Keeping consistent customer experience through operational excellence

Many organizations are making significant investments in Customer Experience and Voice of the Customer programs. This makes a lot of sense, given the number of options consumers have for most products and services. However, as much as some customers might be willing to chase a lower price or different feature set, most customers value a consistent experience. If the experience is positive, they’ll stick with that product, even through significant changes. If the experience becomes inconsistent, as mentioned, there are likely other options for them to pursue.

The challenge for any team tasked with supporting and developing Customer Experience environments is to be flexible enough to deliver new functionality to satisfy customer demands, while still maintaining operational rigor to ensure consistent delivery and experience.  

From a development standpoint, intimate knowledge of the platform you’re supporting allows for quick evaluation of new feature requests. It also gives a quick view for potential operational risks, and allows for planning to mitigate those. Our Customer Experience team has deep technical experience, and is able to partner with our clients to create solid use cases and requirements. They also suggest alternatives and potential enhancements to requests, based on their understanding of the customer’s environment. The expertise the team brings to the table enables rapid prioritization, and ultimately, quick time to market. The platform evolves as the Voice of the Customer evolves, and allows our clients to be nimble.

Active testing ensures that the newly implemented functionality doesn’t create a lapse in user experience, either through downtime or loss of critical features. Through both automated and manual testing by Salesforce certified engineers, the team not only validates new functionality, but ensures a steady brand presence. By actively managing changes, we provide the greatest opportunity for a positive experience for customers. And through active logging, systems monitoring, and an ongoing commitment to quality, we strive to ensure systems are available when your customers need them.

System stability over time is intertwined with superior customer experience. Maintenance isn’t just a ‘keep the lights on’ activity. In fact, maintenance is integral to the overall usability of the platform.

Operationalizing Customer Experience from a day-to-day management perspective leads to better engagement with clients. Likewise, flexible and reliable systems operations ensure that your most valuable customer engagement tools, like Salesforce, grow and mature with your understanding of your customer needs.