Uk Con Customer Service in the Digital Age

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Customer service in the digital age Responding to digital disruption and rising customer expectations

Developed for the Deloitte Customer Service Leaders Forum



Contents

Foreword 1

Introduction 2

Mobile first 4

Omni-channel is here 6

Social grows up 8

User experience brings art and science to business 10

User adoption – the missing link 12

Analytics – removing the guesswork 13

Key capabilities to drive effective digital services 14

Case study 16

Conclusion 19

Contact us 20



Foreword

Digital is disrupting traditional customer service models – with new customer touch-points appearing against a backdrop of rising expectations.

In our previous paper,1 we outlined how organisations can start to become more customer-centric. Key to this approach was the need to understand and adapt to customer needs and behaviours as they change. Today, we find that consumers’ increasingly ‘digital’ lifestyles are altering traditional customer service models more than ever.

With consumers spending more and more of their time online, social media, smart phones and tablet devices are being adopted faster than ever. Digital customers are now consuming content online and via mobile devices, at breakneck speeds. The sheer pace of technology-enabled change means that we need to explore the way customer service is currently delivered and reassess the role of traditional customer service models.

The recent London Olympic Games offered a prime example of how digital customer service and engagement are now core to the success of many service organisations. Commonly referred to as the first ‘digital games’, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) redefined the Olympics experience for spectators by embedding online and mobile channels as an essential part of the journey for both ticketholders and the general public.

The statistics from the games are astounding. They prove that digital has changed the game for customer service leaders and within this Point of View, we cover the key trends those leaders will need to embrace. Crucially, their role as enablers is to adapt and transform customer service by embedding digital and personalisation at the heart of customer touch-points.

Yours sincerely,

Scott Wheatley Lead Partner, Customer Service TransformationChair of Customer Service Leaders Forum

Source: LOCOG

1 Deloitte Customer Service Leaders Forum 2011 Point of View Customer Centricity putting your customers at the heart of your business

App downloads

15m

431m website visits by

109munique users

49m people connected via Facebook

200 countries

83m

emails sent to

15mapp downloads

150mtweets about the games

1.9m twitter followers

The Digital Olympic Games in numbers

Customer service in the digital age Responding to digital disruption and rising customer expectations 1



Introduction

In today’s digital world, customer expectations and the rules of customer engagement are changing. To successfully acquire and retain customers, organisations must recognise these new dynamics, adapt and evolve to become more flexible and responsive. In this year’s paper, we outline six digital trends that have significant implications for the future of customer service.

UX

Trends

Mobile first Omni-channel is here

Social grows up

User experience brings art and science to business

User adoption – the missing link

Analytics – removing the guesswork

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Mobile firstCustomers are now spending a significant amount of time online via smart mobile devices – and they expect businesses to interact with them over these touch-points. Customer service leaders need to invest and innovate within this channel, so as to meet growing expectations of instant accessibility and contact. The need to be reachable anytime, from anywhere will continue to grow.

Omni-channel is here As the numbers of customer touch-points continue to grow, so does the importance of managing each interaction consistently, as part of end-to-end customer journeys. Rather than treating each interaction as an isolated contact, they should be designed with the focus on building context. Bringing together existing information about the customer and their interaction history can help to determine the context at every customer touch-point.

Social grows upThe reach and influence that social media has on consumers’ day-to-day lives and the reputation of brands is astonishing. For service organisations, it’s impossible to ignore. Many service organisations see social needing its own dedicated function to deal with the perceived complexities and risks. However, it’s essential that the social channel is integrated with the existing service offering and approached as a different skill or contact type, rather than as a channel.

User experience brings art and science to service Over the past decade, we have often seen digital technologies bolted on to existing operations, achieving only a fraction of their potential due to a lack of usability and design. As digital touch-points increase their influence on how customer service is delivered, they demand greater attention. It’s now critical to make sure this capability is enhanced and embedded within business teams and many service organisations have or are planning to invest in an enhanced user experience capability.

User adoption – the missing linkAdoption is a challenge faced by many service organisations, under constant pressure to maximise operational benefits and cost savings. It’s important to remember that building digital services doesn’t mean customers will automatically use them. The key is to build services that add value and then market them appropriately, while continuing to look at new ways to improve adoption long after the initial implementation.

