The Last Mile

Recognizing, understanding and closing the gap in customer interactions

Contents

Introduction ..........................................................................................................3

What is the Last Mile? .........................................................................................4

How do I know if I have a problem? .................................................................5

Strengthening ... through Smarter Interactions ................................................6

Intelligent Guidance Enables Smarter Interactions ..........................................8

Does your customer see one organization? ......................................................9

Conclusion: Empower Your People for the Last Mile .....................................11

About Cincom ....................................................................................................13

Learn how to address the six impact points of customer experience inthe contact center in ”Delivering Superior Customer Experiences inthe Contact Center”.

A companion piece to IBM’s white paper:

The Customer-Focused Contact Center

Delivering Superior Customer

Experiences in the Contact Center

How Cincom ®Synchrony ™

addresses six impact points

of customer experience in the contact center

WHITE PAPER

It is interesting that a high percentage of customers who respond to surveys say thatthey are “satisfied,” with their current suppliers. What is even more interesting is asmany as 80% of customers who switch suppliers report that they were satisfied withtheir previous suppliers! Companies need to re-evaluate how they view satisfaction.Rather than being reassured that a large percentage of their customers are“satisfied,” organizations should be concerned that such a high percentage of theircustomers are vulnerable to their competitors. Forward-thinking executives know thatthe most effective, most profitable and fastest way to grow the business is byincreasing:

• Customer lifetime value and profitability (through increased cross-selling/upselling)

• Customer retention by building loyalty

• The number of new customers through advocacy

In order to rapidly and affordably grow the customer base, an organization needs tonurture customer advocates and eliminate detractors. Most organizations, even if theyhave been operationally successful, have seen very little positive impact on those keysuccess metrics despite making significant investments in their infrastructure. This e-book discusses how focusing on the Last Mile—the final connection between yourcustomers and your company—is where you can move customers from being merelysatisfied to loyal advocates.

Satisfied customers are not the same as loyal customers—

and are certainly not the same as “advocates.”

3Introduction

According to Harvard Business Review, increasing customer retentionrates by 5% could increase profits from 25% to 95%.

The Last Mile is a constraint that has been identified and discussed for many years inthe context of network communications. It refers to the final leg of deliveringconnectivity from a communications provider to a customer. If that last connection isweak—even if the rest of the network is powerful—then the connection is still goingto be weak.

Within the context of customer interactions, we can see an analogous type of “LastMile” problem. Most organizations have made huge investments in technology toenable better interactions with their customers. However, even with theseinvestments, the reality is that the ultimate success of the interaction relies on whattranspires during the interaction itself. It’s that final connection when the customerand your employee are in conversation or when a customer is navigating a self-serviceportal. This is where the rubber hits the road. This is the “Last Mile” in customerinteractions.

4What is the Last Mile?

According to a surveyconducted by AmericanExpress Global CustomerService Barometer,Americans spend 9% morewith companies providingexcellent customer service.

In reality, as executives, it is a challenge to understand what it is like for yourcustomers to interact with the organization. You may know what you want thecustomers’ experience to be, but do you know what the experience actually is?

A key component of the Last Mile is understanding and addressing how yourcustomers and prospects experience your organization—not at a single interactionlevel, but from a holistic view. For instance:

• Is each “touch” (phone call, email, chat, fax) an entirely new disconnectedexperience—or is it an extension of the last interaction?

• Can your customer-facing employees easily resume where the last interaction wassuspended—regardless of the channel used previously?

• Or more likely, do your customers feel like they are starting over each and everytime?

Customers want to view organizations as one seamless entity, almost as if they havetheir own personal concierge who knows and understands everything about them andensures a great experience, regardless of what they need. A critical component of theLast Mile is the ability to compassionately guide the interaction to the best possibleoutcome for the customer and the organization. Customer-facing employees need thecapability to guide smarter interactions with the customer across all touchpoints.

5How do I know if I have a problem?

What is yourcustomers’ actualexperience?

Strengthening the Last Mile through Smarter Interactions

Any customer-facing employee—regardless of the channel they are managing—needsto be able to re-engage with a customer at the point where they left off in a previousinteraction. This is an important consideration since most transactions are notaccomplished in one interaction, but rather over time and across channels.

While a company must be confident that its customer-facing employees can do theirjobs well, the reality is that the majority of the employees typically have limitedknowledge, education, training or experience. This is where technology can helpmove the company to a more customer-centric way of doing business, empoweringyour customer-facing employees to:

• Correctly and consistently apply ever-changing policies, procedures and regulatorymandates (and know when to make proper exceptions)

• Quickly assess issues and concerns and make educated recommendations that serveboth the customer and the organization

• Provide personalized follow-up that delivers on the commitments of the interaction

Addressing this Last Mile constraint transforms interactions with customers.Employing Intelligent Guidance leads your customer-facing employees to betterexperiences and better outcomes. It effectively drives first-call resolutions achieving adeeper emotional customer connection. This customer bonding has a direct cause-and-effect linkage to those success metrics the organization is so desperately seeking:cross-/upselling, lifetime value/profitability, retention/loyalty and advocacy. Smarterinteractions transform transactions into conversations that customers enjoy and value.

