Customer support organizations are scrambling to accommodate their changing customer behaviors and preferences. The move to social media, mobile applications and online communities triggers customer service organizations to search for applications that deliver the same level of support on emerging channels as their traditional channels. Without an actionable plan for accommodating customers equally across all channels, support organizations find their customers’ experience suffers. This fragmented approach also causes integration issues, which often require extensive fees for professional services to bridge the legacy applications with the newer ones.
To avoid the pitfalls of managing and integrating multiple point solutions, service organizations need to create a customer service support framework, as the foundation for their support strategy. This includes a comprehensive plan for moving from a predominately single channel model with bolt-on applications to support emerging channels into a cross channel plan that builds an integrated customer support framework. The development of a customer support framework should begin with a review of the current service operations and the development of a gap analysis on future state compared to the existing state. It should also include conducting an analysis of customer data, both structured and unstructured, to gain a more intimate view of individual customers and their priorities. The goal is to create a service strategy that provides the capability to create a single customer profile across all channels and access to the multiple databases that support the service operations.
Constellation Research’s new report, “Customer Service Strategy for a Disruptive World” dentifies the seven key steps an organization needs to consider when developing a strategy for building a world-class customer support strategy. These core features of a customer support framework include:
· Planning and design requirements
· Multichannel interaction support
· Self-service support and knowledge management
· Customer service analytics and reporting
· Application integration, unified customer experience
· Customer insight and feedback
· Execution platform
This report also identifies vendors who are notable providers in each of the seven components for the new service strategy model. The need to update you customer service strategy is evident. Benjamin Franklin stated many years ago, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”. His insight still resonates today for the necessity to create a next generation customer experience strategy.
