As companies realize that good products and innovation alone are not enough to sustain success, and that they need to be coupled with good customer service, the concept of customer experience management is gaining momentum. Telco companies and their call centers have begun to invest more in building and maintaining customer relationships and this trend is likely to continue.
Major players in the customer experience and service quality management market are taking the lead to optimize interactions from the customer's perspective and thereby enhance customer loyalty.
MarketsandMarkets recently released a report on this very subject, titled “Service Quality Management and Telco Customer Experience Management Market by Product Type & Provider Type - Global Advancements, Worldwide Forecasts & Analysis (2014-2019).” The report notes that Adobe (News - Alert) Systems is focusing not only on launching new products but also in forming alliances. Amdocs is helping service providers increase customer satisfaction and enhance customer experience based on real-time analytics, while Cisco (News - Alert) is also developing new products and solutions and acquiring companies in the CEM category.
CRM with its customer-centric approach has also emerged as an important tool and CRM applications help organizations understand the customer experience while using products and services. It helps analyze customer feedback from various sources. With social media arriving on the communication landscape, CEM helps understand customer experience across a variety of channel across the media.
According to the report, telco companies are increasingly using analytical tools such as enterprise feedback management software, text analytics, Web analytics, speech analytics, and are seen to be adapting newer ways to connect customers with organizations.
Even service providers have taken the cue and are focusing on delivering a simplified but great customer experience in addition to delivering network differentiation and offering new devices. They are trying to keep pace with customer expectations and to respond to them in new ways.
Clearly, the onus does appear to be on CEM, which changes an organization's perception from a company-centric approach to a customer-centric approach.
But in spite of all this, many companies still approach customer communications in the traditional way and don’t have a comprehensive plan to respond to customers the way they want to be supported. That has got to change if companies want to differentiate and remain competitive.
Edited by Alisen Downey