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New research by the CMO Council suggests that marketers don't know how to use customer input to improve operations, products and processes.
The council, whose study, "Giving Customer Voice More Volume," surveyed around 500 senior marketers at major corporations, found that only 33% of survey respondents said their companies claim to be good at handling customer complaints.
Of the executives who responded to the survey, only 23% said their companies track or measure customer emails, and only 17% use that feedback to identify potential customer advocates.
And 59% of marketing officers surveyed by the council said their companies do not compensate any employees or executives based on customer loyalty, satisfaction improvements or analytics.
Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council, says the results are troubling because the "customer custodian" function "is one of the most critical--in fact, the most critical role a CMO can play in an organization: to own every facet of listening, learning, interacting, engaging, and optimizing the relationship with the customer, and understanding where the attrition, pain and aggravation is, and doing this in real time. It is mind-boggling to me that the level of attention to this is not what it should be, and fragmented in terms of who owns it."
The report also says the majority of respondents' companies have no programs in place to track or propagate positive word of mouth among customers. And only a third of respondents said their companies rate highly their ability to handle and resolve customer problems or complaints. The report says only 16% of those surveyed monitor online message boards and social networking sites.
"The chief customer officer should be the CMO; if the CMO gives someone the role of the chief customer officer, they aren't doing their job," argues Neale-May.
He says his main concern is fragmentation of ownership of responsibility and of actual consumer data within companies. "Most companies don't even have systems in place to monitor feedback or engage consumers," he says. "Especially when these large companies are so siloed that there is ... a lack of access to data and integration of data."
Neale-May argues that the study shows that marketers tend to view customer services reactively, as a function for resolving a problem, not enough as an opportunity to engage or interact. Only about 37% of companies surveyed gather customer insight from customer engagement situations, per the firm. Only 15% use such situations to identify and cultivate potential customer champions and advocates. Only a third reported that they look for ways to turn problems into new sales opportunities, and only 16% introduce new products or services to further monetize the relationship.
Per Neale-May, the council is undertaking a global study focusing on providers of commodity services like cable, phone, Internet service, and landlines that are being forced into improving customer service because of digital convergence. "You never need to use your phone now," he says. "All interactions and socializing--things that were done via phone--are done across the Web now, so service providers are paying more attention to customers, from back end to new service. The question is, what are these service providers doing to be more competitive as new emerging digital models and infrastructures start to suck business away from them?" he says.
Neale-May says DirecTV is an example of a service provider focusing on customer data, so call center reps have a better idea of what their relationship with a customer should be, and what TV viewing habits they have. "It's all about leveraging the touchpoints, or engagement with customers--more than just taking an order and introducing another offer," he says.
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It isn't relevant frankly why the CMO cannot get the information. The role of the CMO (having been one for a couple of companies) is to own the customer experience and this is particulalrly true in a service business such as cellular, communications and even banking, fincance etc. We call these PPT companies (people, process, and technology companies) While the CMO establishes crediblity to the CEO for delivering results, the CMO has to show a teaming/partnership to the other functional entities that own the data. It is incumbent on the CMO - if that CMO is worthy of the title- to get the data, analyze the data, share the implications and work cooperatively to improve the customer experience. This could be be personally walking the floor of the response centere, listening in to calls, having small group meetings with the response center reps to get their ideas and feedback (feed them with pizza or hot dogs as that usually works), and setting up Customer Advisory Panels or message boards to get input. Better yet, have the CMO take those really hard calls from a customer and address the issue. Politics notwithstanding, those approaches will work and the CMO will benefit as well as the company.
The CMO that doesn't get customer service or doesn't listen to the customer or doen't use that information in developing their plans is not worthy of the title and in fact give other CMOs a bad name.
David
We had a stellar reputation in the HBA industry even though we were a totally sales-centric organization, particularly leading up to our sale to Richardson-Vicks and subsequently to P&G. We were paid a competitive salary with excellent benefits including profit sharing that doubled in price both times that the company was acquired. We were treated like professionals and expected to perform at this level.
