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E-tailing (electronic retailing) has revamped shopping experience by transforming it to a ubiquitous anytime activity through digital channels providing an efficient and cost effective customer experience. With global retail e-commerce forecasts showing impressive growth over the next few years within both large and emerging markets, it is indeed necessary that companies revive their supply chain and logistics tactics and management as it is a major e-tailing enabler. In other words, the underlying backbone of e-retail is the supply chain strategy. The concept of supply chain encompasses vertical and horizontal integration with parties involved such as manufacturers, transporters, warehouses, retailers and customers, and functional units like new product development, marketing, distribution, customer service, operations and finance.
According to a research, State of the Retail Supply Chain (SRSC) Report 2015, strategic priorities that retail supply chain executives identified for the current market scenario are :-
For companies to increase the productivity and in turn, leverage this e-tail growth, they have to cater and at times anticipate their customers’ needs in an attempt to lead the competition and simultaneously generate profits. When a customer requirement is triggered and recorded via an order, that very moment the supply chain activities start rolling. Still when companies are looking for cost-saving, customer service often takes the blow as compared to supply chain activities. By having a well planned order processing, invoicing, and product delivery management processes, companies can not only improve customer experience by delivering the right product at the right costs at the right place at right time and in the right condition, but hit the bottom line positively as well. In case of companies running out of stock or urgent delivery demands, inventory control, warehouses and tie-ups with logistic partners are necessary to fulfill the consumers’ needs. For instance, since February 2014, India’s leading e-tailer Flipkart is allowing its logistics arm, eKart Logistics, to deliver competitors’ packages. By having an effective reverse logistics as a customer service practice, companies can satisfy the operational aspects of returns and manage any customer retention issues. The ease with which a customer encounters returns strengthens their long-term relationship with a company. By spending money upfront to develop reverse logistics, companies establish customer service best practices throughout a product's life cycle reduce spending and boost revenue all at the same time. Consequently, customers can drive revenues through advocacy and attract future customers through recommendations which further helps in establishing the brand. The standard of customer service and how successfully a company has implemented the services across the supply chain is therefore directly reflected on the profit margin. With the shift in focus to transform the customer services unit from cost centres to value centre and then to profit centres – companies must make sure that their supply chains are incorporated with the latest technologies, while blending harmoniously with the customer experience strategies. Author: Debaleena Debnath Debaleena is a digital media consultant @ speradigital. To know more about our services, click here. Follow us Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.
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 Smart meters or Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) roll out is turning out to be a game changer in the energy & utility sector in New Zealand, at par with similar countries like Canada, USA and a number of European countries. This technology aids greater control for consumers and utilities. By 2015, the estimated roll out of smart meters in New Zealand should stand at 1.6 million.
The technology of smart meter is not new, though there is a differing opinion on the definitions of the infrastructure, however, some common attributes that all agree upon are: • time-of-use (TOU) consumption recording, • remote meter reading capabilities, and • two-way communication. The potential benefits of smart meters accrue to multiple parties in the utility industry including retailers, distributors, and consumers. Some important consumer related remunerations are control and reduction in consumption, reduction in metering costs, and the collection of data to allow smarter and more targeted network investment. In the recent past, the market-driven roll out noticed a sweeping change with the Electricity Industry Participation Code 2010 mandate that electricity companies must ensure existing metering equipment gets re-certified by April, 2015. Several companies are taking this opportunity to install smart meters (in case of residential electricity) that collect data at frequent intervals and communicate that data directly to the electricity company. Thoughtful market leaders are trying to leverage the technology by buckling up with revamped customer service and marketing strategies. However, there are many thorns on the way ahead that companies should be careful of with regards to smart meter implementation. On one hand, companies would be able to deliver value to their customers and shareholders with data on consumption patterns to design their business models and pricing, while on the other, it cannot be ignored that customers are becoming more engaged and knowledgeable about their energy usage and choices they have with a number of providers in the value chain. The customer churn rate in the country continues to be overwhelming at ~20%. Besides, customer perception challenges exist not only with the smart meter technology but also with how well utilities communicate the new meters’ benefits. To make smart metering reliable and seamless, Utilities need to ensure the data integrity of their consumers. A foundation of trustworthy governance of data must be established by firms to comply with existing regulatory demands and prepare for future regulations. The disruption in the energy value chain in NZ is pushing traditional delivery models for power generation and networks towards obsolesce, which is expected to gain more speed over the medium term. Thus, businesses should aim to reach a break-even point vis-a-vis capital expenditure on smart meter implementation – which by the way can only be achieved by revamping the operating model - less people and improved processes. Utilities have a track record of being a conservative industry in terms of digital maturity. The retailers, distributors and even the government have focused more on technology and economic scenario, rather than the needs of the consumers of their products and services. With smart meters and grid, consumers are more likely to be in control of their energy usage with real time data and easier billing, this means consumers would also be interested to understand energy spend inclusive of proper explanation of each line items as well energy saving tips and other value added services. This can be corroborated from a survey of more than 1,800 Kiwis, which indicated that those who had changed their electricity usage behaviour (47% of respondents) in 2015, 89 percent did so to reduce the cost of their bill. Thus, Utilities would do well to utilise this opportunity to reflect upon the existing processes and change the delivery model and redesign processes that works well with smart meters. It would be difficult to realise the benefits of the new system with old processes still in place, and climbing up the digital ladder would rather be difficult. Author: Debaleena Debnath Debaleena is a digital media consultant @ speradigital. To know more about our services, click here. Follow us Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.  Metrics for measuring the success of customer services Digital disruption has caused many companies to lose their customer base. Though it remains debatable as to what extent today’s customers are adapting to this digital rush, but it is undeniable that customer journeys and experience are all the more dynamic, accessible and continuous - and as they say, if you cannot improve with time, you may as well become extinct. So, it is of paramount importance for organisations to keep evaluating themselves comparing to their competitors. This is where organisations need to understand that if you are not able to measure or at least quantify your company’s performance against your goals, it is of no use on how to improve and where to improvise – metrics are your answer.
