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Feedback Management Technology - Differentiating Your Company in a Tough Market

March 15, 2009 • It's not a given that companies must accept massive customer losses during a recession. However, that is exactly what's likely to occur unless a company takes aggressive steps to boost its customer retention through quality of service. Fortunately, there are software tools available to support effective customer-focused strategies.

An increasing number of companies use Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM) software as part of their customer experience program to measure customer attitude.

Using EFM software alongside other customer relationship management (CRM) tools allows companies to automate and personalize the process of soliciting, capturing and analyzing customer feedback. The business can therefore request feedback automatically after each customer interaction and personalize it with data like the customer's name and recent interactions.

Consider the following example of EFM at work in an insurer's claims-handling contact center. When a claim's status changes to closed, data about the customer and the specific claim is uploaded into the EFM system. The system emails the customer, inviting feedback on the claim experience. Because the system includes customer data, the invitation is personalized, and it's clear the request is strictly about the experience the policyholder has just undergone. The combination of a personalized email invitation and its timeliness drives very high response rates and can improve overall customer experiences and business processes.

Once the policyholder completes the survey, two things happen:

Any indication of dissatisfaction creates an alert to the claims team for appropriate handling. The team uses an online "resolution alert console" to view all relevant information in one area, including the customer's claim history detail and survey responses.

The system automatically updates its Web-based "dashboard" summary of all customer responses to reflect the latest response. Company staff can access the online dashboard portal to monitor customer attitude using both aggregate and detailed screen views. Management relies on these reports to understand where any systemic problems reside. Analysts can drill down into overview reports to see greater levels of detail, even individual responses, if necessary.

By Gary Schwartz CRM Buyer

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