The Importance of Customer Experience

Introduction

The purpose of this assignment is to view information on a particular company and analyse how that company promotes customer care within its organisation. This paper will discuss EE (Mobile phone and broadband provider) as a company from a satisfied customer perspective. Why do we need customer care, why is it important to give consumers a good experience when making purchases or buying services? The author of the book “Positively Outrageous Service” quotes “In today’s tough economy, cutting prices and providing good service aren’t enough. To be truly successful, innovative businesspeople must learn the art of Positively Outrageous Service (POS)—doing the unexpected unexpectedly and giving the customer more than he or she could hope for”. Scott (2016), suggest that, gross customer care and creating positive experiences for the consumer encourages return custom and the consumer leaving satisfied and more likely to talk positively about their experience with that particular business. Furthermore, many companies have come to understand that customer retention is cheaper than customer acquisition. Biech (2019), suggest that, customer retention increase of merely 5% can equate to an increased profit- 25%. This is due to the fact that, repeat clients are more likely to spend more with your brand -- 67% which means the business spend less on operating costs.

Procedure

The study will adopt both qualitative and quantitative designs to gather data (mixed methods). Studies suggest that this design provide researchers with a rigorous approach to approaching the research questions (Dörnyei, 2007). Moreover, it mixes data, various types of research designs, terminology, and procedures in achieving the objective of the study. Therefore, the study will examine secondary sources to collect data.

Findings

EE is one of the UK’s largest mobile phone and broadband provider having been in business for almost a decade, establishing themselves in April 2010. To date they currently have over 29 million customers since its existence, it has the largest coverage, including biggest 3G network across United Kingdom and also operates the largest amount of retail stores which are located in shopping malls as well as high streets. Furthermore, the company has sponsored famous football and movie events which increases its brand visibility. The company to achieve its objectives and goal has adopted a strategy based on broadening and deepening the company’s customer relationships. The company has also realised the importance of customer relation in building sustainable profitable revenue growth. The company’s there pillars include providing great customer experience, customer relationships and transforming the company costs. In 2017, the company greatly improved customer perception toward the company compared to previous years. First, performance was improved, by 6.4% compared to -3.0% last in 2016. From this improvement, customers can testify improved day-to-day interaction with the company, reliable and consistent network and services which offered a great and enjoyable experience (BT Group plc Annual Report, 2017). The following section analyse some of the strategies which the company used to increased customer experience.

Delivering Consistent and Reliable Service

The company's clients receive an improved level of care and in most cases, their landline faults are fixed within twenty-four hours which is quicker compared to previous years. Moreover, to improve customer experience, by springs 2017, the company employed more than 2,200 new employees to assist in answering more than 90% of their clients’ calls in Ireland and the UK (BT Group plc Annual Report, 2017). The organization also creates a strategic plan to achieve this target, and, more than 86% of its client calls were answered in Ireland and the UK. Currently, EE handles almost 100% of its clients' service calls in Ireland and the UK. Also, the company has an improvement in delivering Ethernet with Open-reach, therefore, meeting more than five Ofcom MSL targets. The Openreach has employed more than 1,500 engineers. Besides the company has halved the number of missed client appointments by 2018. For better customer satisfaction, the company has also eased interaction with the company online, and as of 2018, more than 9 million clients had signed up with 'My EE' ( client interaction platform) via the app or online ( BT Group plc Annual Report, 2017). From all these survives which are aimed at improving customer experience, the company has greatly achieved competitive advantage and witnessing more subscription per year (appendices 2).

The Great Customer Experience from the Company Network

Secondly, the company has greatly advanced its networks. The company has decreased network faults after six consecutive years of repeated faults. By using more sophisticated information technology, and global Services, the company has achieved better monitoring of applications, network and other IT related items which assist customers. Moreover, as mentioned earlier, Openreach connects fibre to the client's home for free which has seen huge crowds subscribe to the service (BT Group plc Annual Report, 2017). Scholars from Harvard revealed that repeating a problem to a chain of customer service representatives was very frustrating for clients (Harvard Business Review, 2011). Therefore, it is critical to ensure that customers’ needs are taken care of until the customer’s concern is resolved. I can, therefore, conclude that, with the improved customer care strategy, customer satisfaction was greatly improved hence the current increase in profits and customer satisfaction.

