Case Study: ICD012: Customer Management Assessment
Drivers
- Increasing pressure on profit margins
- Changing customer purchasing behaviour
- Increased competition in the marketplace
- Increased pressure on retaining customers
- Limited marketing budget for improvements
During a period of intense pressure on profit margins and rapid alterations in customer purchasing behaviour, this client, a travel industry operator, identified a need to address its customer offering and improve its service proposition based on more clearly defined market needs. In particular, the company had identified an increasing trend towards the purchase of more short breaks and, driven by the low cost airline phenomenon, increased competition in the marketplace. The company recognised that they needed to compete on service to improve the likelihood of repeat purchasing decisions and increase overall retention of customers. The Senior Executive had a limited budget available to develop new strategies, however recognised the need to change and evolve existing practices to improve the business situation.
Inputs
- Facilitated customer management workshop
- ICD Customer Management Assessment
The ICD Partnership, using their customer management experience and a proven facilitation process, engaged the executive team in a workshop to conduct a self-assessment of their current customer management capabilities. The ICD Customer Management Assessment tool was used to enable the team to diagnose where the company was currently “feeling the pain” and therefore presented a clear picture of where they should be focussing attention and their priorities for action. The senior team consisted of 5 key executives from different disciplines: HR Training and Development, CEO, Sales, Marketing and Customer Services.
Deliverables
- Key priorities and deliverables identified
- Ownership identified
- Work streams instigated
At the conclusion of the workshop, the senior executives had identified key priorities and deliverables for the proceeding 9 months with an agreed route map from all executives who were present. Ownership was established for the different components of the plan and work streams were instigated.
Outputs
- Further study initiated in the contact centre
- Development of a business case for integrating technology to create single customer view
- Proactive customer management activities instigated to improve retention and campaign effectiveness
A study was initiated into the current practices of the existing contact centre and customer touch points were strengthened within the existing processes;
- Improvements in agent call handling through better handling of inbound calls
- Improved sales conversions from a 17% to 80% conversion rate
- Greater satisfaction from staff in their roles
- Improved MI for senior management and improved decisions
- Process “hand-offs” were identified and reengineered to improve the “customer experience”
- Staffs have better decision-making capability and focus on customer interaction to improve the overall experience
- Excellent return on investment, utilising limited budget A business case was developed to integrate the customer management technology within the process, with the objective of working towards the creation of a single customer view. A proactive customer management activity was also planned and implemented to improve retention of valuable customers as well as marketing campaign results.