Customer Experience Management in IT Services Delivery Transportation Domain

by Brahma Mutya on 2011-04-28 12:42:39

Keeping customer happy is supposed to be same every where, whether it is a retail store or hotel or an airline or IT services delivery. Our customers are supposed to get the same experience from us that we expect from a state of the art airline when we are travelling. We expect a seemless experience and uniform experience, quick response and redressal. While key components of customer experience management remain same across all the industries, each industry deals with customers differently. There is lot of difference in managing customer experience in a B2B scenario when compared to B2C scenario.

So what it takes to keep the customers happy in IT services delivery? No rocket science but few simple things (1) Uniform experience across touch points. Whether it is a client engagement manager or the head of the business unit or the software engineer, every touch point should give same experience to the customer. Unless customer centricity is built into the very fabric of the organization, achieving this would be difficult (2) Quick response and redressal. Most customer experience issues occur due to bad service quality. Ignoring customer mails, not closing the issue on time or inline with expecations leads to wrong perceptions (3) Tracking service quality. What you don’t measure you can’t delivery. Tracking service quality or some other parameter on continuous basis  helps in achieving higher customer experience. (4) Planning quality. Simple, what you don’t desire and you don’t get. What you don’t plan for, budget and build into your execution, it can’t be achieved. Specific, focussed customer engagement plan and building a strategy and execution plan to enchance customer experience goes a long way in enhancing customer relationships.

That said, what is so niche about customer experience in IT services delivery in transporation. Two things. (1) Speed is the order of the day: Unlike several other domains, when it comes to transporation which works in just in time paradigm, quick responses and resolutions in addition to understanding service quality expectations of the extended stakeholder team spread across the gloe is important. (2) Understanding underlying business: What you don’t understand, you can’t fix. Since IT service delivery impacts business, understanding underlying business need, specially the un-stated need is the key.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are that of the author in individual capacity and do not represent a view point of the organization. For any additional information, please reach out to author.

brahma.mutya@wipro.com