Analytics – removing the guess work In this always-on, tech-savvy and social world, customers come armed with an internet full of information. Their attitudes and behaviours change continuously. As a result, most companies are facing significant customer service challenges because they do not know and are not able to predict what will happen next or respond to real-time complaints or feedback. Only organisations who do customer analytics well are able to exploit all channels and data sources, so as to make better-informed decisions about the service they provide.

The digital conclusion The influence of these digital trends on customer services is already well established. This is particularly true in the B2C world, where rapid consumer adoption of technology has raced past the enterprise. However, we also believe that these trends will extend to the B2B world, as customers come to expect a similar experience and personalisation of service at work and at home.

Over the following pages, we will explore these trends in detail before returning to the challenge of how to transform the service operation for tomorrow.




Mobile first

The explosive adoption of mobile devices like smart phones and tablets is changing the way the internet is consumed, along with consumer expectations.

The speed at which consumers adopt new technology is faster than ever before. Businesses previously drove technology adoption with the telephone, fax, PC, mobile phone and email all adopted by businesses first, then consumers. However, today consumers are leading technology adoption – and at a staggering pace. The iPhone 5 sold over 2 million units in less than 24 hours. In contrast, in 2002, it took Apple over a year to sell half the number of iPods. The adoption of mobile devices is also changing how the internet is consumed, with mobile devices expected to surpass desktop usage in the not-too-distant-future. With the introduction of 4G into the UK, mobile devices can only get better and faster.

Anytime, anywhere, data driven customer serviceOnline customer experience has traditionally been restricted to the time and place in which consumers had access to a desktop PC. However, with the majority of consumers never too far from their mobile device, they are now able to access online customer service at any time and almost anywhere. With customers constantly engaging online and via mobile channels, pressure on the traditional business support model is increasing. Service organisations need to take a close look at their customer journeys and make sure that their operating model is evolved to support the all-important concept of ‘anytime, anywhere’.

Context is everythingMobile now offers the opportunity to deliver highly personalised, compelling customer service experiences. Through carefully designed mobile services, a customer’s location, social activity and other valuable insights can be gathered and then incorporated into a unique user experience. Starbucks recently introduced a good example of this. By leveraging Near Field Communication (NFC) and smart phone capabilities, their customer’s favourite coffee can appear on the register before they have even placed the order.

Different approaches exist to deliver mobile experiencesDeveloping a commercially sensible and compelling mobile strategy is not easy. There are multiple devices and mobile operating systems to consider. Organisations need to build the mobile experience around their customer, the devices they use and the context they use them in. There are a number of options to consider like building NATIVE applications for specific devises or using Responsive Web Design (RWD) to provide an optimal viewing experience across a wide range of devices whereby resolution, image sizes and scripting adjust to the device used with minimum resizing, panning and scrolling. The right answer will depend on why your customers are using their mobile device to interact with you or your brand and the impacts on the way they use other channels.

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Tablets here, there and everywhere!Tablets such as iPads are no longer a luxury item for the minority; they are mainstream. Their portability and ability to deliver innovative interactive content provide new opportunities to deliver differentiated service experiences. It is essential to have a clear tablet strategy that answers how you can make the tablet absolutely integral to customer service. Organisations need to determine the right balance between consistency of experience, functionality and content between touch-points and creating device-specific, differentiated service experiences built around user needs and context.

Tablets such as iPads are no longer a luxury item for the minority; they are mainstream.

ConclusionGiven the explosive adoption of mobile devices, organisations who seek to deliver true customer service excellence in the digital era must start with a ‘mobile first’ strategy. Customers are consuming more and more content through mobile devices and organisations need to respond quickly by creating and adopting a wider range of mobile accessible services. Mobile is redefining how organisations serve their customers. It therefore requires an in-depth understanding of how customers want to interact with a brand and a subsequent refocusing of customer service strategy. Only then will organisations effectively develop the right service strategy in the digital era.

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

iPhone 4S 2011

iPad2010

iPhone2007

Netbooks2007

Blackberry2002

iPod 2002

Marketing and technology challengeTechnology Adoption: Number of days to reach 1 million units sold1

~360 ~300 ~180 ~75 ~30 ~1

Source: Morgan Stanley Research. Internet Trends CM Summit, NYC. June 7, 2010 www.morganstanldey.com/techresearchApple Press Info, “iPhone 4S First Weekend Sales Top Four Million,” October 17, 2011 http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/10/17iPhone-4S-First-Weekend-Sales-Top-Four-Million.html




Omni-channel is here

Customers are increasingly using multiple touch-points to resolve service issues and they expect an integrated and seamless experience.

