The Future is Digital
Becoming digital is the surest way for you to understand your customers' needs and meet their expectations. Learn how Perficient can help anticipate what's ahead for you and your customer with a digital strategy centered around empathy, alignment, and agility.
Companies capable of delivering “end-to-end” customer service entering 2017 are well-positioned to lead their industries throughout the year, according to new Forrester research.
The independent technology and market research firm’s January 2017 report titled Elevate Your Customer Experience With End-to-End Customer Service includes examples of customer service performances from a handful of top-tier consumer market brands such as Amazon, Best Buy, and Zappos. Propelling those successes is a company-wide awareness that customer service does not start and end at the point of sale but instead extends the length and breadth of each enterprise.
This end-to-end engagement incorporates customer service outreach at key intersections of the customer experience (CX) lifecycle, which extends from the initial consideration of a product through its purchase and use and well into product maintenance and loyalty.
“It is shortsighted to think of customer service merely as issue resolution after the purchase of physical goods,” the research says. “As more and more companies move to digital channels, they are losing touch with the emotional connections that face-to-face interactions provide. … Progressive organizations offer an increasingly wide range of customer service activities that span a broader spectrum of the customer’s life cycle.”
Among the experiences Forrester cites are Amazon’s “Mayday” support service featuring direct video links to tech support via mobile devices, Best Buy’s “Geek Squad” program that sends tech support where needed rather than have customers bring their service problems to stores, and Zappos training its call-center employees to focus on building customer relationships ahead of making sales.
Forrester also mentions the after-sales efforts of Rolls Royce’s engine management plan that puts maintenance risk with the manufacturers instead of in the customers’ hands, and Tesla’s ability to download software patches unobtrusively into its connected cars.
All of these activities remove friction in service interactions and smooth paths toward brand loyalty. And Forrester’s data bears this out: 69 percent of U.S. and 31 percent of British consumers tend to shop more with companies that have consistently high-quality customer service. In metro India and China, more than 60 percent of consumers choose brands “that are emotionally satisfying.”
Making that emotional connection requires companies to understand and appreciate that customers no longer exist at the periphery of business; they shape every aspect of it. Those companies that embrace this understanding and transform to extend customer engagement are destined for high, enduring status in the marketplace.
“At its very core, customer service is an organization’s ability to listen to customers and resolve their issues before, during, and after a purchase,” Forrester said in its findings. “… Good customer service ultimately comes down to the responsibility of everyone in the organization to deliver consistently high-quality interactions through activities that align with the company’s brand promise to the market.”
Perficient Digital began with this understanding, which is why Perficient’s award-winning digital agency made end-to-end service its mantra from day one. We realize that customer service is not just important for your brand, it is your brand, and our capabilities in experience design, digital and marketing analytics, mobile and emerging technologies, and digital experience are built around that. We bring digital strategists who are passionate about what consumers need, want, and expect. And we bring abundant technological firepower – more than a company could ever want.
Forrester suggests end-to-end service delivery presents a better way of doing things. At Perficient Digital, we know – and have known from the beginning – that it is the only way.
