Does your company deal with frustrated clients that seem to leave in the middle of onboarding? Have you received those angry client calls about the slow processing or the length of time it takes for someone to get back to them? How aware are you of your client’s journey through your company?
From the moment a client becomes aware of your company, there is a journey they take. It can start with marketing and sales and move on to finance, then move into operations, and finally into retaining or deepening the relationship. This often involves multiple people across multiple departments to handle one client.
When people are passed from one person to the next, with time wasted in between, it gives them time to debate the actual need for the product or service. If too much time lapses between stages, a customer may even forget the reason they wanted the product or service in the first place, or they may go with your competition instead.
The solution is to link all the core processes of the customer journey. Create a sort of client concierge. This streamlines the process while keeping the client interested in your product or service.
From One Handoff to Another
How many departments does one client traverse through? When people see a product or service they want, they tend to want it now. Instead, many clients are sent through a processing line of multiple people across multiple departments.
First is marketing to raise awareness and create leads. That lead becomes a prospect and is handed over to a salesperson to close the deal. The prospect becomes a client and is forwarded to finance before moving on to operations for onboarding.
From there, it’s a matter of retaining the client and/or upselling. Is there an entirely different team for that step? How much time has elapsed during the move from one person to another, and how many people were involved with that one client? How many clients are lost along the conveyor belt of departmental transfers?
This was the process of one of our clients. Upon review of the client’s journey, it was discovered that each client went through a series of handoffs where there could be up to 10 days in between each step of the journey. Employees were blaming each other for not picking up the client sooner, creating conflict among them, and clients were frustrated at the length of time everything was taking. There was limited accountability on client handoffs and automation was not working.
Linking The Steps
There comes a point for every company where doing what has always been done starts wasting time and money. Tapping into new perspectives, truly allowing employees to take ownership of the processes, not only improves the effectiveness of processes it also improves engagement.
People desire to feel like they are human and not a ball bouncing above the lyrics of a song in a sing-along. People desire and sometimes demand to be valued for their decision to obtain a product or service from your company.
When the process of automation stops working, it becomes time to create a customer-centric process. How do you know when it’s time for this change? How often do customers leave because they are frustrated with the current process?
Streamlining the process by incorporating a client concierge can create that perception of value for the client. This creates a focal for the client, a single individual that the client can get to know and feel they trust. That person, possibly a salesperson, can take the client from one department to the next and explain the process as they move along.
This also creates less frustration for the employees as they are no longer trying to fulfill their obligations while possibly handling a disgruntled client. Employees become more engaged, and clients feel more valued. This can improve the retention of clients and employees.
People and Processes
The processes of a company can sometimes involve more than just the employees. The processes may include the journey a client takes through your company. When clients are bounced from one department to another, they may feel more like a ball than a human. This can create frustration for the client.
Modifying the process so the customer feels valued and has one central point of contact throughout their entire journey can improve client retention and upselling rates within your company. An added bonus is that it can also create greater engagement among employees, and increase staffing retention and morale.
Fix the process by following the typical journey of a client to determine how to streamline the process. One of our clients experienced a complete transformation through a few short workshops that brought their teams together to view the journey through the eyes of their clients.
If it sounds a bit taxing or overwhelming, let the experts help!
Contact Effective Performance Strategies today to get you on your way to a more effective and efficient company by ensuring your customer’s journey takes the customer into consideration.
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