6Strengthening ... through Smarter Interactions

Strengthening the Last Mile through Smarter Interactions

Smarter interactions should be conversational and:

• Create an emotional bond with the caller

• Connect to their personal situation—including their unique needs and preferences

• Valuable to the caller, not just the organization

• Leave a lasting memory—a positive experience so powerful that it burns a memoryof your organization’s brand into the consumer’s mind

7Strengthening ... through Smarter Interactions

Experiences thatproduce emotionalbonding achieve muchgreater loyalty andadvocacy.

Organizations that weresuccessful in creatingboth functional andemotional bonding had:

• higher retention ratios:84% versus 30%

• higher cross-/upsellratios: 82% versus 16%

Source: OgilvyOne worldwide™analysis of the annual Millward Brownstudy of 28,000 worldwide brands(BrandZ™)3 sponsored by WPP.

Intelligent Guidance allows you to personalize every experience by leveraging theinsight you have about each customer, in the context of each interaction. With real-timeIntelligent Guidance, every member of the Last Mile is well-equipped to performconsistently and correctly, every time. With Intelligent Guidance, you can insulate agentsfrom processes and workflow that don’t add value to the interaction whilesimultaneously presenting value-added guidance, personalization and expertrecommendations. This enables employees to respond quickly and appropriately to eachcustomer for better, faster, more effective interactions. Using Intelligent Guidance, it istypical to free up 50% to 80% of the existing interaction time.

Value-building activities can then be added into that freed-up time to boost the valuedelivered to the customer and the organization. And when the process changes—possibly due to strategic, competitive or regulatory requirements—every member of theLast Mile will be led to execute the new process as soon as the changed interactionguide is published into action.

1) The large amounts ofwasted time (in red)

2) The things that thecustomer may not valuebut are mandated to bedone (in yellow)

3) The limited amount ofvaluable time (in green)

8Intelligent Guidance Enables Smarter Interactions

What’s the secret togreater customerloyalty and advocacy?

Audits, Design and Business Transformation:Removing Waste and Adding Value to Enable Exceptional Customer Experiences

Total length and makeup of interaction

Traditional

TransactionalUnified Desktop only

TransformationalSmarter Interactions

Value-added Non-value-added,not mandatory

Non-value-added,but mandatory

• Efficiency gains• Cost reduction• Little revenue increase

• Greater efficiency and effectiveness• Greater cost reductions• Significant revenue increase

Businesses that present “one” organization to their customers and are able to quicklyand seamlessly “pick up and go” from the last interaction, stand to deliver muchbetter experiences and outcomes.

One Customer—Two Very Different Experiences

9

Are your customers likely to be advocatesfor your company?

Does your customer see one organization?

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

According to RichardSnow at Ventana Research,“Excellent experiencesinclude having the(contact center) agentrecognize you, know allabout you (including yourpast interactionsregardless of the channelof communication) andpersonalize the response(such as making a specialoffer).”

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

The Problem: No Ability to “Suspend and Resume” the Interaction

Consider a banking customer who is looking to purchase a new car and is shopping fora car loan.

• He may start on the web, researching and comparing rates and options. (So far sogood.)

• Next, he might visit a local branch, or call, chat or email for more details. Here hemust explain to the bank employee what he found as a result of his research andwhat details he is looking for.

• Finally, he is ready to apply for the loan. Again he might visit a local branch, the Website or call the bank for the paperwork and assistance. And once again he must bringthe bank employee “up to speed” as to what type of car he wants to purchase, hisloan requirements, etc.

In this example, each time the customer interacted with the bank, he talked to a newemployee and his inquiry was treated as a separate, distinct interaction. Moreimportantly, the bank was unaware of the previous interactions and could notproactively pick up where the previous interaction suspended.

How do you think this made the customer feel about his experience with the bank? Hemay proceed with the loan, however, how likely do you think it is that the customer willrecommend his experience to friends and family as a unique and “pleasurableexperience”?

The Solution: Using the “Suspend and Resume” Capability

Now consider the same banking customer, looking to purchase a new car andshopping for a car loan, but this time with the “suspend and resume” capabilityin place.

• The customer begins his research on the bank’s Web site. He enters detailsabout the type of loan he is looking for as he did before. This time, hereceives a personal recommendation with a unique ID, such as a bar code thatcan be printed or downloaded to his smart phone.

• When he enters or calls the bank for additional details, that unique IDidentifies exactly what has transpired to date. The customer does not have torepeat his requirements and the banking employee is immediately aware ofhis loan requirements.

