IP Communications

Customer Experience Strategy is the fastest growing business trend since Six Sigma. It involves dissatisfiers, engagement, reengineering emotional and functional touch points to reflect the customer’s experience. Today’s demand customers expect businesses to do more than merely meet expectations.

Companies are now starting to realize just how important it is to move beyond customer satisfaction. As a result, they are speaking a new language – customer loyalty. While this movement is occurring all over the world, many business leaders are still dangerously unaware of this critical change in the marketplace.

Those leaders struggling with their organization’s ultimate destiny can become aware of this alternative and exciting customer-centric business philosophy. As they do, they can’t seem to move fast enough or creatively enough to capture the “following” and loyalty that their competitors are also trying to claim.

To empower companies trying to make the change, AboutFace has announced the launch of Advanced Customer Experience Strategy (ACES). This laboratory-style, strategic two-day workshop is scheduled for September 16-17 at the W. Hotel in Midtown Atlanta, Ga. Participants will participate in a rigorous process, which will translate this methodology into a Strategic Saturation Plan with direct application for their business.

"We know implementing this type of change is difficult, but it can be done and the wins are game changing," said AboutFace President and CEO Paige Hall, in a statement. "ACES was conceived after we went on our own search for ways to create a distinct presence in the B2B world. We found the concepts difficult to explain and relate, and we figured other leaders were having the same issues. ACES is the result of the brilliant architecture of our Chief Learning Officer and Strategist, Terena Campagna."

The two-day workshop will offer insight into the customer experience strategy by studying relevance such as current trends, strategic choices and competitive advantage; insight through research tools, company evaluation and plan development; advantage through financial analysis, customer satisfaction and brand loyalty; the voice of the customer through feedback systems and target groups; and touch point engineering including mapping, social networking and customization.

The session is sponsored by the AboutFace Business Intelligence and Secret Shopping Services Group as well as The A.gen.cy, a boutique-style market research agency lead by Jane Edwards-Hall. At the end of the session, participants should have a customized roadmap that will allow them to focus on the people, product, process and technology needed to succeed.

"What most people will discover," said Hall, "is that customer experience isn't nearly as difficult to implement as they imagined and that all of the traditional, financial objectives are met at the same time as you are 'lifting up your customer.' All it takes is an authentic willingness to struggle with the concepts and stay in discovery mode."

No matter what the economic climate throughout the global marketplace, companies still need to understand what makes their customers their customers. If a company doesn’t know why a particular group buys from them or why they may or may not remain loyal, the company is missing the boat on significant opportunities for long term revenues and growth.

 

For many companies, their customer-facing division is the call center. To create the true customer experience for all customers, call centers must capitalize on customer experience strategy to ensure they are more effective and efficient in their efforts to serve the customer base.