Terry Cunningham: Improving each customer touch point

Terry Cunningham, President and General Manager, EVault, A Seagate Co.
Terry Cunningham, President and General Manager, EVault, A Seagate Co.

Business today is more competitive than ever. With a few clicks of the keyboard, every customer can research, price check and read reviews of your product or service. Many times, with one more click, they can have that same product delivered to their door from anywhere in the world. Want it tomorrow? No problem.
So how does a business succeed in this era of the empowered consumer? How can it differentiate itself? I’ve given this question a lot of thought, and the answer may lie in a practice called Customer Experience Management.
Failing on the promise
Let’s talk about customer experience. How many times has a customer service representative ended a conversation by reciting something along the lines of, “I hope you received excellent customer service today,” when the service was less than gratifying? How satisfied did you feel after hearing their script?
Most businesses pay lip service to the idea of superior customer service, but when it’s time to execute, they fail. Their departments are structured to run their own processes smoothly, not to ensure their customers think, or better yet, say, “Wow.”
CEM asserts that if we put our customer’s experience at the core of our business and subsequently construct functional departments around it, we will gain that competitive edge. Yet, truly understanding the customer’s experience while interacting with your business is easier said than done. So, how does one reinvent a company with the customer at the center?
Start at the touch points
Begin by becoming aware of your company’s touch points — all the places a customer comes into contact with your business. Keep in mind that these touch points vary widely. They include obvious departments such as telesales and customer support, but these touch points also include the clarity of the invoice/statement, your website, your ad in the newspaper, a partner or retailer and many more.
We did a quick count at my company and discovered 26 touch points! Too many for sure, since more touch points mean more opportunities for mistakes.
After you’ve identified the touch points, do some investigating. Be the mystery shopper, in person and on the phone. Listen to the language a salesperson uses to describe your product or service. Do it again. Notice the differences between what you hear depending on who is serving you. How did their actions differ from what you wish they had done?
Once you experience every touch point first hand, you might begin to feel your customers’ frustration, pain and sometimes, surprise. Then you can begin rebuilding toward a satisfying customer experience.
Use CEM as a tool
Right now at EVault, we’re working hard to reduce and improve each touch point using a CEM lens. For us, that means creating simple, valuable, authentic and pleasantly surprising exchanges.
We want each customer to feel that every interaction with EVault was worth their time, was clear that we genuinely wanted to help, and that we did something pleasingly unexpected.
How do you want your customers to feel when they interact with your business? You need to find out and then rebuild.
 
Terry Cunningham is president and general manager of EVault Inc., a Seagate company. He founded Crystal Services, which was purchased by Seagate in 1994 and integrated into the company’s software division, which then became Seagate Software. He has also served as president and COO of Veritas Software, and founded, built and led two other successful software companies.