• Plus, because Intelligent Guidance with the “suspend and resume” capabilityis powering the transaction across all channels, it doesn’t matter how thecustomer chooses to interact. Now the loan process can progress even fastersince personalized loan application documents can be created and IntelligentGuidance automatically triggers the approval processes. This way, when thecustomer is ready to purchase, the loan is ready to go.

What a difference! From the customer’s perspective, researching and applyingfor the loan was a more streamlined, cohesive and pleasant experience. Fromthe bank’s perspective, it was able to track and monitor the customer’s activityand interest and respond to his needs much more quickly—thereby ensuring ahappy, loyal customer who will share his experience and recommend the bankto his friends and family.

With Intelligent Guidance powering the transaction across all channels, itdoesn’t matter how the customer chooses to interact. Any customer-facingemployee—regardless of the channel they are managing—can re-engage withthe customer at the point where they left off in a previous interaction—withoutmissing a beat.

10Does your customer see one organization?

Poor customer service costsUK businesses £15.3 billionper year.

Customer Service �

Set Them Free to Drive Revenue and Nurture Advocacy

Customer-facing employees are asked to do much with little:

• At a high level, they are expected to deliver your brand promise, drive revenue, buildloyalty and nurture advocacy. In order to do this, they must engage with customers at apersonal level and exhibit excellent people skills.

• At a product level, they must understand your offerings and your promotions. They must beskilled at accessing the information needed in the many supporting applications that drivethe business, and diligent at recording and documenting the conversation. They must knowhow to follow processes and be compliant throughout.

Your customer-facing employees are the consummate problem-solvers; they are theprolific up-sellers. They are your face to the customer, and what happens inconversation with them is what the customer will remember and tell others about.

11Conclusion: Empower Your People for the Last Mile

Your Customer-facing Employees Shape the Customer’s Experience Duringthe Last Mile

Your people have the power to either strengthen your brand experience—or destroyit. To deliver in the Last Mile, organizations need to focus not only on their internal360-degree view of the customer, but more importantly, on the customer’s 360-degree view of the organization. When an organization can finally present a singlepresence to the customer, and not a multitude of distinct channels with distinctexperiences, we begin to see a transformational impact on loyalty and advocacy.

Much can be done to streamline and design the customer interactions to ensurebetter outcomes for the customer, the employee and the organization. Similar to theLast Mile in network connections, if the final connection between the customer andyour employee is weak—even if the rest of the infrastructure is powerful—the end-result of the interaction is going to be weak. Smarter interactions empower youremployees to consistently, efficiently and confidently engage with customers in theLast Mile.

12Conclusion: Empower Your People for the Last Mile

When an organizationcan finally present asingle presence to thecustomer, and not amultitude of distinctchannels with distinctexperiences, webegin to see atransformationalimpact on loyalty andadvocacy.

13About Cincom

Cincom recognizes that it is your people—your customer-facing employees—whorepresent your brand. And in each conversation, it is the experience that they deliverto your customers that either builds value for your brand or destroys it. It is apowerful role to play.

Since 1968, Cincom has helped thousands of clients worldwide by solving complexbusiness problems with its software and services. Cincom is an IBM Premier BusinessPartner and has been integrating IBM technologies and leveraging IBM services forover 10 years.

Cincom's Customer Experience Management initiative is focused on helpingcompanies and their employees consistently deliver experiences that not only buildyour brand, but are valuable to both your customers and your organization. Cincomdoes this through its Cincom® Synchrony™ offering that guides employees to deliversmarter interactions.

For more information about how Cincom Synchrony enables smarterinteractions, visit www.synchrony.cincom.com, or call Brian Flagg atbflagg@cincom.com.

A few Cincom Synchrony Awards

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Will she build yourbrand or destroy it?Every customer touch with thecontact center is a test of yourbrand and your promise to thecustomer—and the stakes arehigh. A recent study shows that 87% of customers stoppeddoing business with a companyafter a bad customer experience.When a customer picks up thephone, your agent is the brandand possibly the only humanvoice that customer willexperience with your business. Itpays to make that experiencegreat.

Learn how to address the siximpact points of customerexperience in the contact centerin ”Delivering Superior CustomerExperiences in the ContactCenter”.

www.synchrony.cincom.com

Download your FREE white paper at www.synchrony.cincom.com/CEMcxwhitepaper

© 2012 Cincom Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved

A companion piece to IBM’s white paper:

The Customer-Focused Contact Center

Delivering Superior Customer

Experiences in the Contact Center

How Cincom ®Synchrony ™

addresses six impact points

of customer experience in the contact center

WHITE PAPER

To theCustomer,She IS

YourBrand

15

Cincom the Quadrant Logo and Synchrony are trademarks orregistered trademarks of Cincom Systems, Inc. All othertrademarks belong to their respective companies.

© 2011, 2012 Cincom Systems, Inc.FORM SYUS1103021 9/12Printed in U.S.A. All Rights Reserved