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Keith Hammonds writing in Fast Company asks a pivotal question -- "Can big companies really care about customers?" Expanding his provocative question, a more universal question should be, "do any of us really care about the customer?" And if so, the follow up should be "how can any of us better demonstrate that we care about our customers?"
Throughout a transaction cycle, many vendor-customer experiences are awful. Especially during times like these, when companies cut back on customer service to achieve cost savings, even comics like Cathy and Dilbert satirize those experiences. This is despite a truth that we all recognize. When customers have good experiences, they are more likely to be part of a mutually satisfying transaction, and possibly more importantly ensure the probability of future transactions. Those good experiences stand out even more when everyone else seems to be less focused on that experience!
Unfortunately, too often our business strategy mimics the behavior that Ronald Coase, 1991 Nobel laureate in economics, described in "The Nature of the Firm," a book published in 1937. That reality is the quote at the start of this column. Why is this? Our customer is just a means of what we do best -- make a widget or practice law, manage a warehouse or prepare a tax return. Slower times means that we return back to our basics; we should be returning back to the basics.
CRM. During the 1990s, the buzzword of customer relationship management (CRM) developed. It described an ambiguous process that involved a hefty investment in technology, hiring a consulting firm, and some business process improvement. The goal was improving the vendor's control over and understanding how the customer interacts and behaves with its people and resources. The ideal model of CRM includes every aspect of customer interaction -- pre-sale, fulfillment, and post-sale.
BPO. Business process outsourcing (BPO) was another buzzword of the 1990s. With BPO, a business could focus its energies on the aspects of business that were unique to its existence while leveraging the efficiencies of another business that had perfected the production of specific business processes. The most common of these is payroll outsourcing.
Combining the two. Recently, I had an informative conversation with Amit Shankardass. Amit is responsible for business intelligence, strategic planning, product line management, and corporate marketing for ClientLogic (www.clientlogic.com). Based in Nashville, ClientLogic combines outsourced customer service, fulfillment and certain elements of marketing to create specialized service offerings for more than 250 companies worldwide. Clients include Microsoft, Earthlink, Brookstone, Logitech, Sears, Sony, HP, and National Geographic Television. The services address the need that some of us have to outsource the business process of managing our customers.
Why?
Why not? Simply stated, most of us are reluctant to relinquish control of any of our processes, especially when it involves someone butting in to how we interact with our customers. In addition, the hard dollars of paying someone else to do these common business functions goes against our instincts as managers.
Buying customer management services. There are some attributes of successful outsourced customer management relationships.
Outsourcing customer management is not for every business. Still, learning about ClientLogic and others providing similar services should stimulate us to demand more customer-centric sensitivity as we look to reduce cost.
CHAIM YUDKOWSKY, CPA, CITP is Chief Information Officer at Textilease Corp., a uniform and first aid services company serving the Southeast. He may be reached at 301-937-4555 or cyudkowsky@ByteofSuccess.com. Chaim is available to speak to your group or business on a variety of technology topics. |
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