The Industry View

In this chapter, we introduce customer experience and Customer Experience Analytics (CEA) using a set of industry examples. Each industry has a different name for its customers — subscribers, citizens, patients, drivers, viewers, and so on. However, the examples will illustrate similar characteristics. In each case, customer data is collected and harnessed to create insights about the customers, using a set of predictive models. The enriched information is used to drive improvements in products or customer-facing processes. In each industry example, I have chosen examples that are personal and commonplace, so we can relate easily to them and realize the level of disruptive change they can bring to suppliers around us.

Customer Experience Analytics Through Examples

Davenport and Harris have defined analytics to mean "the extensive use of data, statistical and quantitative analysis, explanatory and predictive models, and fact-based management to derive decisions and actions." Let us use a set of industry examples to show how analytics as defined by Davenport and Harris is being applied to a number of consumer-facing industries. We encounter good as well as bad customer experience from a variety of suppliers. While each of us may have different measures for evaluating customer experience, we can easily spot good encounters based on the attention, personalization, trust, or emotional attachment a supplier provides to us. Some suppliers are far better at analyzing our experience and using that understanding to improve their product, customer service, price, location, et cetera. The experience is pervasive across a cross-section of industries (see Figure 1.1).

Let me take a couple of industries to narrate customer experiences and how analytics is used to organize, collate, mine, and improve customer experience. Using a set of case studies, I will show how customer data is organized, analyzed, and incorporated into business decisions.

Communication Service Providers

Let me start with our experience as communications customers. We all have often experienced issues related to call and Internet data quality. In June 2010 at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), CEO Steve Jobs decided to demonstrate video conferencing capabilities on the iPhone. As he was connecting his iPhone to demonstrate the video calling features, the connection failed. Because this was Steve Jobs demonstrating a new cool feature, you can be sure that the hundreds of reporters and analysts sitting in the room were each connected to the facility's Wi-Fi and trying to upload the news and related information to their respective sites. Unfortunately, this crowding of devices took a toll on the device Steve Jobs was using. As he tried repeatedly to connect his iPhone, the connection kept failing. It is important to note that in this case the problem causing the dropped calls was right in the room, not with a communications service provider, a device, or an application running on a device. The video shows the problem getting fixed as Steve Jobs repeatedly tells the audience to shut down their devices.

The IT support organization deserves a big accolade for identifying the problem with the failed connections in near real-time. Steve Jobs was persistent in fixing the problem. After trying to connect a couple more times, he asked the audience to disconnect their devices so he could proceed with the demo. You can watch a video clip of his attempts to fix the problem on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGVsGSimLJg.

Although this particular example was not caused by the service provider, our gut reaction would be to be to blame the service provider. I asked some of the communications service providers how they keep track of their premium and VIP customers, how they excel in their service to their most important customers, and how they manage their customer perception for premium customers. Traditionally, Service Level Agreements (SLAs) were managed through service contracts. Most wireless providers traditionally offered loyalty points or service discounts if they faced service problems. For mass markets, that may be a good start. However, as the Steve Jobs video demonstrates, this case involved a very important wireless device, whose failure would be openly discussed by analysts and posted on YouTube.

How do we know the calls were dropped? The information is available to a service provider. Are they analyzing this information to trigger corrective actions before the service reaches a level of intolerance? As we see in the video, Steve Jobs made repeated attempts during the demonstration. Could we count five dropped calls and trigger a response once we reach that threshold, especially when dealing with premium customers? How do we know if five dropped calls is a normal threshold for customer churn? How do we identify the service performance to the phone owner? How do we know that the service interruption is impacting a premium customer? The cause of a dropped call could be anything, whether it is the service provider network, the roaming network, or the device.

Clearly, service providers cannot monitor every subscriber and provide personalized attention. Is it possible for us to differentiate service for the best customers? How do we prioritize network operations to deal with premium customers first? The information about the service interruption is being generated in real-time. Can we collect this information, correlate with premium customers, analyze to establish root cause, and work with the subscriber to fix the problem? Can we work on this in near real-time so the subscriber may start receiving better performance right away? Can we involve the sales teams, the customer service organization, the touch points, and the device, so all of them are aware of the problem and are helping the subscriber in solving the problem?

I often work from my home office if I am not traveling to client sites, and I often need to download large documents. I decided on a 10 Mbps DSL line to reduce the download time on these large files. Unfortunately, much to my dismay, downloads remained painfully slow. I was on the verge of calling my cable company to experiment with cable modems. Unexpectedly, I received a call from my telecommunications service provider. The caller introduced himself as a network operations person and told me he was concerned that I was getting only 10 percent performance on my DSL line. He...