![]() ![]() ![]() Most of these service encounters were positive in a narrow sense-employees answered the questions or solved the issues as they arose-but the underlying problems were avoidable, the root causes left unaddressed, and the cumulative effect on customer experience was decidedly negative. Many of customers’ numerous calls during the process represented attempts to clarify product information, fix problems with an order, or understand a confusing bill. The touchpoints weren’t broken-but the onboarding process as a whole was. But average customer satisfaction fell almost 40 percent over the course of the entire journey. At each touchpoint, the interaction had at least a 90 percent chance of going well. Take new-customer onboarding, for example, a journey that spanned about three months and involved an average of nine phone calls, a home visit from a technician, and numerous web and mail interactions. What was driving them out the door was something the company wasn’t examining or managing-the customers’ cumulative experience across multiple touchpoints, multiple channels, and over time. Most customers weren’t fed up with any one phone call, field visit, or other individual service interaction-in fact, most customers didn’t much care about those singular touchpoint events. Our service is great!”Īs company leaders probed further, however, they discovered a more complex problem. “We’ve measured customer satisfaction for years, and our call centers, field services, and website experience each score consistently over 90 percent. “How can this be?” one executive wondered. While the company’s overall customer-satisfaction metrics were strong, focus groups revealed that a large number of customers left because of poor service and shoddy treatment over time. So the executives looked to another lever-customer experience-to see if improvements there could halt the exodus. The common methods for keeping customers were also well known but expensive-tactics like upgrade offers and discounted rate plans, or “save desks” to intercept defectors. Churn, due to pricing, technology, and programming options, was an increasingly familiar problem in this hypercompetitive market. In economic terms, a retained customer delivered significantly greater profitability than a newly acquired customer over two years. ![]() Customers were leaving at an alarming rate, few new ones were available for acquiring in its market, and even the company’s best customers were getting more expensive to retain. The trouble with touchpointsĬonsider the dilemma that executives faced at one media company. Indeed, research we conducted in 2015 involving seven EU telecom markets found that when consumers embarked on journeys that involved multiple channels their experience was materially worse than during single-channel experiences, whether those experiences were digital or not. The explosion of potential customer interaction points-across new channels, devices, applications, and more-makes consistency of service and experience across channels nigh impossible-unless you are managing the journey, and not simply individual touchpoints. This is especially true in today’s multitouchpoint, multichannel, always-on, hypercompetitive consumer markets. In contrast, those that provide the customer with the best experience from start to finish along the journey can expect to enhance customer satisfaction, improve sales and retention, reduce end-to-end service cost, and strengthen employee satisfaction. In our research, we’ve discovered that organizations that fail to appreciate the context of these situations and manage the cross-functional, end-to-end experiences that shape the customer’s view of the business can prompt a downpour of negative consequences, from customer defection and dramatically higher call volumes to lost sales and lower employee morale. Another is resolving a technical issue, upgrading a product, or helping a customer to move a service to a new home. Bringing a new customer on board is a classic example. Journeys can be long, stretching across multiple channels and touchpoints, and often lasting days or weeks. ![]() McKinsey director Alex Singla illustrates how a simple insurance claim provides multiple chances to build customer satisfaction.Ĭustomer journeys include many things that happen before, during, and after the experience of a product or service. ![]()
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