by: Hank Brigman
Customers are always a hot topic. But lately the discussions on customer relationships, including retention, satisfaction, and loyalty, have intensified. What is the basis for these discussions, and more importantly, what are leading organizations actually doing to improve customer relationships?
Savvy organizations have begun to realize that customer relationships are not the domain of an individual, team, or department. If the accuracy of invoices, or the professionalism of installers or the cleanliness of your store or office is lacking, then the relationship can suffer no matter how well the salesperson or “owner” of the relationship performs. Savvy organizations know that they can best enhance relationships with customers by improving customer interactions – or “touchpoints” – across the entire enterprise.
Touchpoints are all of the communication, human and physical interactions your customers experience during their relationship lifecycle with your organization. Whether an ad, Web site, sales person, store or office, touchpoints are important because customers form their perceptions of your organization and brand based on their cumulative touchpoint experiences.
To help improve customer relationships, there is an innovative new movement called Customer Touchpoint Management, or CTM. CTM reflects an organization’s concerted efforts to improve customer relationships through the management or optimization of customer touchpoints. Touchpoint optimization can include filling identified gaps with new touchpoints, modifying under performing touchpoints, or eliminating redundant touchpoints. This process can include optimizing individual touchpoints, or groups of related touchpoints, such as those that make up a process.
However, it is not easy to get your hands around the myriad ways in which your organization “touches” its customers. To understand and improve your touchpoints, the process of “Touchpoint Mapping(TM)” can be used to inventory and map your organization’s touchpoints along the seven stages of the Customer Relationship Lifecycle, and then identify your customer’s needs in each stage. This process delivers insights into your current touchpoint performance, and helps with identifying how your performance can be improved. An important component of CTM efforts to improve the consistency of touchpoint performance is to establish touchpoint standards, and manage to these standards.
Improving your customer relationships can deliver tangible results to your organization. For example, as a result of consistently superior touchpoint experiences with her local Lexus dealer, the marketing executive of a $5 billion dollar division of a Fortune 10 conglomerate became motivated to improve the customer-centricity of her own organization. She recognized the impact of consistently positive touchpoints on her brand perception of Lexus, her purchase decision, and her resultant advocacy of the automaker. By applying Touchpoint Mapping, Touchpoint Metrics recently helped this executive’s organization dramatically improve touchpoint performance across the organization. Both “voice of customer” customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction scores have increased, and these indications of enhanced customer-centricity are expected to translate into added sales and profitability.
Avis implemented a CTM initiative to understand and improve key customer touchpoints. As result, Avis gained market share in key travel markets and became a leader in customer loyalty and satisfaction as measured by Brand Keys and JD Powers.
Both of these companies, along with other forward thinking organizations, are applying the concepts of Customer Touchpoint Management to improve customer relationships, touchpoint by touchpoint. The benefits are powerful, creating happier customers and employees, and improving the financial metrics that create happier owners.
By Hank Brigman
President/CEO, Touchpoint Metrics