More than 60%1 of customers who interact with brands do so through multiple channels. Customers expect consistency, irrespective of time, place, device or medium. Digital innovations are a major influence on the way customers are interacting and having service delivered by organisations. As a result, organisations are constantly evolving their support models in an attempt to accommodate this ever-changing landscape.

Omni-channel customer service is an evolution of traditional service strategies, bringing together new digital channels (mobile, social, kiosks) and traditional channels (call centre, branch/stores). However, omni-channel takes this strategy a step further by aligning and integrating multiple touch-points together within a single customer journey. So as to deliver a cohesive customer experience, customer service leaders need to focus on providing a unified, ubiquitous and proactive service – regardless of where, when and how.

Being proactiveCustomer service has traditionally been dependent on ‘what now’, rather than ‘what next’. With the evolution of digital, customers are now accustomed to being notified about brand offers, campaigns and opportunities via their mobile devices and social media. Why should customer service be any different? Customers would rather be proactively informed than be left to stumble across issues, resulting in frustration and wasted time. Informing customers about potential issues proactively, through preferred touch-points, can only increase their sense of connection. Investing in up-front service notifications will lead to higher customer experience levels and reduce inbound calls.

Integrated and not competingAll too often, organisations build channel or product specific support models which compete for supremacy, resulting in a diminished customer experience. In the eyes of the customer, they are dealing with a single organisation and demand an experience in line with this philosophy. Different support touch-points need to complement and interact with each other seamlessly, allowing users to switch between channels without having to repeat the same information or reconnect to speak to another service area. Not all customers are the same, so different touch-points should work together to provide a single customer journey.

Connecting the dots … strive for a 360o view of your service worldA customer’s interaction with a brand will spread across a number of touch-points, including word of mouth, search engines, websites, call centres, branches and social media. However, word of mouth isn’t the same as social media. In addition, the first may not be in sole control of your organisation and no matter how unfairly, customers will perceive this as part of the overall brand and service experience. It’s important therefore, to understand and influence the whole journey regardless of ownership. To do this, the service provider must understand, track and monitor all touch-points, harvesting the information to optimise and unify customer journeys across all channels, whilst maintaining channel relevance.

Bringing digital to lifeThe emergence of 4G will see the influence of video increase. Video has often been seen as too unreliable and technically demanding, but if used correctly, it can be a valuable service and experience enhancer. Video can add a personal touch to the digital dimension and it can be used to educate customers when staff are not available to talk to them directly. The use of video is increasingly popular within companies and customers are starting to specifically request video demonstrations and explanations.

1 Forrester’s – How to Engage Your Omnichannel Consumer, November 26, 2012

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A customer’s interaction with a brand will spread across a number of touch-points, including word of mouth, search engines, websites, call centres, branches and social media.

ConclusionCompetition is intense and service innovation is everywhere. This is putting pressure on customer service leaders to differentiate, with customer service increasingly becoming a deciding differentiator. The explosion of mobile devices and expansion of digital services mean that organisations need to understand the full end-to-end customer journey and not just the ones controlled by them. The need to build ubiquitous, unified, integrated and proactive cross-channel services is becoming increasingly important for organisations keen to build and maintain relationships with their customers.




Social grows up

There is no rule book for social. Integrating social as part of your service strategy is essential but the opportunities for mass broadcast and engagement with customers bring new risks around control, security and brand image.

With hundreds of millions of users, social media affects everything consumers do and redefines how businesses interact with their customer base. Its reach and influence is astonishing, not only on consumers’ personal lives but also at work. Service organisations can no longer ignore the influence social media is having on its existing and potential customer base. For example, 12% of US online adults agreed that complaints made about customer service via social media strongly influence their image of the company. At the same time, seeing that an issue has been resolved on social media negates the damage.2 Service organisations need to embrace the power of social media and use it to communicate with their customers in the way they want to be communicated with.