The Director of our department reported to the VP of Sales. Many of our calls resulted in adjustments to the customer’s account, and with A/R we handled it as part of the resolution. We were in constant contact with the divisional and regional managers regarding issues and resolution, and as a result, the sales staff was able to leverage this excellent service as an important sales tool. Because the national chain buyers, distributors, drug and grocery brokers, salon owners and others spoke with us regularly, we became a key element in the relationship-building process.
As a consumer I am not surprised by the attitude of today’s call center reps that make 10 dollars an hour and have no power to resolve anything. Some things are best not automated, and the person-to-person connection of Customer Service is one of them. Companies who work in this way send a loud and clear message to their customers….”we don’t care about your business, you really are just a number, and it makes no difference to me whether or not you continue to do business with us.” I frequently ask these reps when I am on the phone with them, “Is that the last word from XYZ Corp.? This is really the final answer from your company?” in the dumb hope that someone will listen to this “frequently monitored call” and be moved by the fact that this unhappy, unempowered and underpaid person is really the last word on their company’s involvement with me and many more like me.
And at that point, does it really matter if they report to the CMO? The system is the issue, along with the unfortunate truth that in a publicly held company, the focus is always on the immediate and never the long run, and in truth, many companies clearly don’t care that much about their customers until they are gone. With so much emphasis on so-called branding, many marketing experts have completely forgotten that the world is still a small place with many choices and the ones that make us feel like we don’t matter are never going to be at the top of our list in either a B2B or B2C situation. And yes, I do work in advertising and marketing, and yes I do advise companies on this very issue. But since we are all humans and consumers, why is it that we need a report to remind us of what we instinctively know as people? I think that this report makes it clear that this issue is a non-issue for many marketers at a time when negative customer retention numbers may do more to undermine positive growth than any ad campaign can ever correct.
In today's very troubling economic times, when customers and clients are fleeing their traditional relationships for alternatives, to read survey results like this, come from marketing leaders in companies, is horrific. With the enormous information about customer relationships at their finger tips, to do little or nothing with it, is in my opinion corporate malpractice.
Today's times call for proactive behavior, More than most behavior traits, proactive behavior makes an almost immediate impact and generates visible results. When customers observe proactive behavior, they know it. When they experience it, they feel it. When someone is proactive on their behalf, they are gratified. Clearly, this is an important trait in the pursuit of Service Excellence and in today's environment perhaps never more important. To sit idly by and do little or nothing is a disgrace.
Since more CSat/Customer Care organizations are looking at social media to facilitate conversation and hence happy customers, CMOs should get involved and understand value of the contextual and behavioral data that can come out of these conversations.
The CMO doesn't have to have control over this organization, but is definitely a stakeholder in it.
Re Randy Ellison’s comment: Salespersons recognize the value of the information received from customers in both the consumer affairs arena and B2B customer service area. My experience has been that salespersons beg marketers to listen to their frontline information and the voice of their customer as well as the voice of the end-user. Listening has enabled improved packaging and more sales, better product design resulting in common parts and reduced parts inventory, brand-building usage manuals that result in fewer liability claims and recalls…the benefits are enormous and proven!
Customer Service / Consumer Affairs is not a position for the CMO and is best handled by a hybrid reporting in to the CMO. Service Excellence (which INCLUDES the extraction of pertinent marketing information), requires a Systems Thinker with Organization Development expertise and deep understanding of customer service operations coupled with marketing experience developing customer touchpoints from email to packaging to website to billing. The hybrid is a communicator that bridges marketing, service, and technology and ensures consistent language, image, and policy that enables customer service to be a profit center that contributes to customer lifetime value. Yes, I do all this.
The never ending battle between marketing and sales and/or long term vs. short term goals probably plays a role here. It is all a matter of comp plans (i.e. goals) and how they are constructed. That’s usually what drives most marketing and sales behavior. If it is growth based, then management will focus resources on growth and not retention.
CMOs who also want to be the chief customer officer are going to need solid and sustained CEO endorsement, and the entire top management team will need to bring customer equity into the core of the business strategy.