Industry Experts Call for Directors to Take the Lead If Customer Experience is to Avoid the Mistakes of CRM

David Barrow, Vice President Vision, Solutions & Architecture at Chordiant commented, “Many organisations struggle to deal with the friction that exists between short term and long term objectives when it comes to managing the customer experience. One must understand that most marketing managers are in their role for less than 12 months, and it is therefore difficult for organisations to visualise what can be achieved over a longer period of time. For this reason it is important that customer experience is something that is driven at board level.”

“Technology has evolved dramatically in the past few years and the capabilities of Customer Experience applications are far more advanced than what CRM could offer. Many companies, however, still struggle to overcome siloed data sets and a product-centric views towards customers. These difficulties can only be overcome with board leadership setting out metrics that can drive cultural attitudes within an organisation.”

“It is inevitable that the board of a company is going to demand results from any form of technological implementation. We have recognised that while a long term vision is vital, it is also important that that this vision is supported by short term results. Our work with O2 and now with Orange has demonstrated that it is possible for scalable customer experience strategies to be rolled out within a matter of months, not necessarily years. Once it is possible to demonstrate the success of these scalable projects, we have seen a greater willingness for organisations to fundamentally change the process through which they interact with their customers in the longer term.”

Professor Hugh Wilson, Director of Cranfield Customer Management Forum, added that: “Essentially there should never be a conflict between the interests of the board and the interests of the customer. It is this common relationship that builds the success of any company. What is important is that organisations are able to recognise the necessity to communicate the shared interests their organisation has with their customers through the correct channels in order to ensure that each individual customer experience is a positive one. “

Annette Mitchell, Director of Inbound Direct Marketing, CRM Group, Orange, said, “Many organisations are still living in an outbound only world. It is important that organisations, at the very highest level, see the value of inbound and outbound channels interacting alongside each other. We believe that through helping our call centre agents to address the needs of our customers rather than just selling products to them, our sales will increase.”

Chordiant has been working with Orange to use a combination of traditional outbound direct marketing techniques with micro inbound direct marketing techniques in order to generate a “mutually managed” relationship between providers and consumers. This relationship empowers the consumer, allowing them to choose the level and nature of interaction with their service provider.