An article online at AISHealth.com (oddly dated for June 27, although it's online today) talks about the growing practice of utilizing customer satisfaction surveying in Heath Plan selling and delivery.
Although clearly a b2b styled article, it offers a great prescription (pun intended) for Health companies to work with clients in improving customer satisfaction. The three step approach that they offer is typical of Customer Experience programs within other Industries. Money quote:
"One of the best ways to build and sustain high customer satisfaction is to implement a communications strategy that encompasses both active listening and proactive outreach to members. "
One of the challenges I see in measuring Customer Satisfaction within Health Plans is the lifecycle of the client and what their feedback will be from a health services side versus a plan servicing and claims side. That is, their experience (and subsequent satisfaction) may be adversely impacted by the treatment they receive, as opposed to the ability of the Health Plan to provide service and coverage as required.
What Health Insurers and Health Plan companies should do is develop programs that monitor service and coverage of a series of life events (births, operations, etc) and as their programs are tailored, so to should the service experienced by the client.
The client that is going into or recovering from an operation may need assistance with a claim. Dealing with a new born at home and processing a claim could also be troublesome. The processes should allow for life events and underlying circumstances, or the true satisfaction may not be captured.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Full Report
The full JD Edwards report to customer satisfaction in the airline industry can be found here. It is interesting to note that the survey found that the overall drop in customer satisfaction is related to interaction with airline staff, as opposed to decreasing service levels and increasing costs. The overall experience is declining for customers - money quote:
“Across the airline experience, from check-in, to the flight, to deplaning, passengers are being affected by the ramifications of carriers making staff cutbacks and have expressed that performance and attitudes of airline staff are suffering,”
What is interesting here is that the pain threshold for customers from a cost perspective has not been met despite worsening service and at times insulting surcharges. Airlines will not change their behaviour (reducing staff and service + increasing costs to the customer) until customers change their behaviour (stop flying).
From a customer experience perspective this is termed as a detractor, someone who is actively against your product or service. The airlines should track the experience and customer satisfaction levels of those who are at detractor levels to determine the pain threshold - and watch out because they will.
“Across the airline experience, from check-in, to the flight, to deplaning, passengers are being affected by the ramifications of carriers making staff cutbacks and have expressed that performance and attitudes of airline staff are suffering,”
What is interesting here is that the pain threshold for customers from a cost perspective has not been met despite worsening service and at times insulting surcharges. Airlines will not change their behaviour (reducing staff and service + increasing costs to the customer) until customers change their behaviour (stop flying).
From a customer experience perspective this is termed as a detractor, someone who is actively against your product or service. The airlines should track the experience and customer satisfaction levels of those who are at detractor levels to determine the pain threshold - and watch out because they will.
Apples to Apples
In an article yesterday on the Detroit News website there is some interesting information and great quotes about a recent JD Power survey on customer experience and customer satisfaction in the airline industry.
In standard JD Power fashion it is a ranking of competitors and once again Northwest is very low in customer satisfaction. In a previous post regarding the huge cuts at Delta I talked about how reduction in front line staff negatively impacts customer satisfaction and customer experience, and it appears that this is coming true with Northwest.
The part of the article that I find most interesting is a quote from Michael Boyd (described as an airline expert):
"They're lumping once-a-year passengers on connecting flights in Bangor, Maine, with daily flyers on direct flights from Detroit to Los Angeles. Its not exactly apples to apples"
This is partly true. While the overall experience of the customer who embarks on a flight (researching, buying, flying, service, baggage, etc) is similar, the segment or profile of the customer varies greatly and as such should be measured differently or at least separately.
Customer segmentation and profiles are a key part of measuring customer experience and implementing successful programs. The daily flyer from New York to LA is a completely different customer than the once-a-year in Maine. They each have different needs and expectations and as such will respond differently to similar questions despite a common experience (or actions in taking a flight).
While I am sure that airlines have comprehensive segmentation and profiles on customers JD Powers should incorporate this into their surveying - based on consolidation of segments from participating companies - to provide meaningful and actionable research for the industry.