Connected customers In many service industries, it’s now common for organisations to facilitate customer forums where existing and potential customers can go to find out about service issues or information without contacting you directly. Giff gaff is a good example. Whilst the operational benefits of customers self-serving are obvious, it is important that where possible, service organisations facilitate these conversations through forums run by themselves. If they use other social sites, the organisation loses control of the user-generated content and is often forced to pay to get access to their customer data and behaviour, or to respond to their customers or service enquiries in an appropriate way.

Just another channel Many organisations have set up social media service teams who segment themselves into Facebook and Twitter teams that sit outside or on the edge of the main customer service teams. This is largely due to the technological and process constraints around how specific enquiries made via social media channels can be dealt with. However, it’s essential that service organisations take a more holistic approach and leverage social media service platforms that allow Twitter and Facebook service issues to be integrated into the main contact routing engine. This allows responses, escalations and service levels to be tracked against all touch-points.

Respond with personality Empowering your teams to respond to customer service issues via social media with both your brand and their own personality is essential. It builds trust and empathy with not only the individual customer but also with the potential millions watching. Whilst many service organisations are worried about losing control and the increase in risk this brings, organisations must learn to embrace, empower and train their people to respond responsibly. One way to do this is to be very selective around the people recruited to respond via social media channels and to invest in training and education. Combined with a simple and clear framework that individuals can make their own and that minimises the risk of inappropriate broadcast through robust security and privacy processes, service organisations will be back on the front foot.

2 TechRadar™ For eBusiness And Channel Strategy Professionals: Social Commerce, Q1 2010

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Connect inside as well as outside Social customer service is not limited to the interactions that take place between the organisation and the customer. Organisations are also leveraging the power of social to provide better and faster help for customers within their organisation. Typically this involves front-line staff using social collaboration tools to connect, seek out internal experts, share knowledge, raise questions and ultimately drive effective and efficient customer interactions. To succeed, customer service leaders must also look beyond the technology itself and ensure that a culture exists where there is more incentive for individuals to share information to create better service outcomes for customers.

ConclusionSocial presents vital opportunities and challenges, but it needs to be integrated with the existing customer service operating model. Without doing so, organisations run a high risk of creating a fragmented service channel, an incomplete view of customer interactions and ultimately, an inconsistent customer experience. This challenge is further complicated by the fact that for many organisations, the overall ownership of social media is held within other teams (e.g. marketing or public relations). The key to success is in creating effective cross-functional collaboration amongst teams and driving customer journeys and experiences firmly through the customer perspective.

Organisations are also leveraging the power of social internally, enabling them to drive more efficient and effective customer interactions.




User experience brings art and science to business

A user experience capability embedded in the heart of your business is no longer a ‘nice to have’, it’s critical to staying competitive.

Bring the experience to life!Typically, the user experience is only ever visible at the end of a project or implementation. Service organisations need to move away from this risk, which tends to deliver solutions and user experiences which, simply put, don’t work. One solution is to bring the experience alive early in the design through prototyping what the experience will look and feel like. This provides all stakeholders – including your customers – with the chance to touch and feel something that they can provide feedback on. Doing this multiple times within a single project allows service organisations to implement new initiatives with far more confidence. In the technology world, this is known as ‘agile development’ and it’s becoming the standard for digital development.

UX … a new way of testing … test early, test often!Digital requires a fresh approach to testing. There are no black and white rules for what will work and what won’t, with much depending on the context in which your customer will use the service. Service organisations winning in this space have a relentless commitment to trialling and testing – those that find the winning format don’t do so by accident. They will try multiple variations of a concept to understand which one works best and then deploy what is proven to work. 80% of strategies won’t deliver what you expect, so it’s essential that organisations invest in this type of testing, also commonly labelled Multivariate testing.

The user experience (UX) defines a customer journey through a specific channel/device, for a specific interaction. It dictates how a customer perceives the experience of using a device, based not only on ‘look and feel’ but also on the customer’s perceptions of the practical aspects of the system such as usability, ease of use and efficiency. Thanks to UX leaders Apple and Google, consumers expect their digital service experience to be clean, simple and user-friendly, regardless of device or platform and importantly, of who they are dealing with.

UX should be everywhereHistorically, UX teams have been small creative teams hidden away in the tech department. Complex development processes have given them little flexibility and limited interaction with customer service and experience teams. Not surprisingly, the results have been underwhelming. In contrast, service organisations embracing digital have invested heavily in UX, embedding this capability in the heart of business teams to help shape and enhance initial ideas and requirements. Crucially, they have also provided creative input through the lifecycle of the project, most importantly post implementation, where it’s essential to respond quickly to feedback and customer behaviour with release updates and tweaks.

