Last week I had the chance to speak with the VP of Service and Support for one of our large software clients. We are interviewing a number of executives to learn more about how they have enjoyed significant increase in their Net Promoter score, doubling it in the past 2 years!

One of the key learnings of this interview was the use of technology to improve the customer experience. Through diligent review of their customer feedback, they learned that making support more accessible and overcoming the language barriers of offshore call centers was for critical to satisfaction and loyalty. One of several improvements they made was to leverage technology to change the consumer interaction with their support centers.

Through the implementation of instant messaging, agents are able to interact with customers and overcome the language barriers. In addition to improve the customer experience, they are also more efficient by handling 1.6 customers at a time. This weeken had the chance to experience this interaction with a cellular provider and truly appreciated the convenience of “push to chat” from the website. The interaction was convenient, effective and resolved my issue without having to sit through a phone queue, type in my account number and then repeat it when the agent answered the phone.

According to a recent mycustomer.com article which only 21% of companies use instant messaging today. This looks like a great opportunity for companies to improve their customer experience, increase efficiencies and improve Net Promoter scores. In the Net Promoter operating model we talk about innovation and transformation as a critical part of improving your Net Promoter scores. Companies like Intuit and LEGO have seen benefits in co-innovation with their customers and innovation of their customer experience through interactive dialog. As support organizations fight the balance of cost reduction and managing the customer experience, look to technology to improve efficiencies for both you and your customers.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 at 2:55 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.