No doubt that in this ‘Age of customer’, customer services unit need to rise up to the challenges as bad customer service costs more than good customer experiences. Customer experience metrics should focus on the there key business areas- acquisition, retention and efficiency. Before pinning on which metrics serves the best for your company, one must understand the value proposition since there is no single metric against which to benchmark the performance and success of your customer experience strategy. Moreover, it depends on the level of your audiences. For instance, the top management may be more interested in higher strategic level metrics that align to corporate goals and relate to brand so that KPIs include overall cost, revenue generated, and satisfaction scores as well as policy and regulatory compliance in many industries. Nevertheless, to get to the ground problem or for day-to-day monitoring, customer service managers need real-time, granular operational data. For example, if you compete on cost, handle time and speed of answer will become your primary metrics. However, if you are focused on maximizing customer lifetime value, first contact resolution will rise to the top. Having an umpteen number of metrics to measure everything under the sun is not a clever solution as the volume of data that you gather does not correlate to better performance. According to Hubspot, in most cases you should aim to identify somewhere between four and ten KPIs. In addition, customer service is a time sensitive issue in two diverse (and may be, unrelated) ways – depending on the age of your company and; how urgent and complex the confusion is. To clarify further on the first issue, the metrics used will also depend upon whether the company is in its nascent stages or a large established organisation. Early stage companies may put emphasis on metrics related to business model validation whereas enterprises usually would go for cost per acquisition, average order size or lifetime value. The second issue is a pressing one for any industry as every interaction has an associated cost and value such as cost-per-interaction to optimise the return on investment. Another case would be to consider metrics that shows the value of an active query backlog and the importance of having a timely escalation in the event of a pressing customer matter. Empowered and perpetually digitally connected consumers may bring in bad reputation by airing their frustrations through social channels which will negatively impact the NPS. Therefore, it should be a priority to track the outliers, rather than concentrating on the averages. More often than not, units measure their lagging indicators (measure of output, based purely on results already achieved) of performance and leave out the leading indicators (predictors of future performance and your likelihood of achieving a goal in the future). This can lead to a myopic view of the world. Top level management need to focus on setting a vision and deliver on it. Methodologies like TIPS model (Trends, Implications, Possibilities and Solutions) may be helpful for sales to customers which can help companies to gain insights on seasonal fluctuations that may skew results. Further, metrics that analyse the digital maturity of customer services as a unit compared to your competitor in the same industry as your business as well different industry may help in throwing light on the future. Most organisations have a fair idea on how they are doing on customer services, but having a measurement system corroborate these beliefs and provide actionable insights into future. Author: Debaleena Debnath Debaleena is a digital media consultant @ speradigital. To know more about our services, click here. Follow us Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter. In the eon of digitisation, companies must ensure that they keep evaluating and upgrading their channels that they are employing not to just meet but to go beyond the expectations of their customers for optimal outcomes. In my blog, Digital dilemma for Customer Services, I touched upon the concerns companies face and the process that they can follow to freeze on the communication channels for their customers. The ultimate question that every unit head asks before giving his nod is - the quality and cost per interaction. In this blog, I shall discuss a few more.
