The development of the customer experience is becoming an increasingly difficult process. Often needing input from a range of different employees, as it is ever expanding, encompassing a wider range of techniques, procedures and channels than ever before, it is only natural that it requires involvement from a greater number of people.
When it comes to the actual delivery of the customer experience, those who developed it are not often involved. Specifically looking at senior members of staff, they utilise their knowledge to create an experience that will be beneficial to the customer upon implementation by other employees, but they often fail to recognise the potential of their own involvement.
But should your senior members of staff actually be involved in the delivery of the customer experience?
If you take a look at several examples and situations from recent months, it would suggest that it is in fact becoming an increasingly important part of the customer experience.
And one of the most notable examples is the requirement made by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for all financial organisations to appoint an executive-level employee as a Head of Complaints.
Essentially realising that complaints were not getting the attention they so often needed, in addition to moving from a two-stage process to a one-stage process, the FCA believe that by organisations appointing a senior member of staff to oversee all complaints, they can reduce the issues that so often frustrate customers.
These senior members of staff do not need to dedicate their full time to the role, but they are responsible for the overseeing of all complaints. Escalating any to board level if necessary, they ensure the complaint management processes are as effective and beneficial as they can be for company and customer alike.
Although a great practice, it is only a requirement for financial organisations that come under the umbrella of the FCA – but that has not stopped senior employees in other companies taking it upon themselves to get more involved with complaints.
Take the recent story about David Marcus, the new boss of PayPal, who intervened personally with a customer complaint as an example.
After a recent PayPal customer had their account frozen – with £40,000 in it – the customer attempted to resolve the issue in as many different ways as they could. Not getting any real answers, they eventually resorted to taking to Twitter.
Not long after their public comments were made, the customer received an e-mail from PayPal. Not just from the customer service team, however, but from David Marcus himself.
Resolving the customer’s complaint by dealing with it personally, it was discovered that the problem was not with unhelpful PayPal employees directly, but that they were restricted by company policies and procedures.
And it is for this reason why having senior members of staff involved in the delivery of customer experience could prove to be extremely beneficial for any organisation.
Your customer service staff may be great at delivering a good experience for your customers, but they only have certain powers and abilities. As shown in the PayPal scenario, the employees are often restricted with what they can actually do by things outside of their control.
We are not saying that senior members of staff should always change the rules of complaint handling, but because they are able to make executive decisions if need be, whether that is to quickly resolve a complaint in a non-standard way or to escalate it in the correct manner, they need to be part of the process.
Every organisation is different. Even within the same industry, there could be huge differences in every aspect of the customer experience.
If there is one thing that is appearing to be become unified and linking all customer experiences together, however, it is the fact that having senior members of staff involved in the actual delivery of the customer experience is increasingly common – and if it is done correctly, can prove extremely beneficial to the organisation and the customer.