Consistency across touch-points Consistency is key to successful UX. That’s why companies are investing in specific UX tools and processes including guidelines, content libraries and digital asset management systems. This allows UX teams to deliver a consistent experience across products and digital touch-points. This requirement is heightened by the need to deliver consistent user experiences across different devices. However, although user experiences should be consistent across devices, they should not be the same. It’s important to consider not only the different interfaces, for example, clicks becoming touches and scrolling becoming swiping, but also the user’s motivations and goals, as these are also likely to differ between devices. Understanding these subtle variations is vital.

UX

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Conclusion UX is a battle ground for service organisations trying to gain competitive advantage in increasingly digital and competitive industries. If they are serious about providing outstanding digital customer service, they need to invest in building a user experience capability and continuous learning. Central to achieving this is an embedded culture of continuous improvement, focused on innovation and testing that promotes the best possible experience. Driving consistency of UX will also ensure the service your customers receive is on-brand and in-line with the overall experience you are trying to achieve across all your touch-points.

UX is where it all comes together, in the digital world it can make or break the overall customer service experience.




User adoption – the missing link

Building it doesn’t mean your customers will automatically use it …

Personalise the help in-channelProviding customers with in-channel help and support is essential to maximise initial registrations and adoption. One of the most effective ways to do this is to provide simple and intuitive ‘help functions’ that allow users to find answers to their enquiries based within the channel they are using. Personalising the level of help provided to the user is also essential to allow the less digital-savvy user to receive more detailed help versus a regular user looking to resolve a specific error. To personalise the level of support, organisations need to take advantage of what they know about the customer, the device they are using and how they are using it, to build an understanding of their customers’ behaviours and context. This can then be used to tailor the advice and in some instances, to decide that a conversation is best, giving the user more options where there is a complex or repeated issue.

Simplify, simplify, simplifyService organisations that merely replicate their existing processes via digital touch-points seldom achieve the anticipated benefits. The main cause is poor levels of adoption; if the customer experience proves to be similar to using other touch-points (such as a call centre), then customers are unlikely to repeat the process. However, those organisations that use digital as an opportunity to reinvent the user experience and process, making everything as simple as possible, often find that user adoption goes viral. An example of this process simplification is the Hailo Cab taxi-booking app, which allows mobile phone users to book a taxi in just a few taps. The alternative is a phone call or a long online booking form, making the digital touch-point the compelling approach.

Building a great digital service experience does not guarantee that customers will rush to use it. Having a clear strategy for user adoption is critical in ensuring that organisations are getting the best from their digital service touch-points and are continuously looking at ways to improve adoption long after the initial implementation.

Tell people about it To increase customer adoption, organisations need to market and promote the benefits of using a new or enhanced service. Many of your digital savvy customers will switch to the new service without any or much encouragement, but in order to fully realise the benefits, it’s essential to shift other channel users [phone, in-store] to self-service. Successful service organisations empower and incentivise their front-line service delivery people to educate and help customers learn about and use new services. This is best done by educating your own staff about the services and benefits. This will enable them to determine if and when it is appropriate to inform and educate customers after resolving service enquiries within other channels. For results, simply incentivise customer service teams and reward them for the right behaviours.

The problem is not first-time registration but ongoing useOrganisations that invest heavily in digital service solutions typically experience initial high first-registration volumes, but as time passes, customers stop using the digital channels and switch back to more traditional channels – or stop interacting with you altogether. Often, this is the result of a small change or tweak which is unfamiliar to the user and that stops them from achieving their service goal. Customer service leaders need a laser focus on tracking usage and customer behaviour to understand when and why adoption and usage change. Armed with these insights, they will be able to make changes and communicate with customers to address issues, promote benefits or reincentivise customers to try again.

ConclusionOften forgotten, user adoption is a key focus area for service organisations looking to embed digital service at the heart of their operating model. In-channel help will help keep users focused on their goal, but it needs to be personalised for the user. Marketing and promoting the benefits of the service is a great start, but a strong focus on understanding the root causes of user adoption is essential. By acting on these findings, service leaders can find new ways to remove the barriers that stop customers from completing their goals.

