Modern CX: Customer experience comes of age
Learn how customer experience has evolved from the early days of CRM into a framework for two-sided interactions and co-created value.
I confess that I’m obsessed with the industry point of view when it comes to customer experience software and service resolution.
Let’s focus on industrial manufacturing. At a recent SAP event, we demonstrated an end-to-end solution designed to enable servicing for connected devices with an automated case flow creation that orchestrates diagnosis, troubleshooting, replacement parts logistics, and field service operations.
What’s more, it provides a clear template for innovation that helps improve efficiency, increase customer satisfaction, and support new revenue and business models.
The service resolution journey
Let’s see how the above methodology applies to a relatable manufacturing anomaly detection and servicing scenario.
CX is a set of interactions between the company and its customers and the service functionality of CRM is how a dynamic orchestration of resources creates a balance between customer needs and enterprise systems.
What’s important to note is that each step of the journey is composed of an event, which leads to a decision and ultimately an action.
The methodology assumes that all interactions follow the same interaction framework.
- There’s an event that happens.
- A decision needs to be made on what to do with that event
- And an action is taken based on the decision.
Step by step: Automated case flows
In this case, the event is when an anomaly is detected by an IoT sensor and a service case is generated. It then spins off the CRM service functionality as the system of record to capture events, decisions, and actions.
Each action holds value for the customer and the business. For example, in step No. 1, the customer wants to prevent costly downtime. The company may have an SLA of 99.99% uptime and they need to meet that. The balance between these two needs is what comprises an experience, and co-creates value in the process.
To make the decision, the system follows the rules related to that disruption. In this instance, the ERP is consulted for product details, account status, and the contracted notification protocols; the customer data platform verifies the customer preference and consent on engagement.
AI functionality within the CRM service assigns an agent based on any number of factors such as account score, agent score, agent/customer preference matching and agent capacity. The decision then creates an resolution.
This resolution becomes the action. Here, it’s a notification to the AE, assigning a service agent, and notifying the customer that an anomaly has been detected and the servicing process has begun.
Customer service priorities: Bye-bye silos, hello growth
Delivering the stellar service that protects a brand, increases customer lifetime value, and supports new business models requires a new approach.
Service resolution → new opportunities
We may have identified that this fault is likely to impact all customers that have this product configuration. Therefore, the company’s instance of ERP can provide information on all relevant customer implementations that should be proactively serviced.
As we step through this journey, there’s orchestration across the ERP, inventory and procurement management, CDP, and all the customer-facing applications including field service management, marketing, commerce, sales and service. Data is shared and updated.
When a service resolution is achieved, it may present an opportunity for the service provided to recommend add-ons or upgrades. Thanks to a successful engagement, the customer recognizes that agent as a trusted advisor, who can then pass on the lead to the AE, or direct the customer to the procurement portal.
Customer service collaboration: Teamwork makes the dream work
With the shift to remote contact centers, companies are taking steps to help customer service agents collaborate. The results are amazing.
The feedback loop for service optimization
Finally, the service resolution leads to the feedback loop. By capturing customer experience insights through the entire resolution journey, a company can spot best practices or areas for improvement to inform service process optimization or employee training.
Resolution can also inform follow-up personalization and even product improvement. Insight into product performance can be fed back into the product development cycles, and marketing and sales obtain customer context to empower personalization and boost customer centricity.
In this scenario, we’ve seen how service is synchronized across systems to unify the entire experience to elevate service to servicing at the point of need – not just a resolution, but an end-to-end experience with feedback aimed at optimizing it over time.
