Customer service, marketing and technology Mastering the customer journey Empowered customers, high expectations Today’s customers are demanding and opinionated: they are quick to speak their mind when they don’t receive the customer service they expect and are free with their praise when they And they expect businesses to treat them in a way that demonstrates a deep understanding of their individual buying habits, needs and preferences These expectations place considerable pressure on both marketing and customer service functions Marketing must engage customers in the first place and keep them coming back for more, while customer service must be able to deliver a great experience at various “touchpoints” along the way And the two functions must work together, because customers don’t distinguish between a brand and their experience of it For them, the brand is the experience—and a good customer experience translates directly into continued loyalty to a brand Social media, for example, are changing the way customers discover and interact with businesses in all industries, not just those in consumerfacing markets “This social revolution is hitting all of our customers, all of our suppliers—it’s everyone, everywhere, all over the world,” says Adrienne Liebenberg, global marketing director of Castrol B2B “Customers genuinely expect Castrol to deliver the kind of service that they experience in their personal lives outside of work.” At the same time, Castrol is adjusting to the idea that marketing is not a “loudspeaker”, but a “magnet”, she says “Our research shows that © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2014 71% of our customers perform online searches before contacting us One in three use social networks That has huge implications for how we plan and execute marketing campaigns We’ll need to adapt the ways we listen, converse and activate new products in the market We’ll need a sharp focus on delivering consistent brand experiences, mostly through technology, at each and every customer touchpoint.” Lisa Cobham, contact centre and customer experience director at Ticketmaster, an online ticket sales company, says that engaging with customers digitally takes more than having an account on all major social networks “In customer service, you have to be accessible, and to be accessible these days, you have to be in the social media space,” she says “But it’s not just a matter of activity on those channels, but also a matter of engagement: it’s about messages sent to brands, expecting fast response and resolution.” Engaging meaningfully on social media carries a significant manpower cost, Ms Cobham explains More established customer-care channels such as voice and email are usually bolstered by technologies such as integrated voice recognition (IVR) and frequently asked questions (FAQ) knowledge bases, which manage and prioritise customer queries and, where appropriate, enable customers to solve their own problems and find their own answers Social media channels such as Twitter, she says, don’t have those self-service capabilities Jo Causon, chief executive of the Institute of Customer Service, agrees that there is an Customer service, marketing and technology Mastering the customer journey Chart To what extent to you agree with the statement ‘Consumer technology provides better functionality than the IT department can provide’? (% of respondents) Strongly agree Agree Customer service 3% 10% 28% 15% Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree Marketing 6% 17% 22% 44% 25% 31% Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit imbalance between the tools available to the customers and those in use by businesses © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2014 Today’s customers, whether B2C or B2B, often have access to more sophisticated mobile, social and cloud technologies than corporate customer service and marketing professionals have on the desk in front of them—and the staff struggling to serve customers are painfully aware of that fact In a recent survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, respondents from the customer service and marketing functions were more likely than their colleagues in other business units to say that today’s consumer technology provides better functionality than the tools that their own IT department provides: 32% of them agree with that statement, while 18% strongly agree “There’s a gap here that needs addressing at most companies,” says Ms Causon But the future of great customer service, she adds, “lies not in the technology itself, but in the conversations and outcomes it enables.” .. .Customer service, marketing and technology Mastering the customer journey Chart To what extent to you agree with the statement ‘Consumer technology provides better functionality than the. .. corporate customer service and marketing professionals have on the desk in front of them and the staff struggling to serve customers are painfully aware of that fact In a recent survey conducted by the. .. from the customer service and marketing functions were more likely than their colleagues in other business units to say that today’s consumer technology provides better functionality than the