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Analytics – removing the guesswork

Customer and channel insight is at the heart of delivering user-centric digital customer service.

Trust the data, not your emotionIn the digital world, it’s easy to design something that looks and feels great. Often this involves people who have spent a considerable amount of time designing and implementing a specific experience or functionality. This emotional involvement can sometimes inhibit the truth of what works from a usability perspective. Sometimes what looks and feels great isn’t as simple and straightforward as you might think. It’s vital that customer service leaders are guided by the facts and data rather than by emotional attachment and personal feelings. Sometimes, this can mean killing something that looks and feels right but actually prevents the user from achieving what they want to.

Customer behaviour across all touch-points provides valuable insights and data about how customers use each channel. Joining up this insight across multiple touch-points to provide a customer view can provide new ways of looking at why and how customers interact with different channels. By using these insights, service organisations will have the tools they need to adapt service touch-points to meet the needs of their customers more effectively.

Social insight drives real-time improvements Social media allows customers to post questions, complain, praise and provide feedback in real-time, while the issue is at the forefront of their minds. Not only is it real-time, it’s also wide reaching, through communities and networks. Organisations need to react to this real-time feedback by listening and acting on these insights to make operational changes. It’s crucial to ensure that the right people within the organisation respond at the right time. For the change to be effective, this will often mean being able to respond within hours and days. LOCOG had a process that delivered a report to major Olympic venues every morning with feedback from the previous day gathered via social media on aspects that could be improved.

The customer viewIn order to create an excellent user experience, it’s essential to build a picture of the entire customer journey. Often this involves multiple touch-points, some of which you have direct control and insight on and others over which you have no influence and no data. Compiling a view of this entire journey and considering the journey from a customer’s perspective is essential to understanding the true context of how and why customers use a touch-point in a particular way. This view can then inform how specific user experiences are designed and implemented.

Conclusion The power in analytics brings together multiple data-points and sources to build a complete view of behaviour through a customer journey. This can be used to help design and enhance specific digital touch-points by understanding how and why customers use a touch-point in a particular context. In addition, social analytics is extremely powerful in helping customer service leaders to identify and respond to real-time issues, but this requires a robust process to ensure that the right information gets to the right people at the right time. Lastly, analytics can help to eliminate the emotion, so as to establish the best possible experience for the user.




Key capabilities to drive effective digital services

1. Vision and leadershipDigital requires senior executives to be engaged from the outset of the journey and to champion the overall customer service vision, of which digital will be a fundamental part. It is essential that this vision complements the overall corporate strategy. The boundaries between digital and corporate strategy are often blurred and it is essential to have a clear understanding of the alignment and differences between the two and of how digital enables customer service. Leadership teams must be fully engaged and lead the drive to embed the vision and strategy across the entire organisation – and customer service leaders need to gain this support early.

Other lessons we have learnt:

• You will have influential digital thinkers across your organisation – they may not be immediately visible, so find and harness them to create networks of influential digital thinkers.

• Design principles and an influential Design Authority are essential to get people moving in the right direction and keep them on track. Develop them early and use them to guide the innovation.

• Visualisation techniques such as prototypes, videos, cartoon illustrations and mock-ups are great tools to engage senior stakeholders to illustrate and gain buy-in to digital and a new vision for customer service.

Unfortunately, there is no rule book to follow when it comes to responding to the digital disruption we have described. The approach taken will depend on the level of disruption and the impact on the existing service operating model. The response should be guided by the level of digital maturity within the whole organisation, not just the customer service function. We have identified four key disciplines that in our experience, are the most important to get right to enable organisations to respond quickly, appropriately and on the front foot.

2. Channels and platformsWith the ever-changing digital landscape, organisations require the ability to adapt and deliver at speed, while minimising the risk and cost of failure. This has been a shift for many organisations as they move away from legacy channels, platforms and delivery models towards omni-channel architecture, platforms and agile delivery models that allow them to respond to the digital disruption faster and in a more flexible way.

• Don’t look at digital in isolation – look at how digital impacts other channels and work to establish how other channels need to adapt – think omni-channel.

• Use agile development methods to deliver quickly and show progress. Use prototyping and proof of concepts to build support and demonstrate progress.

• Have a relentless focus on simplification. Complexity adds time, cost and effort.

