Is Customer Experience a critical differentiator in today’s hypercompetitive, hyper-connected global market place?

Way back in 2011 Watermark Consulting studied S&P 500 companies and found out that those that are perceived to be leaders in providing good customer experiences can achieve up to 20% better profitability compared to the S&P 500 Index at that time. While those companies that do not provide good customer experience lags behind in terms of profitability.

Now compared that with the most recent findings where Cx leaders are performing much better than before.

Similarly Forrester Research quantified that good customer experience can add billions in profitability especially to a typical American company operating Hotels or providing Wireless Services where customer experience is a very important differentiator.

In my previous blog I compared Apple and Samsung, two of the world leading suppliers of mobile devices in this hyper connected and hyper competitive world.  Apple of course provide a fanatical level of experience while Samsung is catching up fast. However what if we compare with BlackBerry who used to be defacto leader in supplying Smartphones back when the world is just learning how to be hyper connected as it is today. BlackBerry went from the market leader on Smartphones to near extinction. What went wrong for BlackBerry and what went right for Apple? Way back in 2005 when Blackberry was cool it dominated the enterprise market, those who wants to be connected to their work 24X7. However Blackberry ignored the consumer market which Apple with the release of the first iPhone focused on. In the iPhone it gave you a completely different experience, a good and rewarding experience that even a 2 year child can navigate and use a Smartphone.

The  great user experience coupled with great customer service (just visit an Apple retail store to find out) enabled Apple to create a fanatical following anywhere in the world. How much a differentiation is a great customer experience, I would say its worth  more than 45B$ per quarter in revenues and more than 10B$ per quarter in profits…. Is that enough to justify why companies should embark on a good customer experience program?

In one of IQPC's Customer Experience event for Telecoms earlier this year M. Agrawal of Optus put together a very good business case financially explaining why a good customer experience program makes the difference in the bottom line. In his example using NPS, by providing a good customer experience and increasing the number of promoters to 10% it will be worth 620M$ to the bottom line of 2 Million subscribers.

The sample above illustrates how some companies benefit from having good Customer Experience as the critical differentiation in their respective domains. If we look back in history we will find out that a lot of the improvements we see today in services provided to us in banking, hotels, restaurant and even transportation services are a product of good customer experience program from some of the pioneers in this field and adopted by most.

More use cases that are not normally published are being shared in conferences, seminars and focused groups such as the ones below...

Do you agree that any of us who continue to use a particular product or a service has some form of loyalty to that particular product or service or to the brand? If you disagree just look at the products from brands you use or consume. For example your mobile phone, how many of the same brand of phone have you owned? Or drinking a bottle or glass of soda, do you drink Coke or Pepsi?



In the real world we tend to be loyal to particular brands. Sometimes we ask ourselves why? Do we consciously remain loyal to a brand. There are of course scientific answer based on years of research,  most marketing professionals will use this to keep customers loyal. Having said that in the fast changing world of technology,  loyalty is as like the new mobile phone coming out… easily replaceable. In today's world how do we ensure a good customer experience considering that customers experiences one brand in many different ways? There are so many channels where and how we experience a product or a service  from media advertising to actual usage to when we have interaction with customer service, the question is how this promote a good customer experience and  for those who succeed to answer that question at what point that it translates to better profitability. Can anybody else emulate what Apple have done to customer service and profitability?

Taking a cue from T-Mobile, one of the largest and most successful mobile operators in the world, illustrates multiple touch points  as an input in to gaining better profitability.

When the product or service can be personalized and automated it can turn to huge opportunities. However before we get there it is important to ensure a very consistent customer experience across  multiple touch points. Touch points today start even before a customer uses a product or a service and touch point is no longer one-directional it is now a cycle.

To deliver consistent experience it is necessary to ensure that the brand values are communicated through this touch points. Consistent experience means not only consistent branding but ensuring good customer experience throughout the different touch points. For example on television advertising a brand promotes good quality of product enough to get a few customers, such good quality much be backed-up by wonderful experience when using such a product. However it does not stop there a great customer service is required to ensure that those unlucky to experience faults are treated in best possible way, like royalties. Pushing it a bit further why wait until a customer complains why not be proactive to ensure that customers are given the right feedback even before they can pick up the phone to call customer service? Will that not be a more delightful experience?

However providing the most wonderful customer experience does not stop there, it requires innovations and personalization. If we look at the most personal device we use as a touch point or channel, it is something we have with us everyday, we use it primarily for communications. Mobile Operators are very good in turning the phone as an excellent touch point using T-mobile again as an example, the figure below illustrates various channels used based on a single touch point.

Wouldn't it be perfect if as a user and requires customer service or support but do not have to wait very long on a queue to get a human agent on the other line? Or how about simply pressing a button, like a butler button and a customer service agent will call you with all the information about the issues you are experiencing?

As a brand how do you plan to deliver a consistent experience to your customers? If you wonder how, listen to some experts who have successfully done so in their respective companies in Asia Pacific.