Midsize Companies Can Repair Damaged Customer Relationships... YES

Midsize companies face a challenging balancing act: delivering high-quality customer service without breaking the bank. This tension often pits efficiency against customer intimacy, leading many companies to fall into the "Laggard" category, seeing customer support as a downstream cost center that requires minimal investment. However, our analysis shows that it's possible to deliver efficient and personalized customer service without breaking the bank. We call these companies "Leaders," and they include Amazon, Amex, and Apple.

To move from "Laggard" to "Leader," midsize companies must undertake three things simultaneously:

1. Have a strategic point of view about who they want to be to their customers. Companies should seek a competitively advantaged sweet spot where the right kinds of hands-on, proactive attention meet the right kinds of automation and efficiency.
2. Do the research to understand customers' biggest frustrations and pain points. Companies must identify a handful of key initiatives that can make a difference in the next six months.
3. Update their understanding of the art of the possible. Advances in AI and machine learning in recent years have transformed customer relationship management, giving companies the edge they need to move up from "Laggards" to "Leaders" with more customer insights, views into Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), and propensity to churn.

Several companies have successfully navigated this challenge, achieving significant improvements in customer satisfaction, loyalty, and wallet share in the first year. For example, a mid-market payroll solutions provider reduced servicing costs by 30%, increased its net promoter score by 650%, and gained an edge over its competition in just one year. A $500M revenue data storage and protection company reduced its customer-service operating costs by 20% while increasing revenues by 10% in the first year after implementing a customer success program focused on proactive customer contact, improved wallet share, and improved loyalty. A cybersecurity company increased its use of automation to reduce support costs by approximately 15%, resulting in a substantial increase in customer satisfaction scores, nearly doubling NPS, and reducing customer attrition by 5%, increasing Net Retention Revenue (NRR).

For midsize companies, delivering efficient and personalized customer service is critical to building their brand and differentiation from multinational rivals, and to rise to the top of their industry. By following these three steps and embracing the art of the possible, they can move beyond the zero-sum game approach and create a win-win for themselves and their customers.