMS) - offer opportunities for direct customer conversations, but they also offer the opportunity to measure the pulse of the customer. Technologies such as text mining, sentiment analysis, and contextual analytics are enabling businesses to assess customer behaviors, and sentiments; and use these - to tailor products and customized services. Data analytics is enabling companies to establish preferred channels of communication, and contact centers to more accurately predict what a customer needs in a short time between the customer reaching out and the agent’s initial response.

Predictive customer service

Neural analytics is increasingly being used to predict customer demands, and the fast-developing Internet of Things is allowing devices to self-report operating conditions and outcomes, as a way to predict and preemptively act on customer service needs. What does all of this mean to the company that is embarking on a customer experience management transformation?

Leadership sponsorship – the Board, the CEO, and the Senior Management, and the creation of an incentive structure that rewards the right customer experience behaviors are arguably the biggest success factor in transforming the customer experience.

• Being selective in the use of technologies, and only adapting those that are relevant to the business. There are many fascinating technologies available, and it is easy to be led astray. Also, important is ensuring that, while using technology, companies do not lose the human touch.

• Continuous, relevant communication and engagement with the customer allows the customer full transparency around a transaction or service request, and equally provides the company with valuable data points that allow improvements in product design and proactive customer service.

• Training As technologies and processes change, it is vital that all participants in transaction processing and customer engagement processes remain on top of changes and are able to employ these productively.