Products That Improve Customer Experience

The company has ensured that its product had greatly improved and efficient for client use (CCS insight, 2019). For instance, there was an improvement of superfast broadband (which is a network in the company) and currently, customers have upgraded from 38Mbps to 52Mbps in areas where the network reach. Moreover, for the public and business, there was an upgrade of the network and more than 80,000 UK Business Fibre broadband clients have upgraded from 38Mbps to speeds of up to 76Mbps (BT Group plc Annual Report, 2017). Of late, as per the company website, there was a launch of BT Call which is a service which Protects customers and diverts unwanted and nuisance calls to junk voicemail which is free to all clients. Lastly, on the product, more than 80 per cent of the UK is covered by the 4G network. From this customers are well taken care of and their interest too. Therefore helping the company to be competitive in the UK markets (appendix 1).

Strong Customer Service Team

To improve customer experience, it starts with creating an improved client service team. In recent years the company has only been recruiting professionals with the right professional skills. Moreover, the company has been holding several training sessions to enhance employee skills. Some of the skills that the company look in employees includes empathy and Patience which is crucial in dealing with different types of customers, good communication skills which enable employees to communicate their information in a positive way hence ensuring customer satisfaction and Knowledge which shows that, an employee dealing with customer has complete knowledge of the company’s product, pricing plans and services.

Advanced Seeking Of Customer Feedback

Studies suggest that to provide good client service, there is need to know customer’s needs as well as experiences (Milner & Furnham, 2017). Therefore, this necessitates the need to provide clients with several ways to give feedback. One of the company's top priority is to establish a new unit which bridges the gap between customer experience and their transformation teams. This decision is implemented to enable the company to take decisions and make investments according to the company performance which is aligned with customer experience as well as productivity priorities. Moreover, from the integration of EE and BT, sharing best practice on cost transformation has enabled the organization to gain greater efficiency from their operating model in both international and the UK and internationally. The company has been conducting interviews and Surveys with the customers to gain perception and further requirements of the customers. Additionally, Social media interactions are crucial to gaining customer experience in the company. Besides, to increase customer feedback, direct sales strategy has been increasing. All these strategies are aimed at the satisfaction of customers and subsequent customer retention.

Happy Staff = Happy Customers

Retention of Staff is crucial to any organisation when it comes to improving customer service. Scalars have also proved that employees stay when they are happy and also respect the working areas for which they work. Therefore, happy employees is equal to happy customers (Kaufman, 2015). The company to keep its employees happy offers a range of motivation factors such as gifts, promotions etc. which make employees happy and increase their productivity

Conclusion

In summary EE are providing an overall good service to the consumer and have a low complaints record, they are always looking for ways to evolve and keep current with technology and the service they provide. Some of the strategies that the company use to provide great customer experience includes; deliver a consistent and reliable service, the great customer experience from our network, products that improve customer experience, strong customer service team, advanced seeking of customer feedback and happy staff = happy customers strategy.

Recommendations

I recommend that for more improved customer experience, EE limited should create customer motivation strategies, come up with clear customer experience vision, and create an emotional connection with your customers, timely capture customer feedback and act upon regular employee feedback.

References

Biech, E., 2019. The New Business of Consulting: The Basics and Beyond. John Wiley & Sons.

Dörnyei, Z., 2007. Research methods in applied linguistics: Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methodologies (pp. 95-123). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Harvard Business Review, 2011. Harvard business review on increasing customer loyalty. Harvard Business Press.

Kaufman, R., 2015. Why your customer service training won’t lead to happy customers or inspired employees. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 37(4), pp.33-37.

Milner, R. and Furnham, A., 2017. Measuring customer feedback, response and satisfaction. Psychology, 8(3), pp.350-362.

T.Scott, G. 3. e., 2016. Posetively Outrageous Service. In: s.l.:s.n.