As I prepared for my first blog post ever, I read a recent survey entitled, “The Global Customer Service Barometer,” which was published by American Express (my previous employer).

The survey confirmed ideas that most of us suspect:

1)   Americans will spend 9% more with companies that provide excellent service

2)   Two-thirds (67%) feel companies aren’t doing enough to earn their business and nine in ten (90%) Americans consider the quality of customer service when deciding to do business with a company

3)   Three most influential factors when deciding which company consumers choose to buy from:

* Personal experience (98%)

* Company’s reputation or brand (92%)

* Recommendations from friends and family (88%)

Should companies invest more (or differently) in customer service to increase the value of their brands?  This is not a trivial question because in the vast majority of cases, it is the front-line customer service worker (whether he/she be on the phone, in the store, or showing up at the consumer’s home) that represents a company’s first and most important interaction between them and their customer.  These are the interactions that represent the moment of truth: the most important interaction with the company where the consumer forms his opinion.

Today companies with mobile workers have an unprecedented opportunity to transform what has traditionally been a “moment of pain” into a “moment of glory”.  This opportunity derives from the dual power of predictive analytics and improved forms of communication.

What can companies with employees who go to consumers’ homes do?

1)   Use the Information You Have to Make Better Decisions.  Most companies have the ability to know how long it takes to perform a task and how long it takes an individual worker to complete the task.  The problem is that they don’t use this information. They need to start!

2) Communicate. Communicate. Communicate.  And do it in the format that consumers want.  Call them, email them, text them, let them check on the internet to see what is going on.  And communication is a two-way street.  Let them be part of the conversation.  If you are going to be late, tell them; and let them decide what to do.  If they are willing to wait, great.  If they want to reschedule, let them.

3) Get Over the Idea That Cost/Service is an Either/Or Proposition.   With the advent of predictive scheduling software and communications it is possible for companies to delight customers and save money at the same time.  How? By giving consumers arrival windows that are short and accurate, by communicating with them so they know when you will arrive, and by showing up with the right personnel and tools to do the job right the first time.

I would be very interested to hear what other best practices exist in the sphere of customer service that are helping companies build their brands, especially for companies whose business takes them to consumers’ homes.  What else can companies do?

It was interesting to hear that there was a lot of thinking and talking about the future of the business. Clearly people devoting mind time to how they can stay ahead.

I attended a very interesting conversation with Brian Roberts with Peter Chernin. It was clear he was thinking about the business all the time -(in fact he said that he is constantly thinking that the whole edifice would come down on him – he said “that’s what I have Steve Burke for, he always see the glass half full and I ALWAYS see the glass half empty – I thought that was interesting). He was talking about how Comcast is dedicating a lot of thought on how to improve the customer experience both in terms of content and technology.  He was very proud to show off Comcast’s new interactive guide interface,  which was indeed impressive.  It was clear how much thinking is going on about the customer experience at the level of the customer interaction with the content.

But WE know that the most important interaction is the human connection.

And though Brian Roberts did say that the cable industry is the industry people “love to hate” – he offered clue into how Comcast is intending to transform the customer experience as it relates to the one time that people will actually see a Comcast person face-to-face, i.e  the in-home appointment.

So today I went to check out how things are going at the level of the earth, not the stars – from the pinnacle of glamour and power, to a day spent with a tech – with one of TOA’s customers’ people in the field.

And somehow there were a lot of things that seemed the same to me. He was also thinking about how to make the customer experience better. Crawling in attics and closets… drilling, hooking and thinking how best to do things. But the difference was that he was there on the front lines – in people’s homes, under their carpet and inside their kitchen. It’s amazing how intimate this job is. People let you into the most private parts of their home and life without much reservation, exposing their most intimate physical space. Maybe it’s because, at the end of the day, the cable guy is just another sort of handyman, I don’t know… but it’s a fact that you get to see a LOT when you’re on this job. And it’s a hard job, both physically and mentally, to be the front line of the industry that ‘people love to hate’ as Brian Roberts put it and do a great job – which the guy did!

And if that’s the case, and you have great people doing a tough job, working one by one to transform the image of customer service – it behooves the leaders to provide them the best tools and the best methodologies to help them do their job with the least annoyance and disruption – to search and find the most innovative technology – software and hardware – to take away the burdens of the job and let them focus on what they do best and need to do best. Interacting with the customer well. It will pay dividends more than any great menu driven interactive guide – as well thought as it might be.

Notice how 3 of the 12 (i.e. 25%) are about simple communications and customer service issues that could be easily resolved with some basic communications :

The 12 most-annoying things about flying – Flights: Airfare, flight tracker, delays, miles tracker & airport news – Today in the Sky – USATODAY.com.

Some people would think this is a strange combination… efficiency AND customer service/satisfaction? Most people actually think that these two actually negate each other!

But for TOA this is our bread and butter! Literally! We make our living not just combining the two – but making them work in harmony to both reduce operating costs and enhance the customer experience.

This is because our basic premise is that these two issues are equally and completely intertwined. You cannot have one without the other:

And in TOA’s world  it’s focus on the customer experience and making sure that customer commitment is MET and that the customer not only has what he or she needs -but has it when and where you promised to deliver it. This is the only TRUE PATH TO EFFICIENCY.

When we started this TOA our goal was to solve the problem of customers “waiting at home without knowing” when a technician (engineer in UK-speak) would arrive at their door.

That was the original seed of the idea: Why not solve the problem of customers “waiting without knowing” by providing them with real-time up-to-date information about the status of their appointment in a pro-active, personalized, dynamic and interactive way?! Such a simple idea!

But what we found was that underlying that lack of information to the customer – was a lack of accurate information by ALL the stakeholders in the appointment event: dispatchers, managers, technicians/mobile employees, call center customer service reps, etc. No one had an actual, up-to-date, easily accessible, real-time picture of the field.

And that’s what we created with TOA’s web-based SaaS solution: A system that collects analyzes , processes and disseminates real-time, time-based, actionable, predictive, intelligent information of what is happening in the field with a focus on the customer and the customer experience.

This is the first  true web-based information hub to aggregate all the relevant information about the appointment or field event  So that no one is left out in the dark wondering: What is actually going on? When is that appointment or activity going to happen? Why do I have to wait all day without knowing?

We ended up creating one probably the most sophisticated system  focusing on predictive analytics, on time and time-based  performance pattern recognition and integrated customer communications. All with the goal of keeping customer commitment!  That’s the key!