Customer Relationship Management

Some interesting endorsement statistics which accompany EXCELLENT customer relationships.: 

Recognising the Effect YOU have on Others 

To truly understand what your customer experiences when they engage with your organisation, you need to do more than just step into someone’s shoes. You need to walk with them too.  

A customer journey is a map that shows the sequence of interactions a customer has with your organisation in order to pursue their goal (of both service ad delivery).  

The sequence should show the order, time taken, and how much time separates each interaction. The quality of customer experience at each point should also be measured. 

This journey may be a physical path, an online process or a hybrid of both.In recording the journey focus on capturing the most significant “touchpoints” where the customer actually interacts with your teams. Only record points from the perspective of the customer and disregard your organisation’s internal processes. 

The mapping process itself is a useful team activity. This should be done by actively working together as a team whereby the discovery process encourages shared understanding. It also helps find and resolve misunderstandings and gaps in our knowledge (or within the process).  

Each single member in the team has an effect not only on the customer but on the team itself.But before we look at the path such a mapping process might take, we need to understand exactly who your customer is and what they want. 

Deeper Motivations 

What are their deeper motivations and how can/do we demonstrate that they are valued?  

Manal Ghosain (2014) writes about our need to be accepted, appreciated, approved, attended to, liked, loved, cared for — and understood. But what she doesn’t consider is that if we don’t, or can’t, experience others as understanding us — who we are and what we’re about — then all of these other wants can end up feeling relatively meaningless. 

This is especially true in customer service – and is the foundation for good customer relationships and communication.  

What will fulfil your needs as a person in a customer service environment?  

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Translate those into what another person might need. What standards are you measuring their requirements by, yours, theirs or the company’s?   

Customer Journey Map 

Ask yourself the following questions as you map out your customer journey: 

Visualise this from the point of enquiry right the way through the actual experience, to solving any potential issues and getting feedback and recommendations at the other end. 

Key points to consider when creating a customer journey map: