In the rush to digitize, many organizations have invested piecemeal on various technology solutions to better reach their customers or improve sales or provide better service. However, in our many client discussions, it is clear however that what usually is lacking a holistic customer experience strategy from the CEO office down.
As a result, mind the “CX” gap is something we always talk about. What is the gap you ask? It usually refers to where the CX “handover” from one channel to the other fails. Sometimes so miserably it becomes viral. In the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is all the more important. It is probably more crucial post-pandemic when organizations have rushed to digitize. It was go digital or go bust.
Recently, I had to port a mobile number from one network to another network and while the digital services – the live chat customer care were excellent, it crashed horribly in the physical store. Obviously, I was not keen on wasting my time in the store until I got clear details on the number porting process. I used the live chat since it was convenient and easy. After the process was settled, physical ID authentication was required for ownership verification so a store visit was required.
There lies the problem. The store experience and the online live chat experience was like night and day. The documentation was verified but the submission was incorrectly submitted by the service representative, resulting in a second store visit after a few days when I realized the porting was not happening. This just illustrates the CX gap.
For mobile telecommunication operators, with increased competition and smaller margins, customer retention is key, and to allow a customer to start the experience poorly is not good. The only way organizations can minimize this gap is to have a holistic customer experience strategy along with a detailed customer journey mapping to prevent silos and gaps happening in the organziation. If you have everyone refering to the same plan, the same execution and journey map, your customer experience will also be consistent, no matter who, how and what is used to deliver it.
So don’t forget to mind the gaps. If you don’t, your customer will. And if you need help finding those gaps, drop us a message today!
UPDATE
As a follow-up to this note, to the telco’s credit, they did get the store manager to call me, explain what happened and how they will make things right as well as improve their process. Regardless if this was mere lip service to placate an upset customer like me or a serious effort to improve, it also highlights another key CX area: recovery. However, that’s for another article. For now, check out what we’ve written on recovery here 
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Originally posted on CX Observer.
