Recession-Proof Your Organization With Excellent Customer Experience

Author: Krishnan Venkata – Chief Client Officer, LatentView Analytics

This article on LatentView’s bi-annual VoC survey was originally published on FastCo. We are reproducing the article here with additional insights.

Enterprise organizations continue to react to challenges spawned by COVID-19. The pressure to innovate remains as business leaders navigate personnel changes in the wake of the Great Resignation and feel the economic pressure of an impending recession. For many, the end of 2022 is crunch time, and the expectation is that every team, internal and external, is positively contributing to the larger business goals.

For both B2B and B2C organizations, there is a renewed focus on customer experience. Service providers are expected to function as business partners, zeroed in on driving business impact. To better understand how the organization is aligned with this new expectation, and identify areas for improvement and opportunities to double down on recent success, LatentView Analytics regularly conducts a Voice of Customer (VoC) survey. For our 1H 2022 survey, LatentView analyzed responses from more than 80% of customers and gathered insights that will push the organization to be a greater asset for its clients.?

Here are four key takeaways that can inform the next steps for business teams as they prepare for economic instability and strive to provide excellent customer service:?

• Distributed teams continue to bring better ideas to clients.

At the beginning of the pandemic, managers were forced to abandon the assumption that excellence is achieved when employees work together in the office. In its last customer survey, LatentView noted that 10% more clients consider distributed teams to be their thought partners, as opposed to co-located teams. This sentiment, that innovation can be fostered equally as well or better on distributed teams, held true. Almost twice the number of LatentView’s clients found that distributed teams were cross-pollinating ideas better from other client engagements. The benefit to clients from this knowledge sharing is reflected in a higher customer satisfaction (CSAT) score compared to engagement with distributed teams.

• Clients preferred to collaborate with balanced teams over experienced teams.?

Not only do clients prefer variety in where their teams work, but they continue to see value in diversely staffed teams. In the past, clients have placed value on experienced teams that are able to drill down into complicated problems. However, for the second consecutive survey, results show that teams with lower average experience performed 30% better than teams that indexed heavily on experience. Clients indicated that balanced teams, though lower in experience, gelled better and were more adept at project management and problem-solving compared to experienced teams.

• Managed services teams performed better when they were right-sized rather than lean.

Across client-facing industries, staffing teams appropriately is a challenge. Do you increase the size of your teams, but have employees work on more projects at once? Or do you staff client teams with a smaller number of employees that have a pointed focus on that client’s needs? According to LatentView clients, they feel better served when managed by larger teams. On average, client rating on overall project management was 10% higher when the team had a minimum of 10 members, compared with smaller teams of less than 6 members. Further, 10% more clients indicated that they received actionable insights from large teams than those managed by smaller teams. The key takeaway for clients considering managed services teams is to set it up right to get the benefits of the operation model and scale.

• A strong NPS indicates healthy relationships between LatentView and its clients.

Overall, clients felt that LatentView Analytics continued to be a value add. Because of the organization's dedication to staying connected with its clients and adjusting to meet their unique needs, 80% of clients would recommend LatentView to someone in their network — an industry high. LatentView Analytics’ Net Promoter Score (NPS) came in at +29 for this survey period, with 91% of clients being “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the partnership.?

In contrast to previous quarters, we are seeing clients' definition of going above and beyond change. Earlier, a responsive team that occasionally went beyond the scope of work, and cross-pollinated ideas from other projects was considered excellent. Today, these client-focused experiences are table stakes and have become the expectation for most.?

To go above and beyond, client service organizations should prioritize experience and quality of work in the long term over churning through projects as quickly as possible. To be considered an excellent client partner in 2023, deliver tangible business impact, encourage teams to often share ideas, and excel in project management. The insights from this survey support enterprises’ changing preference for solutions providers to be a part of the business, committed to driving organization-wide goals.