Customer Expectations are Evolving, Worldwide

The expectations customers have of organizations are evolving -- rapidly! These expectations are being pushed by a simple but powerful dynamic in the global economy: innovations and improvements in services shift customer demands.

by Brad Cleveland

There are now 1.6 billion internet users and an astonishing 2.7 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide (sources: Internet World Stats and Wireless Intelligence, respectively).  Cliché as it may be, we are truly becoming a connected world—and the experiences your customers have with any organization, not just others in your vertical industry, help to shape their perceptions.

The sheer number of connections is creating a powerful dynamic in delivering customer services—the impact you have, for better or worse, goes far beyond the customers you directly serve, and potentially reaches anyone in their circles of influence.  The stakes are high!

Fortunately, zeroing in on customer expectations is not the hit-or-miss proposition it may seem. ICMI has followed this issue for almost two decades, and we’ve found 10 customer expectations that consistently emerge from customer feedback and surveys (listed here in no specific order):

1. Be accessible
2. Treat me courteously
3. Be responsive to what I need and want
4. Do what I ask promptly
5. Provide well-trained and informed employees
6. Tell me what to expect
7. Meet your commitments and keep your promises
8. Do it right the first time
9. Follow up
10. Be socially responsible and ethical

The real challenge, of course, is in defining what these expectations mean. Ten to 15 years ago, being accessible meant just having a call center that worked reasonably well.  Today, multiple channels of access, 24x7 operations and one-stop, once-and-done contacts have become well-established practices. And the customer contact environment continues to evolve: Advances in Web-based services, mobile devices and telematics (vehicle-based navigation and communication systems) are examples of developments that are furthering the meaning of accessibility.

While courtesy used to refer primarily to the way agents handle calls, the definition today is also systems- and process-dependent.  Get customers to the right place at the right time.  Don’t make them repeat the same information. Don’t transfer them around. And don’t make them go over their account history again.

Definitions of responsiveness and promptness are also evolving. Consider email response times, which have seen significant revisions in recent years — from several days to 24 hours to a matter of hours in many organizations. Some organizations are staffing for email contacts similar to phone calls and are handling them as they arrive. Customers also expect all contact channels to be integrated and work seamlessly — e.g., changes a customer makes to an account online will be reflected in the records that agents can access.

Another common expectation — provide well-trained and informed employees — continues to challenge many organizations. With multiple channels of contact and better-informed consumers, this is as important as ever. Leading call centers are making monumental efforts to update recruiting and hiring practices, educate agents and managers, and implement the necessary tools and processes.

Tell me what to expect.  Meet your commitments and keep your promises. Do it right the first time. Follow up. These issues are inextricably interrelated and require that people, processes and technologies work in sync. For example, commitments that call center agents make must be backed up by people, processes and technologies across business units to ensure that orders, deliveries, account changes, etc., are handled as promised. Customers seem to live by the mantra “trust, but verify” — they’ll trust your organization if you fulfill your end of the bargain.

Be socially responsible and ethical. Lapses, or even perceived lapses, in an organization’s responsibilities quickly make the rounds in networked communities. Thousands of new Web sites and blogs emerge daily, and consumers increasingly search out and share experiences with others.  We must make sure we live up to our responsibilities to be open, accessible, and responsive to customers.

So, what to do with these expectations? Ensure that your management team thoroughly understands them. Post them prominently. Work considerations of them into all decisions, large and small. (I know of one Director who had her team of managers literally memorize the list.)  And ensure that these expectations form the context in which you develop your customer access strategy. They should drive everything from how you segment customers to what channels you make available.

In short, knowing your customers and anticipating their expectations is essential to developing effective customer contact services.  Yes, it’s a challenge. But evolving customer expectations present an enormous opportunity for organizations to differentiate themselves in a competitive and fast-changing global economy, where customers can so readily share their experiences with others.

Please drop me a note with your stories, comments, feedback… I’d love to hear from you.

Brad Cleveland

President, ICMI

As president of ICMI, Brad Cleveland has delivered keynotes, executive briefings and consulting services in over 50 countries. Brad can be reached at bradc@icmi.com.