In standard JD Power fashion it is a ranking of competitors and once again Northwest is very low in customer satisfaction. In a previous post regarding the huge cuts at Delta I talked about how reduction in front line staff negatively impacts customer satisfaction and customer experience, and it appears that this is coming true with Northwest.
The part of the article that I find most interesting is a quote from Michael Boyd (described as an airline expert):
"They're lumping once-a-year passengers on connecting flights in Bangor, Maine, with daily flyers on direct flights from Detroit to Los Angeles. Its not exactly apples to apples"
This is partly true. While the overall experience of the customer who embarks on a flight (researching, buying, flying, service, baggage, etc) is similar, the segment or profile of the customer varies greatly and as such should be measured differently or at least separately.
Customer segmentation and profiles are a key part of measuring customer experience and implementing successful programs. The daily flyer from New York to LA is a completely different customer than the once-a-year in Maine. They each have different needs and expectations and as such will respond differently to similar questions despite a common experience (or actions in taking a flight).
While I am sure that airlines have comprehensive segmentation and profiles on customers JD Powers should incorporate this into their surveying - based on consolidation of segments from participating companies - to provide meaningful and actionable research for the industry.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Unhappy to happy - how to tell
In an article (which could also be a press release) today on Newsfactor they discuss the findings of a recent Better Business Bureau report about properly managing disgruntled customers.
The article mentions the importance of well trained staff, which I could not agree with more. Front line workers are the manifestation of company policy and have the largest impact of customer satisfaction and customer experience.
They stress the importance of turning an unhappy customer into a happy one - which they say can be done nearly 80% of the time, but they do not say how. Simply looking at a customer and there interactions in a single point of not is not what companies should be doing.
By looking at interactions from a customer perspective throughout the lifecycle with the company is the true way to measure the customers experience and overall satisfaction. Utilizing a lifecycle approach also lets you track (and manage) customers from detractors (I want to go) to advocates (I want to stay). This allows you to see what programs are working to keep customers, and what is driving customers away.
The article mentions the importance of well trained staff, which I could not agree with more. Front line workers are the manifestation of company policy and have the largest impact of customer satisfaction and customer experience.
They stress the importance of turning an unhappy customer into a happy one - which they say can be done nearly 80% of the time, but they do not say how. Simply looking at a customer and there interactions in a single point of not is not what companies should be doing.
By looking at interactions from a customer perspective throughout the lifecycle with the company is the true way to measure the customers experience and overall satisfaction. Utilizing a lifecycle approach also lets you track (and manage) customers from detractors (I want to go) to advocates (I want to stay). This allows you to see what programs are working to keep customers, and what is driving customers away.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
91% to 50% - where is the disconnect?
In a post from yesterday on destinationcrm.com there is some great information and insight into Customer Experience and Customer Experience Management. The author is a VP from Chordiant software who are an emerging leader in Customer Experience Management software tools and programs.
The article has a couple of interesting stats, most notably that 91% of companies agree that Customer Experience is critical or very important, but only 50% of customers are satisfied with their telecommunications companies. Where is the disconnect?
A lot of lip service is sometimes provided for Customer Experience within organizations - particularly large ones - but the fact of the matter is that developing, implementing and managing an effective Customer Experience program is incredibly difficult, particularly in the telecommunications industry.
Telecommunications companies are typically organized in product silos / categories and there interactions with customers are managed within individual channels within those silos (i.e. call centre for Satellite and a separate call centre for Wireless). Working through / across these organizations and implementing a consistent and effective Customer Experience for all channels is a growing challenge, and I suspect the reason why customer satisfaction is low compared to companies recognition of it's importance.
Companies should have dedicated staffing and budget to manage the Customer Experience - even through a Chief Customer Experience Officer in some cases - across the entire organization. Executive leadership in this type of program (and any other program that goes across a company) is crucial to its success.
Companies should also recognize that in the business case for a Customer Experience program they should not only look at churn reduction(as noted in the article), but also at the significant cross sell and up sell opportunities that a multi-service organization can offer a satisfied customer.
