Organisations Fail to Measure or Manage the Customer Experience

International Research from Ventana Research

WEYBRIDGE, UK–(EMWNews)–A new white paper published by Verint^®

Consulting and based on international research by Ventana Research

concludes that, while organisations agree that the quality of the

customer experience they deliver has a direct impact on customer

loyalty, advocacy and spend, most do a poor job of measuring and

managing it. Wholly dependent upon subjective feedback from agents and

customers, they are unable to interpret how the experience they deliver

impacts subsequent customer behaviour – such

as their likelihood to spend more, remain loyal or provide advocacy.

Key research findings include:

• 81 percent of organisations agree that the customer experience impacts

  loyalty and advocacy; 73 percent concur that it impacts satisfaction

  and spend.

• Less than one third of organisations use analytics to understand what

  is happening in customer interactions; most rely on subjective,

  irregular and delayed feedback from agents and customers.

• Less than two thirds have documented processes to govern the customer

  experience they deliver; and less than a third has processes for

  handling multi-channel interactions.

Verint Consulting’s Director Helen Murray

comments, “Customer satisfaction has proved

over time to be a poor indicator of customers’

true feelings or intentions. Nevertheless, in the absence of a viable

alternative, organisations have dutifully persevered with it, investing

time, energy and resource to improve their scores. They have done so

despite the fact that they can make no reliable correlation between

those scores, their customers’ subsequent

behaviour and their own business performance.”

Not only are organisations failing to adequately measure the customer

experience they deliver, they are also displaying an inability to manage

it. More than one third lack documented processes to govern telephone

calls. The figure rises to 65 percent and 66 percent for web and

IVR-based self service respectively, and only 28 percent have documented

processes for handling a single interaction across multiple channels.

“The meaningful analysis of customer

experience data can not realistically be achieved by organisations

serving large customer bases without the use of technology to automate

the process,” says Murray. “Those

companies that are adopting newly emerging speech, data and customer

feedback analytics technologies and processes to analyse and understand

the customer experience, however, are making significant progress in

correlating that analysis with subsequent customer behaviour.”

According to the research, 61 percent are making a correlation between

customer experience analysis and customer loyalty, 56 percent with

levels of complaints, 43 percent with customer life time value and 39

percent with customer advocacy. Twenty percent of organisations have

already deployed such specialised analytics or business intelligence

tools, and 42 percent reported they will consider doing so in the next

year.

“True customer experience management depends

upon the ability to analyse the customer interaction and correlate that

analysis with customers’ subsequent behaviour,”

adds Murray. “In this way, we can identify

those behaviours that have the greatest positive impact on customers

and, therefore, on business value.”

Richard Snow, Vice President and Research Director, Ventana Research,

agrees, stating, “Companies need to

understand customer behaviour better. To do so, they need to get more

from their customer related data, including a more reliable view of the

individuals they’re doing business with.”

Verint Consulting’s white paper advocates

five steps towards effective customer experience management:

• Use analysis of the customer experience, correlated with subsequent

  customer behaviour, to identify those interaction characteristics that

  have the most positive impact on customers.

• Apply this understanding to design and document interaction handling

  procedures that reinforce positive customer outcomes.

• Reinforce these processes through effective training, competency-based

  eLearning and ongoing quality management, creating a measurable link

  between quality scores and bottom line results that the organisation

  can embrace and monitor.

• Move towards organisation-wide customer centricity by using customer

  experience analysis to direct strategy in multiple business areas,

  including product design, manufacturing, marketing, distribution,

  billing and after sales support.

• Continue to solicit customer feedback but do so in real time, using

  its findings to prompt immediate customer-focused action and share the

  analysis with all business departments whose activities impact the

  customer experience.

“For several years now, the customer

management industry has expressed a desire to ‘put

the contact centre at the heart of the enterprise.’

This is a laudable endeavour but one that, surely, misses the point. If

our organisations are to thrive, it is customers themselves who must

occupy this space,” concludes Murray. “This

report makes it clear that the ability to analyse interactions at every

customer touch point and via every channel makes this goal achievable.”

For your free copy of Verint Consulting’s

white paper “Beyond Satisfaction: Measuring

and Managing the Customer Experience,” call

Maya Patel on +44 (0)1932 839 500 or email [email protected].

Copies of Ventana’s full “Customer

Experience Management: Insights from Benchmark Research,”

which informs the white paper, are available by contacting Ventana at [email protected].

NOTES FOR EDITORS

About the research methodology

The research was carried out by Ventana Research, and sponsored by

Verint Consulting, among more than 250 customer management decision

makers worldwide. Conducted via a web-based survey between February and

March 2008, the study was designed to benchmark companies’

understanding of customer experience management, current and intended

practices for managing the customer experience when calling a contact

centre or using web-based self-service, and for monitoring and measuring

the outcome from customer interactions.

About Ventana Research

Ventana Research is the leading research and advisory services firm

focused on the intersection of people, processes, information and

technology to enable breakthrough performance. By providing expert

insight and detailed guidance, Ventana Research helps clients operate

their companies more efficiently and effectively. To learn more visit www.ventanaresearch.com.

About Verint Consulting

Verint Consulting (previously CM Insight) is a leading customer

management consultancy that generates tangible business value for

clients by transforming their customers’

behaviour – encouraging them to spend more,

remain loyal and provide advocacy that delivers business growth.

Its consultancy services encompass customer management strategy, call

centre operations and related business process management. Focused on

service excellence and operational efficiency, they are deployed to

define the customer interactions that generate the most positive

customer responses and deliver them through economically viable

operating models.

Verint Consulting has carried out customer management programmes for

national and international clients in every business sector and across

government.

Verint Consulting is the customer management consulting business of

Verint Systems and its Verint^®

Witness Actionable Solutions^™

business line.

About Verint Systems Inc.

Verint Systems Inc. (VRNT.PK), headquartered in Melville, New York, is a

leading provider of actionable intelligence solutions for an optimised

enterprise and a safer world. Today, more than 10,000 organisations in

over 150 countries rely on Verint solutions to perform more effectively,

build competitive advantage and enhance the security of people,

facilities and infrastructure. Visit us at our website www.verint.com.

This press release contains “forward-looking

statements” within the meaning of the Private

Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding

expectations, predictions, views, opportunities, plans, strategies,

beliefs, and statements of similar effect relating to Verint Systems

Inc. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future

performance and they are based on management’s expectations that involve

a number of risks and uncertainties, any of which could cause actual

results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the

forward-looking statements. For a detailed discussion of these risk

factors, see the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the

Securities and Exchange Commission on September 10, 2007, as

supplemented by our Current Reports on Form 8-K filed on November 5,

2007, January 16, 2008, and April 9, 2008. The forward-looking

statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of

this press release and, except as required by law, the Company assumes

no obligation to update or revise them or to provide reasons why actual

results may differ.

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