Looking from the Outside

Most companies today have developed a viewpoint of their customers as an outside looking in approach to how they do business or use a service, as opposed to the inside looking out from a process and system stand point.

This is a huge mind shift for a lot of organizations and takes a significant amount of corporate change to implement. We've all heard the lines from CSRs who say "My system can't do that", or "We have to do x in order to accomplish y" - this is not a customer viewpoint (outside) and does not improve the customer experience.

In developing this outside-in perspective companies have been able to develop customer lifecycles - the various stages that customers interact with their organizations in being a customer. Learning about the product, buying the product, activating or opening it, receiving service, renewing, recommending, and leaving. All of these major stages are imperative to the lifecycle of the customer and should be monitored.

The next step for companies, particularly those with multiple service offerings in different business units, is to look at service delivery from a life event view of the customer. Life events are things like a new baby or a death in the family - changes in your life. This helps customers move through multiple systems and issues seamlessly and puts their needs first.

A prime example of this is moving. We've all been through it when we've contacted the cable company well in advance to have our old line disconnected when we move out, and have a new one installed and ready to go when we move it to our new place. But despite all of the efforts and pre-planning it never works out. The bill either goes to the wrong place, you pay for the wrong service, or even worse you get no service.

If companies could get out of the mindset of silos (business units) and systems (what do they really mean to the customer?) and think about seamless processes it would provide a true outside looking in perspective. They should let the customer go through what should be a simple thing - that often only adds frustration to an already stressful situation.