Challenges
The customer experience has become an important strategic asset in many industries, especially those with commoditizing products or where deregulation has led to fierce price wars and customer churn. Moreover, advances in technology and the globalization of many industries have heightened customer expectations.But too often, misconceptions about what customers value lead to misguided “improvement” efforts that waste valuable resources. To better focus their efforts, companies must answer key questions such as these:
Which customer interactions lead to attrition, advocacy, and greater spending?
When should we focus on service instead of product or price?
What service experiences hurt customer satisfaction the most?
BCG Competencies
We define “customer experience” as the sum of all customer interactions within a company across all channels, products, and services spanning the whole customer life cycle. A customer’s experience must align with expectations to generate satisfaction. Our goal is to help our clients exceed those expectations to create a sustainable competitive advantage that leads to greater profits.
Our key client service areas include these three topics:
Identifying Critical “Touchpoints.” BCG’s analytic approach identifies the customer interactions, or “touchpoints,” that drive attrition, advocacy, and greater spending as well as the service experiences that hurt customer satisfaction the most. These are the areas we advise our clients to focus on, not the ones with limited impact.
Redesigning the Service Strategy. A compelling service proposition focuses on key touchpoints, is consistent with the overall value proposition, and strikes the right balance across the offer, execution, and tone of service. We help our clients develop the right service strategy, set ambition levels, and design and prioritize initiatives based on value and cost to implement.
Optimizing Operations. We work with our clients to reconfigure systems, processes, and organizational structure in support of their service strategy. To ensure that changes are sustained, we train staff, create incentives that reward new behaviors, and design metrics to measure progress toward specific milestones.
BCG’s global network of experts can deliver major improvements to service operations that will cut costs, boost revenue, and reduce customer attrition.