Challenge: Provide a consistent and relevant customer experience across product lifecycles.
A lack of understanding around what motivated customers to upgrade, along with lack of clarity on the value of upgrade interactions, hampered this global software leader's ability to plan, improve and accurately anticipate customer actions and revenue drivers.
Internal research showed that customers didn't receive a consistent and relevant experience across product lifecycles. But what would it take to turn around this negative trend on high-margin revenues?
This engagement focused on understanding, measuring and improving the upgrade (repurchase) lifecycle of midmarket business customers.
Approach: Understand the experience delivery process, and quantify customer motivations.
Focusing on the greatest revenue opportunities, MCorp Consulting conducted Customer Experience and Touchpoint Mapping® research along the repurchase segments of the Customer Relationship Lifecycle. Specifically, we analyzed the process in depth at the stages of consideration, knowledge, (re)purchase, satisfaction and loyalty.
After analyzing existing data, we conducted a series of internal interviews with a cross-section of management and channel-facing staff to understand internal opinions, defining the current upgrade process and deployment support systems.
We then conducted qualitative, highly directional research, through structured 1-on-1 interviews with partners (resellers) and end-user customers, measuring and analyzing customer perspectives and motivations.
Specific deliverables included:
- A high level lifecycle definition for mid-market customers;
- A framework recommendation for measuring customer touchpoint management efforts;
- Touchpoint Maps by lifecycle stage(s), touchpoint paths, segment and channel;
- Customer needs and levers to progression, by lifecycle stage;
- Customer experience and touchpoint gaps and redundancies.
Customer experience and touchpoint analysis led to a restructuring of the upgrade process, with a 37% reduction in total touchpoints and opportunities for cost reduction and process efficiency improvement of over 20% each.
Across 17 categories of “touchpoint types,” most corporate touchpoints had a negative impact on the quality of customer experience and were poor at meeting needs, while partner touchpoints tended to be better received and were more effective.
Findings: Significant disconnects between internal, partner and customer perceptions.
While a better understanding of motivations to upgrade was key, a more critical—and illuminating—finding was that the company fundamentally misunderstood the process for upgrading software from the customer and partner perspective.
While the prescribed upgrade process was highly detailed, it simply was not practiced or endorsed by the marketplace. Findings included:
- Employees (all categories) and partners rated the defined upgrade process poorly;
- