Days ago, a brand of which I am a consumer contacted me several times in a short period of time. I confess that I was a little surprised when I answered the first call:
– Good afternoon, Mr. Sepúlveda! Do we call “to find out” (sic) if you know the day your invoice is due?
Hours later, I received another call asking exactly the same questions. For a few days the calls continued. I remember the last one, which occurred right after the invoice expired.
– Good morning, Mr. Sepúlveda, how are you? We were wondering if you have already paid the invoice?
I recognize that I was already upset at that point. Nobody likes to be interrupted on several occasions to receive irrelevant information without any internal validation from the company about my journey as a customer. I say this because I had already paid the invoice, actually before the due date. Imagine if all the companies that have you as a customer, call you to know if you are aware of the day your invoice is due. Imagine if all the companies call you to ask if you have already paid your bill!!
This is just one example of this type of situation that we all, as consumers, experience daily. unnecessary, unproductive calls that do not generate value in the brand-customer relationship. These contacts, in addition to affecting the emotional state of the customer and the perception of the brand, are expensive. And if they are repetitive, they are even more costly.
Good service should not necessarily be expensive, but these inefficiencies generate a high cost, rendering services inefficient both from a financial and consumer point of view.
As an example, I can share some figures:
Brazilian companies, together, wasted around 400 billion reais due to customer dissatisfaction with the services provided, which migrated to the competition!!
Based on our experience, repeated calls, which means, customer making calls for the same reason within 30 days, are approximately 30% of the total volume of interactions in the whole industry, in other words, a very high unproductivity / inefficiency (approx. R $ 20 billion reais a year).
On the other hand, consumers are very sensitive to the customer service experience (Customer Journey). According to the Accenture survey (table 1), due to poor service, 78% of consumers started to buy from other suppliers. The client-leakeage could have been avoided by companies in 92% of cases. Therefore, it is important to identify customer dissatisfactions and act when the time is right. But, this is only possible with the application of technologies.
Beyond that, 78% of consumers declare a lot of effort to solve their problems, according to Microsoft Research (table 2). It is important to identify the “episodes” in the consumer’s journey, understanding the processes that generate unnecessary effort (time / resources), to look for opportunities for simplification.
These are not very encouraging numbers, but this is the reality we are currently experiencing in terms of customer relations in Brazil. The truth is that not only in Brazil is this reality lived, of course with some variations between each country. However, this situation also opens up great opportunities for companies that have customer satisfaction at the center of their strategy, ensuring that “customer journey” does not generate high or unnecessary efforts.
Customer wants fast, agile and especially resolutive service …… simple and digital.
That is the challenge …….
It is precisely in this scenario that the need for Operational Intelligence arises, which is nothing more than: using data from both consumers and people who serve them (Customer Analytics + Employee Analytics), through the construction of a data lake, developing descriptive models / predictive, as well as a central panel of important information on the customer journey (Command Center), which allows to identify the pain points and the “moments of truth” of the consumers. With the integration of data, it is possible to identify the breaks in the customer journey online and thus be efficient and accurate in service and delivery. In case of error, you must act quickly.
The use of predictive models allows to reduce costs, as well as the efforts of customers, anticipating their needs and personalizing the service.
There are companies that are already following this path, with excellent results both in terms of profitability and customer loyalty.
You can’t maintain the “status quo” by doing the same things and using the same methods. It is necessary to apply technology to drive change and take customer service to the next level. Obviously, the technology must be integrated with partners who have a deep knowledge of this industry to make this transition happen with adequate performance support, in addition to finding the “funding buckets/ROI” that allows the financing of transformation projects.
With no doubt, it is not an easy undertaking. It requires investment of resources, but, certainly, the high costs of the inefficiency involved will pay, in the short term, the investments necessary to make this strategic change.
Cristián Sepúlveda – Founder & COO | CFO da Genoa Performance