Keeping Service Customers Satisfied in a Social Mobile World

Businesses of all kinds are grappling with the new reality that customers expect seamless experience. The website or mobile interaction is the brand. Service is the brand. All touch points along the way contribute to a cumulative impression. End to end customer satisfaction should be the goal.

This paper looks at service scenarios from the customer continuum where satisfaction research has resulted in meaningful improvements to customer experience. Service delivery bears closer scrutiny in an altered environment where the customer has more control and more tools to communicate and the retailer has new tools to employ in improving the customer journey.

In a social world any point in the customer lifecycle presents an opportunity for the customer to formulate a positive opinion that can be shared or a negative opinion that can be broadcasted. Referencing traditional word of mouth, researchers say that if someone has a good experience they share it with 9 other people, but if they have a bad experience they share it with almost twice that many. Now with the average individual Twitter or Facebook account having followers and friends in the hundreds the reach of the customer's voice is far greater.

In a mobile world customers can respond instantaneously to a poor service interaction. A survey by mobile provider Hipcricket found that 40 percent of responders have used their mobile device in a retail location to detail a negative interaction.

Technology has assumed an increasingly larger role in the sales and service experience, and it cuts two ways. The same mobile technology that has transformed power into the hands of consumers can also be used to improve customer experience. Customers respond positively to technologies that facilitate personal service.

These trends elevate the importance of measuring customer satisfaction and using findings to institute meaningful service improvements and maintain relationships. They also establish the need for monitoring the voice of the customer in newer channels and integrating feedback across all points of interaction.

In some ways the practices needed to achieve customer satisfaction have not changed much over the years. Companies are continuing to measure and to try to move customers up the satisfaction scale. In other ways, the era of the social mobile consumer requires a broader view and additional tools when aiming for service satisfaction.