INTENTIONAL EXPERIENCE | Orange Paper

Intentional Experience: the foundation of successful transformation

By Darren Linden

Darren Linden

Intentional Experience: the foundation of successful transformation

Introduction As organisations aim to leverage digital channels and products to transform their business, one of the biggest challenges they wrestle with is that of driving customer adoption to new channels and features.

The assumption that “if you build it, they will come” is flawed; just because customer journeys may be failing, the answer isn’t always to build new technology. Companies must successfully marry capability with effective customer strategies to unlock the business value of the investments they’ve made.

Creating an Intentional Experience When it comes to doing this, I’m a big believer in the principle of what I call an ‘Intentional Experience’. This is a strategy whereby an organisation will intentionally drive its customers to complete specific transactions in particular channels (in direct contrast to the trend for ‘do anything, anywhere’ omnichannel strategies) because it delivers the best possible customer experience and the best possible result.

One key benefit of an intentional strategy is greater efficiency – always desirable, particularly in markets where margins are tight and services commoditised. A common goal of an intentional experience is to use digital to drive high-volume, low-value interactions away from the most expensive channels (ie.reducing faceto-face and voice-to-voice interactions).

Of course, this needs to be achieved without compromising the customer experience. As long as this is the case, intentional sales and service experiences can provide powerful foundations for business transformation initiatives.

While there are still relatively few examples of large established organisations innovating at scale to deliver new revenues, using intentional strategies to protect existing margins via channel shift can still prove to be transformative in markets that are already being disrupted.

So what does an intentional strategy generally entail? Invariably, it will require you to do one or more of the following: »» Balance customer insight with analytics – to reveal those key interactions, the “Moments of Truth” when you should focus on meeting and exceeding key customer needs. It’s critical you understand the interactions your customers really value, using data and insight to continuously optimise the experience. »» Provide differentiated service experiences to your most important customer segments. »» Drive channel migration via intentional actions (to shift high volume, low value transactions away from expensive contact points). »» Provide clarity on sales and service expectations to your entire organisation, via clearly defined channel migration targets.

Darren Linden

Intentional Experience: the foundation of successful transformation

A strategy that pays off Designing and delivering an intentional experience can provide organisations with many benefits. In offering a more useful and timely service, the opportunity is there to deepen the customer relationship. Over time, this enables cross-sell and upsell opportunities too, enabling you to maximise revenue opportunities.

It’s also the route to industry-leading, tailored service – since the strategy is built around providing the relevant action for customers in the most immediate, simple way possible. Customers get what they want more quickly (‘Right First Time’), which lowers complaints and raises key measurables like customer satisfaction (CSAT) and Net Promoter Score (NPS).

Another benefit (mentioned briefly above) is that of efficiency. Intentional experiences allow you to make the best possible use of contact centre and faceto-face resources, dedicating them to those areas that need it most (i.e. the most complex transactions and issues that customers struggle to deal with via self service). These are the high-value, high-revenue opportunities where customers are won or lost – and where the personal touch really counts.

Conversely, as long as you can still ensure a great experience it just makes sense to direct lower value interactions to self-service, low cost-per-use digital channels.

In short, intentional experiences can deliver the best of both worlds. You get more control over the customer experience, by using insight and data to optimise journeys and design out the need to contact; you get lower costs thanks to effective self-service; AND your customers are more satisfied.

Speaking of which...

Intentional Experiences benefit customers Crafting an intentional experience won’t only benefit your organisation – it’s the path to exceeding your customer’s expectations, too. It helps you provide them with: »» A more tailored experience – in segmenting customers by their intention and/or value, you can serve them with more appropriate, relevant responses. »» A clearer, quicker, easier experience – by taking customers straight to the best place to achieve their desired outcome. »» New, better ways of engaging – by introducing and embedding new services and features that continuously improve the experience over time.

Reduced frustration – by removing opportunities for failure and subsequent reasons to complain.

Of course, it’s vital to measure the results of any changes you’re making. Using conversion funnels on all sales and service interactions will determine how many customers were able to successfully complete their transaction first time.

