Photo source: User thephotographymuse on flickr.

Introduction

When it comes to strategy, it is always best to be clear and concise. However, when it comes to customer care strategy, there can be conflicting goals that wreak havoc with success. For instance, Kate Leggett, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, noted that Sales and Customer Service top the list of departments where companies are investing in software technology to improve the customer experience.

Split Personality Goals in Customer Service

Leggett spoke on a recent DNN webinar, “How Online Support Communities Can Lead To Customer Experience Excellence,” and pointed out that despite these investments, the metrics used to measure customer service departments (e.g. speed to resolution or average talk times) may be counter to providing an excellent customer experience.

Another example is when a customer seeks to find a resolution to a problem online and fails. They then use more costly channels such as phone, email or chat. In some cases, the customer will have a completely different experience depending on which channel they choose. 

It is exactly these types of split personality goals that create problems in customer care. As complaints are shared on social media, the problem is exacerbated. According to users surveyed in Forrester's research, "41% say that complaints about customer service from other consumers on social sites like Twitter or Facebook strongly influence my image of a company."

Users Prefer Online Customer Service

Forrester’s research found that 63% of surveyed users prefer online customer service, including:

1. Searching for information
2. Posting a question to a community
3. Consuming content created by a peer or expert

Crowd-sourced content is less expensive to source and easier to encourage in an online community. Leggett modeled the benefits of an online support community, which resulted in the following results:

• US$840,000 in support cost avoidance benefits
• Direct lead generation benefits worth US$210,000
• Potential return on investment of 57%

If your customer care strategy has a split personality, take a moment to listen to Leggett’s sage advice. Maybe it is time to leverage an online customer support community and bring some clarity (and potential revenue) to your customer experience.

View the On-Demand Webinar

View the webinar that we presented with Kate Leggett, “How Online Support Communities Can Lead to Customer Experience Excellence.” Once you complete a short registration form, you'll be able to view the enter webinar on-demand.

View the webinar on our BrightTALK channel.