The article has a couple of interesting stats, most notably that 91% of companies agree that Customer Experience is critical or very important, but only 50% of customers are satisfied with their telecommunications companies. Where is the disconnect?
A lot of lip service is sometimes provided for Customer Experience within organizations - particularly large ones - but the fact of the matter is that developing, implementing and managing an effective Customer Experience program is incredibly difficult, particularly in the telecommunications industry.
Telecommunications companies are typically organized in product silos / categories and there interactions with customers are managed within individual channels within those silos (i.e. call centre for Satellite and a separate call centre for Wireless). Working through / across these organizations and implementing a consistent and effective Customer Experience for all channels is a growing challenge, and I suspect the reason why customer satisfaction is low compared to companies recognition of it's importance.
Companies should have dedicated staffing and budget to manage the Customer Experience - even through a Chief Customer Experience Officer in some cases - across the entire organization. Executive leadership in this type of program (and any other program that goes across a company) is crucial to its success.
Companies should also recognize that in the business case for a Customer Experience program they should not only look at churn reduction(as noted in the article), but also at the significant cross sell and up sell opportunities that a multi-service organization can offer a satisfied customer.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Nuremberg Defense
My wife was recently shopping at a large retail story to buy an assortment of gifts for various people. She was buying three separate items and wanted three separate gift receipts for the items. Not an unreasonable request and the cashier able to do the gift receipts for the first two items. With the third item however the clerk forgot to enter it as a gift and was only able to provide a normal receipt. My wife said that she needed the gift receipt still and asked the cashier to change it. The only way the cashier could change it was to do a return and then re-purchase the item. To do the return however they needed a form filled out. Aaarghhh.
Blindly following company policy and putting customers through the run around (we've all been there) is no where near best practices for improving customer experience. Companies should fully train all staff on returns procedures and other policies, but they should also provide customer perspective training on how it impacts them.
Companies should develop policies with flexibility and discretion to handle customer concerns and deal with the issue at hand, rather than needing to invoke an alternative policy to resolve a particular situation.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Taking the Ted out of United
The NY Times (and loads of other sources) reported yesterday that United Airlines is slashing staff - 1,100 - and gaz-guzzling airplanes, the Ted unit, in an effort to stabilize the company.
The airline industry has been in a tail-spin (pardon the pun) since 9-11 and has never fully recovered. Ever increasing gas prices are killing chances at profit margins on all flights and airlines are being forced to pass more and more costs on to the end customer.
Part of this confuses me however. United's effort on the cuts is to save costs but also improve the customer experience. Money quote -
"The decision to dramatically reduce our capacity profile, particularly in the domestic marketplace, while over time eliminating a fleet type, is a significant step leading to a more effective and efficient fleet for United in the years ahead, while improving our customer experience and reliability."
I will give them the operating efficiency point on an older fleet of planes, but unless they were spewing fumes back into the cabin I'm not sure how this will improve customer experience.
1,100 job cuts is the size of cut that means all levels of staff from the top down - including front line workers. As I've stated before it is often staff on the front lines who have the largest impact on customer experience. With reduced staffing levels and increasingly agitated customers (delays, delays, delays) I don't see any improvement coming - I see the opposite.
United must cut costs to maintain their business and they should retire inefficient equipment. They should also remember that their customers are facing greater stresses, pressures and pain ($) with flying in general and that the experience of their travel has the greatest impact on their relationship with the airline.
The airline industry has been in a tail-spin (pardon the pun) since 9-11 and has never fully recovered. Ever increasing gas prices are killing chances at profit margins on all flights and airlines are being forced to pass more and more costs on to the end customer.
Part of this confuses me however. United's effort on the cuts is to save costs but also improve the customer experience. Money quote -
"The decision to dramatically reduce our capacity profile, particularly in the domestic marketplace, while over time eliminating a fleet type, is a significant step leading to a more effective and efficient fleet for United in the years ahead, while improving our customer experience and reliability."
I will give them the operating efficiency point on an older fleet of planes, but unless they were spewing fumes back into the cabin I'm not sure how this will improve customer experience.
