Spontaneous, Fuzzy, and Flexible Customer-centric Processes

By: Ron Goldman, Vice President, Social Enterprise at Astadia

I read an article by Dan Woods describing his interview with Tien Tzuo, CEO and Co-Founder of Zuora last week.  He mentioned how the subscription economy will cause you to become even more customer centric, and working with our clients, I’ve noticed those same trends.  Here are some of the interesting points Tien Tzuo makes in the article:

• Rather than putting the focus of the business on the “product” or the “transaction”, subscription economy companies live and die by their ability to focus on the customer.
• To react to this reality, systems must not be built as rigid manufacturing lines, but rather as collaboration systems that allow the customer and the company to work together in a flexible manner to achieve a goal.
• It is up to the system to allow the ability to interact and transact in all the channels the customer wants, with continuity and preservation of context. This is not just a B2C requirement, but a B2B one as well.
• “We really live in a multi-channel world. I use the term ‘channel’ very broadly to refer to people, call centers, devices, resellers,” said Tzuo.  “Your customers can engage with you in so many different ways. Once you build an offer, you must be able to deploy it on your website, into your quoting engine with your salespeople, onto an iPad.”

The great part of being in a consulting business is that you see a multitude of problems and many different approaches to solve them.  One of the more common problems I see is the commoditization of products and services as they mature.  With a subscription economy, you must prove your worth every month to keep your customer subscribing.  The customer centric approach is now more important than ever and can be the key differentiator with so many choices available for the consumer.  You need to be easy to do business with; you need to support all the channels your customers want and all the devices they use; you need to be available when they want to transact business - so, how do you meet these challenges?

The first step is to develop a 360-degree view of the customer.  Your customer profile in your CRM system should include every detail including the customer’s social profile. Use this info to track what they are doing online. For instance, think of how you could improve your customer’s experience if you are a travel services company and you find out your customer is tweeting about an upcoming trip to Hawaii. You proactively contact them with special deals targeting their needs, making their planning simple.  Track their interactions with your website, previous purchase history, responses to previous marketing programs, and note previous problems they have reported - this enables you to have a comprehensive view of the customer that you can use to personalize their experience.  Make sure this data is all available in your CRM system so when your agent is interacting with the customer it is a highly personalized and customized experience.

Additionally, consider proactive support and compensation when your customers encounter a problem. With all the negative publicity around Netflix I still love their products and the proactive approach they take to customer service. I recently had a problem with an on-demand movie download. I thought the issue was with my home network. To my surprise I received an email an hour later stating that Netflix noticed they had a service disruption and to try downloading the movie again. In compensation for the inconvenience, they also gave me a credit on my bill.

I read a blog about a guy who just purchased a new Comcast HD subscription. He received his new set top box, set it up and was unimpressed with the picture quality. He decided to Tweet about his frustration with the poor picture quality. To his surprise, a Comcast representative responded to his Tweet and then had a service person call him. The agent determined he had installed the wrong cable and corrected the issue - the customer then blogged about his great experience.

As these examples demonstrate, a great customer experience should be your focus when selling a subscription, or be prepared to lose to the competition.   A proactive approach is a great way to build loyalty and maintain a great experience with your brand.

Ron Goldman is the Vice President, Social Enterprise at Astadia.  He can be reached at rgoldman@astadia.com and you can follow him on Twitter at @rsgoldman.