In this digital age, companies need to develop a 360-degree view of customers’ various relationships and interactions across channels and for that, companies must understand their customers’ digital capability and psyche to share information to be able to target the different strata of customers. For instance, according to a Research Report published in 2014 highlights that Mainstreamers which account for the largest market share can become loyal digital patrons if the companies can show them tangible benefits of each interaction through any channel. Although few experts claim that generational differences may be one reason for the choice of channels, but a study by CXAct (2015) revealed that telephone calls emerged as the chosen one for baby boomers as well as millennials who still prefer traditional and more personalised services. It is altogether a different ball game to use non-traditional channels to raise awareness and engage your customers, and to use it for service and support. Customers select channels that are quick and easy as well as where they expect the fastest resolution of their queries at the first point of contact. Failure to deliver an engaging service in real time can drive away customers; a significant (77%) of customers reported that they consider good customer service when companies value their time as was claimed by Forrester’s Report (2015). Customers can make or break businesses is clearly evidenced in the fact that the quality of customer experiences is directly proportional to the loyalty and advocacy. To be more precise, customers who receive a first contact resolution are nearly twice as likely to buy from the same brand (implying stickiness/retention/enrichment) and four times more likely to spread positive word of mouth about it (advocacy). Companies such as Netflix and Skype have figured out which channels work for them best. In the former case, the company does not offer email as a channel since they cannot adequately provide a quick and easy resolution on first contact and instead focussed on a robust self-service help center online, with easy access to either a live person via chat or phone; while the latter manages its entire customer services through online communities and analysis based support center. For companies, digital disruption can be overpowering and unpredictable, but they cannot ignore the potential this phenomenon stores in it to make them globally successful. Companies would have a better shot at success by leveraging this digital explosion starting with the way they reach their customers. Author: Debaleena Debnath Debaleena is a digital media consultant @ speradigital. To know more about our services, click here. Follow us Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter. Organisations are reaching their customers (inclusive of the prospective ones) via a multitude of communication channels, fuelled by technological advancement and trying to cater to the customers’ needs at lower costs than ever before. Though this premise, be it omni-channel or multi-channel, may seem to present a golden opportunity for businesses by transforming the customer experience and operations to become a fully digital business with overall satisfaction of the quality of service over all communication channels trending upwards, it is also the source of digital disruption.
If you are a unit head with P&L accountability, you would be able to relate to a situation where your marketing guy has persuaded you to allocate an extended budget as a part of company’s digital strategy and at the end of the meeting you would still be asking yourself – “I am not sure if I understand the ROI”. If this holds true for you, don’t worry, you aren’t the only one! The real deal for smart marketers and unit head is to be able to justify the digital investment as a core strategy with tangible return on investment instead of hiding behind the common phrase – it’s a long term investment for the digital savvy consumers. Large scale adoption of digital technology by consumers have bombarded businesses with questions to decide on which mode (web, phone, social media, email, and in-person) to use combined with a choice of available platforms (mobile, web, offline) and whether all those are integrated or not to a centralised CRM, which receives the most queries, and how to monitor the key business metrics and so on and so forth. The mushrooming of channels has created perplexity within organisations on how to design, align and implement their strategies for communication to and from customers, whether they are in their path-to-purchase or path-to-loyalty. To elucidate, smart FAQs, self service channels and virtual agents can be used to tackle low value and low complexity customer queries as these are relatively lower cost channels and that positively impact cost per contact of the CS unit. According to Forrester’s Channel Management: Core To Your Customer Service Strategy (2015) Report, help/FAQ pages on a company's website, speech and mobile self-service channels, use of virtual agents has increased by at least 10 percentage points since 2012 as customers are seeking out time-saving and easier approaches to resolve their difficulties than waiting in queue for service agents to answer or go through the tedious IVR processes. However, on the other end, high complexity interactions and high value queries which demand personalised and more interactive communication should be addressed using proactive chat, call and co-browse, and even, in person visitation and consultation. Although, as per the same Forrester Report, phone interactions have remained constant at a 73% usage rate since the last three years, however, an investigation by CXAct (2015) found that consumers still prefer traditional lines (phone and in-person) of contacting support when they encounter problems during the usage and ownership stages of their relationships with companies and brands of products/services. Somewhere in between the ends, online community forums, virtual agents, email response and live chat are also being used when it comes to medium value and medium complexity inquiries as this bunch falls into the medium cost interaction channels. Therefore, it is imperative for organisations to be able to choose the right channel that best suit their and their customers’ requirements due to the proliferation of channels for communication and business transactions. There are many other factors that the CS unit can explore, for instance, digital customer segmentation, increase customer stickiness, et cetera which I shall discuss on my upcoming blogs. Author: Debaleena Debnath Debaleena is a digital media consultant @ speradigital. To know more about our services, click here. Follow us Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter |
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