To gauge the satisfaction of business banking clients with its various offerings including an ebanking platform, HSBCnet, and other services such as mobile banking and support center service delivery, HSBC used a multi-faceted CEM solution, including customer listening posts in HSBCnet, event-driven surveys within the banking platform, and periodic strategic surveys. The solution was to measure the customer experience for HSBCnet lifecycle from user set-up and training, to usability, functionality and helpdesk support. The company was able to work towards making strategies based on a customer experience intelligence from an annual survey of 72,000 global business customers, identifying specific usability and functional improvement opportunities within HSBCnet.

Customer Experience Management (CEM), a concept discussed by Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore in Harvard Business Review a decade ago (1998), is becoming increasingly popular among corporates. According to the authors, successful businesses influence people through engaging, authentic experiences that render value. A ‘customer experience’ is then every unique point of interaction that a company makes with its customers, through every transaction, dialogue and visit.

Customer experience goes far beyond customer satisfaction and customer relationship management (CRM). These task and transaction focused activities often translate as marketing schemes and cross-selling opportunities, and the focus on the customer is eventually lost. 'Valued customers' are inundated with calls from banks, retail outlets, etc. as a part of their ‘relationship-building’ activities - “Would we be interested in their latest wares?” CEM is a distinguished concept which starts at the customer, and then moves towards the company’s alignment with the client’s needs and wants (expressed or latent).

Focusing on Customers, Not Products

There are various technologies, systems and processes that enable firms to manage their customers’ experiences organization-wide. These systems ensure that:

• All client interactions are visible to facilitate learning opportunities, and
• The quality and nature of customer service that is expected by clients is understood

Through the framework of measuring customer experience, firms can be made aware of what really matters to their clients during (and even before and after) service delivery. Interactions (email, telephone, face to face) ranging across different channels (over mobile phones, the Internet, physical stores) collectively create one end customer experience for a company. When this ‘experiential’, process-oriented approach is taken by a company, it will reflect directly on customer satisfaction, and ultimately, customer loyalty. For example, a telecom customer may not be aware of how to pay his bill. He visits the website, and finds the helpline number, and the operator offers him great customer service. This, coupled with a fast and smooth online transaction, followed up with feedback at a later date make for one overall experience that the customer may then relate to his peers. Every unique contact made with the customer thus drives his experience and overall loyalty. A great customer experience also goes a long way in enhancing a company’s brand value by building positive word-of-mouth.

India Inc's move into the Global Space

Naturally, consumer- facing industries have the most to gain from engaging in customer experience enhancing programs. According to Deloitte, sectors such as consumer products, hospitality & leisure, telecom, media & entertainment, technology, banking and retail have been predicted to increase marketing and sales efforts this financial year, in a bid to push customer demand and brand loyalty. Amidst contracting budgets (both the company’s and the consumer’s), and especially in industries where product differentiation is low, a great customer experience can make all the difference in a sale situation.

The focus on these ‘softer’ aspects of customer service is growing globally. IT companies in the country must step up to cater to this emerging business segment as most of them plan to enter the domestic market in a big way. Indian corporates, especially outsourcing companies, have a lot of catching up to do, considering that they service clients across the globe. Hitherto, outsourcing value propositions have had an inside-out evolution. Given the pressures of commoditization of services, mature organizations are seeking to become trusted advisors. This means an outside-in strategy. To measure the roadmap towards becoming a trusted advisor, organizations must invest more in several initiatives - a key one being CEM. The management of customer experience and the subsequent action is bound to impact how India is perceived as business destination.