• Look to the cloud for opportunities to move away from legacy processes and platforms.

Reshape your service organisation to exploit the digital disruption and deliver great user experiences.

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3. Organisation and cultureThe digital age is redefining how service organisations operate. Many are moving away from traditional, slow ridged structures to more dynamic and creatively led organisations that are not afraid of failure. Service organisations that have been successful in the digital age have two things at the heart of their DNA: the customer and an ongoing focus on innovation.

• Digital requires a large degree of creative thinking centred around specific user context and experience delivery.

• The creative and UX capability must increasingly participate in strategic decisions; involve them from the start of an idea or strategy definition.

• For innovation to flourish, organisations need to embrace/reward ‘productive’ failure.

• Silos are not always bad. They can help foster innovation through high levels of specialism. However, cross-business coordination and learning is required to connect these deep areas of expertise together to create customer-centric solutions.

4. Benefits and fundingDigital requires a new approach to business case development and funding than the traditional cost-to-service metrics used in many service organisations. In some instances, not responding to the digital disruption due to perceived costs can be fatal and even lead to the demise of the entire business – Blockbuster and Yell are two examples of this. In addition, the speed and pace of innovation within digital means looking any further forward than 12 to 18 months is highly risky and trying to target detailed and descriptive benefits can encourage the wrong behaviours.

• Attack the low hanging fruit first – it delivers operational benefits and quick wins.

• Look past traditional operational savings and use digital to unlock wider benefits such as acquisition, retention and loyalty based around the customer.

• Create an innovation fund to experiment and test ‘higher risk ideas’. This needs to be managed within a robust and structured framework with strong governance.

• Manage your digital investment using a portfolio approach that allows a balanced view of successes and failures – not everything you try will be successful.




Case study

In 2009, Canon Europe’s customer service systems and processes were out of date. Its business operations across Europe employed varying ways of delivering customer service, best practice wasn’t shared, and the company was unable to offer the level of web self-service that customers expected. The cost of maintaining good customer satisfaction scores was too high and Canon needed to take action to maintain its quality of service while reducing the internal cost base.

• There was a limited web presence. Customers couldn’t request an engineer online or track service progress.

• There was no pan-European visibility of data.

• Commercial pressure from competitors and a high cost base were shrinking margins.

• Canon was unable to handle global contracts on its existing system.

Project and approachCanon Europe is part of a global company that employs over 11,000 people with offices in 19 European countries. It supplies products including cameras, camcorders and printers to individual consumers and professional photographers, as well as print and copy solutions to businesses. In 2009, the offices were all operating as separate businesses, using different processes and methods. Many of the underlying technologies were outdated. This resulted in a customer experience that didn’t always support Canon’s brand.

• Canon had no ‘single view’ of each customer’s sales and service history. When a customer rang with a problem, Canon couldn’t draw on information stored across the company to deliver better customer service.

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In addition to the customer engagement benefits, One Service also aims to deliver significant ffinancial benefits through cost savings from automation and efficiency gains.

Self-service web portal gives 24/7 accessThe new self-service web portal allows customers to order consumables, perform self-diagnosis and raise track and trace service requests wherever and whenever they want. Consumers, businesses, professional photographers and partners can share knowledge with Canon, so the company is better equipped to meet their future needs. The portal resolves an enormous number of queries at first point of contact, freeing up call centre staff to respond more quickly to customers who need support over the phone.

Field engineers deliver better customer serviceEngineers immediately have all the information at their fingertips, allowing them to arrive prepared, get straight to the heart of the problem and give feedback in real time. This means better scheduling, faster response times and reduced machine down time.

Urgent need to improve customer serviceTo stay competitive and increase market share, the company needed to radically improve its systems and processes and provide a more efficient, consistent and flexible service for its customers. Deloitte had supported Canon in defining its service strategy in 2007 and had considerable experience of delivering customer service transformations for other clients. So it was a natural step for Canon to employ us to deliver the One Service programme. This was an ambitious and wide-ranging programme, designed to:

• Implement a centralised, outsourced contact centre.

• Launch a self-service web portal for Canon Europe’s 200,000 business customers and partners.

• Deliver real-time scheduling technology and mobile devices for 2,500 field service engineers.