1,100 job cuts is the size of cut that means all levels of staff from the top down - including front line workers. As I've stated before it is often staff on the front lines who have the largest impact on customer experience. With reduced staffing levels and increasingly agitated customers (delays, delays, delays) I don't see any improvement coming - I see the opposite.
United must cut costs to maintain their business and they should retire inefficient equipment. They should also remember that their customers are facing greater stresses, pressures and pain ($) with flying in general and that the experience of their travel has the greatest impact on their relationship with the airline.
New Focus
In the Brunei Bulletin (I had never heard of it either) there is a great story about a local bank whose strategic approach in engaging customers is going to be by providing the best customer experience. Money quote -
"Customer experience is the new business model that the bank has envisaged for the future"
While this is not a revolutionary statement - this is an aggressive approach for a financial institution to take - and I love it. Putting the customer first is the mantra of many financial institutions, but we all know that at the end of the day shareholder value is really driving the bus. Companies should however look at improving the customer experience as a way to increase shareholder value through increased customer retention and higher wallet share amongst their existing customer base.
The other interesting thought on this is the heavy reliance on cell phone technology and wireless banking in countries like Thailand. With limited touch from the banks on their customers through a cellular transaction it is difficult to improve - or even measure - the customer experience. Maintaining a common experience across all channels (web, phone, cellular, ATM, in person) and leveraging current processes and experiences should be the approach taken by this and any organization looking to gain an edge.
"Customer experience is the new business model that the bank has envisaged for the future"
While this is not a revolutionary statement - this is an aggressive approach for a financial institution to take - and I love it. Putting the customer first is the mantra of many financial institutions, but we all know that at the end of the day shareholder value is really driving the bus. Companies should however look at improving the customer experience as a way to increase shareholder value through increased customer retention and higher wallet share amongst their existing customer base.
The other interesting thought on this is the heavy reliance on cell phone technology and wireless banking in countries like Thailand. With limited touch from the banks on their customers through a cellular transaction it is difficult to improve - or even measure - the customer experience. Maintaining a common experience across all channels (web, phone, cellular, ATM, in person) and leveraging current processes and experiences should be the approach taken by this and any organization looking to gain an edge.
Monday, June 2, 2008
On the Front Lines
An article today on CNET talks about the battle for customers between phone and cable companies - particularly now that they offer the same services. One of the highlights is the reference to Comcast hiring over 15,000 customer service reps and technicians over the last year and a half - which is fantastic, but this massive onboarding I predict will not increase the overall customer satisfaction of their customers.
In the customer experience it is often the people on the front lines - who in the organization are probably the lowest paid - that have the largest impact on customer satisfaction. It is the representative on the other end of the phone who is putting company policy in action and it is the technician who is the only face of the company when they are doing an install or repair at your house or work. The article also makes a reference to a hilarious story about a technician who actually fell asleep at a customer's house - video below.
This also reminds me of an engagement that a colleague of mine was involved in where part of measuring the customer experience was to do a ride along with a technician for a couple of days. It turns out that one of the largest complaints from customers around installs was technicians cutting across lawns and gardens to do their work - how do you account for that in a survey?
The hirings made by Comcast are great and they should continue to invest in their front line staff and customer experience. However, given the onboarding / ramp up time for this type of work and the immediate impact that these roles have on customer satisfaction, it will be some time before a positive impact is made.
In the customer experience it is often the people on the front lines - who in the organization are probably the lowest paid - that have the largest impact on customer satisfaction. It is the representative on the other end of the phone who is putting company policy in action and it is the technician who is the only face of the company when they are doing an install or repair at your house or work. The article also makes a reference to a hilarious story about a technician who actually fell asleep at a customer's house - video below.
This also reminds me of an engagement that a colleague of mine was involved in where part of measuring the customer experience was to do a ride along with a technician for a couple of days. It turns out that one of the largest complaints from customers around installs was technicians cutting across lawns and gardens to do their work - how do you account for that in a survey?
The hirings made by Comcast are great and they should continue to invest in their front line staff and customer experience. However, given the onboarding / ramp up time for this type of work and the immediate impact that these roles have on customer satisfaction, it will be some time before a positive impact is made.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
