Fredrik Abiltrup - the CEO of TeleFaction shares his thoughts on how to win in a financial crisis situation. He is also a guest speaker at an upcoming web seminar about measuring the customer experience on May 26 - 2009.

Fredrik Abildtrup writes;

It is said that you need to be more conservative in the time of crisis. This means that you need to look at your business strategies, and adapt to the current situation.

The key to success are… Customers!

But even more so during harder times. If the money’s are tight the only place to look are at your customers. Even though the climate is economically tight, you will still find customers that are willing to spend, customers that are willing to stay with your company even though they pay a premium, to keep their competitiveness and save on the hazzle of switching vendor.
In uncertain times you cannot risk or afford to lose customers, alone for the fact that acquiring new customers are up to 6 times more expensive than keeping them. So keeping, and building on the relationship, with your customers are key.

Announcement
Meet Fredrik Abildtrup at the webinar
How to measure the customer experience
on May 26 - 2009. Register now

Recent studies in this field shows, that loyalty and trust can be trashed through just one single bad customer experience. A big survey, In Customers Are People, shows that 70 percent of the customers buying decision are based on how they feel they are being treated.
Another survey, from Beyond Philosophy, shows that 69% of the customers say that emotions count for more than half of the total buying experience.

Knowing that customers value High-quality in interaction, product and service, that they want to talk with empowered employees, they want honest communication and last but not least they want rewards for loyalty there is no doubt that the winners, especially in the credit crunch right now, are the ones that are able to deliver excellent customer experiences.

Experiences, that ties the customer closer to your company.
So how do you focus on the experience? You get started by being SMART using following foundation:

Strategy for customer value
Metrics to steer
Alignment of people
Redesign of experiences
Technology to optimize

S for strategy for customer value
The process for beginning and discussing the customer value begins with an understanding of why the customers buy from you. This information when gathered gives you the tool-set to begin identifying what drivers that makes your customers buy, stay or even defect. There are many theories and tools out there to get you started.

M for metrics
To find and select the right customer experience, the process begin with an understanding on which touch points your customers interact with you as a company. Knowing where, who and with what frequency, you can start prioritizing those touch point that matter most from a customer perspective.
This information must then be translated into key point indicators that you would want to track, and that best captures the performance of the company.

A for alignment of people
Knowing what drives the customer value and what metrics to steer after, this information must then be aligned with your people if you want Return on Behavior. A study done by CustomerThink Corp. showed that the Top 5 attributes of companies that deliver “Constantly Excellent Customer Experiences” were:

- Well-trained and Helpful Employees
- Excellent Customer Service
- High-Quality Goods and Services
- Friendly and Caring Employees
- Personal Attention, Reward for Loyalty

4 out of above 5 are people related. So no doubt that training is a key component, but also processes and especially giving the employees the information of what the customers think about their performance point your employee in the right direction of increasing the customer experience for the benefit og revenue, bottom line and continuous success of your company.

R for redesign of experiences
Having established that customer experiences is a parameter for success, as every contact with the company gives the customer a chance to evaluate if the experience have been bad / neutral / good, and that over time these customer experiences will make a lasting impression of the company’s values or the company as a brand, it becomes paramount that acting on the feedback of your customers experiences is essential. Only then can you reap the benefits of satisfied customers.
The continuous improvement rationale can also be applied at the customer level. By harvesting the learning gained from each customer interaction, you should be able to deepen your insight with respect to each individual customer, thereby improving the customer’s experience.

T for Technology to optimize
Assess the quality of customer experiences with telephone, online and contact center monitoring and measurement systems. As well as optimize marketing with analysis and campaign management systems to deliver relevant offers. And do not forget to treat customers as individuals and reward their loyalty.
Provide tools to help employees be helpful and responsive and ensure that customers perceive your service as excellent.

Final words
Managing and tracking customer experiences, in other words, allows you to create powerful, loyalty-boosting Learning Relationships with individual customers-relationships that get “smarter and smarter” with respect to each customer’s individual preferences over time.

Announcement
Meet Fredrik Abildtrup at the webinar
How to measure the customer experience
on May 26 - 2009. Register now

About Fredrik Abildtrup
Fredrik Abildtrup is a seasoned customer experience and Return on Behavior specialist. Currently responsible for the growth and internationalization of TeleFaction. He ensures that TeleFaction clients improve customer loyalty, reduce churn and increase cross-sales across customer service contact points. TeleFaction primarily caters to European businesses in the telecom, financial services, energy, travel and transport industries.
He has many years of business experience, primarily in sales and management. Most recently as the Division Executive with T-Systems Denmark, a sister company to Deutsche Telekom, where he was responsible for more than 100 employees.

Specialties:
General Management, Sales, Management Consulting, Coaching, Customer Experience, Marketing
Contact Fredrik Abildtrup at TeleFaction