Deloitte’s expertise and approachDeloitte worked as strategic partners to lead the change for Canon. With a team of up to 150 people from our UK, Netherlands and US (India) practices, Deloitte worked seamlessly with people at all levels from Canon’s Service, Technology and HR departments. Canon gave visible leadership and sponsorship to the programme, with Deloitte and Canon project managers working side-by-side on each project stream. The Deloitte team brought the expertise in: complex programme management, customer service good practice, process optimisation, technology design and delivery, data management, testing, and change and rollout management.

Outcomes The One Service programme re-engineered every stage of the service journey to make it more efficient and effective. The scope of work has been broad and complex, including: • Deploying standardised processes and systems

to 1,000 users across first and second line support teams.

• Implementing real-time field service scheduling system and mobile applications and devices to 2,500 engineers across Europe (to complete March 2013).

• Providing an integrated web portal for 200,000 business customers and partners.

Canon gave visible leadership and sponsorship to the programme, with Deloitte and Canon project managers working side-by-side on each project stream.




Digital customers are now consuming content online and via mobile devices, at breakneck speeds. The sheer pace of technology-enabled change means that we need to explore the way customer service is currently delivered and re-assess the role of traditional customer service models.

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Conclusion

As the world becomes more collaborative and technology-enabled and customer expectations evolve, the trend towards digital and anytime, anywhere service can only accelerate. In response, organisations must put themselves in the shoes of their customers when designing and delivering interactions, so as to minimise customer effort and maximise customer value.

Customer service leaders need to be smart about how to approach digital service to ensure greater returns on investment. They must form a clear understanding of how to change the organisation and evolve the business model to integrate digital without creating another silo channel/proposition. Alongside this, leaders must also find ways of redefining the organisational culture to acquire, nurture and grow digital talent.

Finally, leaders need to create environments where innovation drives their organisations forward and becomes inherent in everything it does. If leaders are able to reshape and realign their organisations, they will be in a much stronger position to deliver long term success and enhanced customer experiences.

Responding to digital disruption and providing great digital experiences is not easy. Organisations need to evolve, becoming flexible and responsive, which often requires significant change, energy and investment. Digital is acting as a catalyst for redefining customer service operating models, by putting increased pressure on customer service leaders to guide organisations through the change. To be able to face the ‘digital challenges’ head on, leaders need to embed continuous improvement methods into their organisations’ DNA to respond quickly to changing customer expectations. There are a number of initiatives that can drive changes to the composition of organisational structure to embed agility and innovation and deliver superior customer value. Furthermore, our experience has shown that leaders who are able to articulate a clear vision for digital and are not afraid of failure, are the most successful.




Contact us

Financial Services

Scott Wheatley Partner 01225 739429 [email protected]

Lorraine Barnes Partner 020 7303 7514 [email protected]

Jim Allen Director 020 7007 [email protected]

Private Sector

Paul Thompson Partner 0113 292 1735 [email protected]

Richard Small Partner 020 7303 7971 [email protected]

Will Gosling Partner 020 7007 8132 [email protected]

Duncan Barnes Director 020 7303 8529 [email protected]

Public Sector

Joel Bellman Director 020 7007 0377 [email protected]

Deloitte Digital

Sam Roddick Partner 020 7007 8283 [email protected]

Ben Morgan Senior Manager020 7007 [email protected]

For more information on Deloitte Digital please visit www.Deloittedigital.co.uk

We hope that you have found the information in this paper helpful. If you would like to discuss the themes covered in more depth, please contact one of our Customer Service team members below:

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Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (“DTTL”), a UK private company limited by guarantee, and its network of member firms, each of which is a legally separate and independent entity. Please see www.deloitte.co.uk/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of DTTL and its member firms.

Deloitte LLP is the United Kingdom member firm of DTTL.

This publication has been written in general terms and therefore cannot be relied on to cover specific situations; application of the principles set out will depend upon the particular circumstances involved and we recommend that you obtain professional advice before acting or refraining from acting on any of the contents of this publication. Deloitte LLP would be pleased to advise readers on how to apply the principles set out in this publication to their specific circumstances. Deloitte LLP accepts no duty of care or liability for any loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of any material in this publication.

© 2013 Deloitte LLP. All rights reserved.

Deloitte LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with registered number OC303675 and its registered office at 2 New Street Square, London EC4A 3BZ, United Kingdom. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7936 3000 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7583 1198.

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