The resulting data will provide the insight that allows you to ruthlessly optimise the customer journey and drive incremental improvements to reach your targets.

Success here is measured by Goal Achievement. The higher the goal achievement score is for your digital interactions, the more likely your customers are to migrate to the channel over time.

Darren Linden

Intentional Experience: the foundation of successful transformation

The steps to design your intentional experience Take a data led approach: All activities should be based on data and insight and aligned to a set of consistent principles to ensure that the focus remains on achieving the stated objective.

Work Areas

Define

Data & Insight

Design Principles

Activities/Outcomes

Define the channel role: All channels will have a role Consider future channels: All new/growing channels will follow the same approach e.g. social Not deny service: We will not shut down the ability to complete the transaction in nonintentional channels Omni Channel: We will only be truly Omni Channel where it makes sense on a process by process basis

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Agreed and common set of definitions for each Interaction type by channel

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Agreed defined channel roles e.g.

Make decisions based on data and KPIs: Identifying the Intentional Customer Experience will take into consideration all relevant data points for each channel and journey

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Assessment of each interaction by channel based on: • Volume • Value (cost and revenue opportunity) • Emotion • Complexity • Goal achievement

Tailor to the customer: Segmentation and anticipated action will be considered when determining the Intentional Customer Experience

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Segment customers based on value and cost to serve Identify Intentional Experience for each segment: • Customers to leave alone (low cost/high value) • Customers to migrate (to reduce cost, improve goal achievement, improve NPS or improve quality of service)

Prioritise the road map on value: Agree a road map of changes that close capability gaps based on value to customer

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Get it right the first time: Aspirational goal achievement for Intentional Channel Experience: • 90% for account maintenance • 80% for help and support

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Always present the next best action: We will intentionally direct customers to the best place to get the outcome they need and not provide a range of contact options

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Segment

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Digital 1st: Low value/emotion/complexity interactions Agent Assisted 1st: High value/emotion/ complexity interactions

Prioritise interactions and experiences based on Intentional Experience, segmentation and value Develop prioritised investment roadmap based on capability gaps

Roadmap

Customer Experience

Migrate

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Design and deploy exceptional customer experience for Mobile, Tablet, Online (in that order) Monitor customer satisfaction levels (using CSAT or NPS as proxy) and goal achievement scores to continually optimise customer journeys

Design migration driving initiatives including above and through the line promotion Reduce transactions available in the voice channel for all except most valuable customers

Obstacles to effective digital channel migration There are four key challenges to consider and overcome in order to effectively drive the adoption of digital channels: »» Increasing complexity – Product and service complexity is increasing as technology becomes more advanced. This results in increasingly complex customer issues to solve, in turn making successful resolution via self-service more challenging. »» Failure to predict new call types – Business cases are based on the reduction of existing call types. New digital self-service implementations will drive new types of call (e.g. password and PIN resets, web services support) which may increase use of voice-to-voice channels if not anticipated. »» Sustainability of the self-service model – Increasing usage of digital channels is usually consistent if your digital implementation is stable.

However, achieving a consistent reduction in call volume rarely appears to follow, because taking out the calls altogether is difficult. The percentage of active customers with active online accounts is typically less than 50%; providing digital options may lead to more contact, unless services like credential reminders to recover your username and password are simple and effective. »» Demanding customers – Customers want more personalisation and the ability to tailor their experience. Therefore, a one-size-fits-all approach to digital self-service may work only for the most simple queries.

It’s not easy – but it can be done The only reliable way to reduce expensive voice-to-voice or face-to-face contact is to rigorously design out the need to make contact in the first place.

It follows that designing an intentional experience that relentlessly optimises your customer journeys – with a laser focus on goal achievement – is a key step on the path to success.

Keep your policies and processes simple; listen to what your customers are saying about you, what they are doing and where they are succeeding/failing.

Ensure your supporting technology and infrastructure is stable for the issues that drive the highest number of calls, and educate your staff and customers to become digital advocates. Get all these ingredients right, and you may just have the winning formula.

Darren Linden

Intentional Experience: the foundation of successful transformation

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