Innovating with your staff and customers

Working with your customers to generate new ideas contributes to a better customer experience.  It increases the value for the customer  because they feel valued and respected.  And it has real, measurable business benefits. Studies show that innovating with customers creates products and services with real value.  That can increase positive attitudes toward the product, new and repeat sales, and referrals.

Making it easy for customers to give you feedback and ideas strengthens the relationship. As well as asking your customers, it is important to ask your frontline staff for feedback and ideas. This can reduce turnover and increase employee engagement. Both have a direct impact on sales growth.   Effective companies engage employees in designing and delivering new product and service ideas.  This creates employees who are advocates of the new product. Their enthusiasm spreads fast amongst the other employees and customers they talk to.

LV= gets feedback from customers via surveys and online feedback systems. They ask staff via an internet-based feedback system called “Tell us your WOE’s – Why on earth?” One opportunity that emerged was a gap in the travel insurance market. Many customers don’t  understand what their travel insurance covers. LV= developed a new innovative and competitive travel insurance product. It has flexibility of choice and gives customers peace of mind that they have the cover that they need. This new customer-driven innovation has seen large financial returns.

Arrow XL is a delivery company. All frontline staff have a single view of the customer regardless of channel. They check SMS, email, telephone calls and social media for customer comments. They also collect comments from face to face meetings and customer satisfaction surveys.  They show the information on a user-friendly dashboard for customer service operators. Operators can pass the information to the right colleague at the relevant time. It means they can own the customer interaction, rather than the contact passing around. This makes sure Arrow XL provide a high level of customer service.

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