Decoding ROI: The Untapped Power of Customer Intent in CX Management

Customer Intent: The Ignored Key to Exceptional Customer Experiences.

If you want to know how you did, send a survey.?

If you want to know what to do, understand why customers are contacting you.

Reasons for contact, also known as intents, is the single most crucial bit of data to CX leaders, and we may not even be talking about it in our customer experience management programs. Customer intent is the reason a customer contacts you in their own words.

Recognizing the intent of customer contacts is the first step in delivering better customer experiences by implementing a methodical process of finding the right approach to provide support that your customers want (value) and that resolves (contains) the intent of the contact.

Here is where we can see the possibilities for CX projects that yield a measurable and meaningful return on investment for the customer and the business through the fog of data. By using the methodical process of understanding the reasons for contact, the preferred methods of contact, and the cost of the contact, plus any downstream costs, CX leaders can bring to light some incredible opportunities for removing friction from the business and its customer experiences.?

J.D. Power Insights: Unveiling the True Potential of Customer Contact Data.

For example, the 2023 U.S. Cross-Industry Customer Service Experience Study results by J.D. Power reveal the phone channel as the most utilized first contact channel. Suppose every customer's phone contact with intent around billing costs the organization $3.00, and these calls amount to 37% of the monthly call volume of 300,000 calls and correlate with 15% of the reasons why customers cancel their service. In that case, you have the basis for a business case to improve the billing experience for customers. This new CX project can reduce calls with billing intents, deflect cancellations, and save millions in both OPEX and lost recurring revenue. As the CX leader operating in this way, you can lead the charge for some influential cross-functional projects that mutually benefit the business and its customers.

Methodical Mastery: Turning Customer Contacts into Revenue-Generating Opportunities.

The methodical process of finding the right approach to deliver support that your customers want (value) and that resolves (contains) the intent of the contact is informed by experiential and operational data but requires ad hoc teams of cross-functional stakeholders to collaborate on deciding the priorities and the owners of workstreams and outcomes to be effective.

This methodology guides where to make investments that target the desired effects for the business and its customers instead of a one-size-fits-all approach to digitizing contacts that customers won't use and might generate a backlash of calls and negative feedback. Using this data-driven approach identifies what contact intents can be automated or digitized, which ones can be eliminated, where things can be simplified, and where the business can leverage the contact to deepen the customer relationship. Pinpointing the best customer contact intents for this treatment presents CX leaders with incredible opportunities for projects that yield an ROI. These opportunities can lead you to ways of leveraging, meaning deepening a customer relationship, converting sales, reducing churn, increasing renewals, and understanding what customers need and why they chose your business. It can also point to where automation and digitization can have the most adoption and impact for first contact resolution, where to simplify and remove friction for customers, and what low-to-no-value items you can eliminate completely.

Friction Unveiled: Turning Customer Challenges into Business Opportunities.

Understanding the friction and its total costs to serve as a result leads you to some fantastic opportunities to improve the business and the customer experience. For customer contacts where friction is part of the intent (the left side of the chart), there is the cost of the contact itself, plus there may be some downstream costs associated with resolving the issue (the right side of the chart).?

Remember that not all customer contact needs to be remedied, but the contacts caused by friction with your business should be addressed. Understanding the intents of customer contacts opens the door to addressing how best to handle them. Not every contact can be handled by human interaction, nor should it. But which ones should be treated differently and in what way?

Let the marketing folks handle the NPS. CX leaders need to help the business in ways that impact revenue, gross margins, and customer value.

Data-Driven Decisions: Navigating the Complex Landscape of Customer Contacts.

The methodology I have been referring to has another benefit in that it is relatively simple, uses the data your business already captures, connects the various departments and functions that are aligned with friction areas uncovered in your customer contact intents and can become a best practice within your organization as a "teach to fish" approach to working with clients.

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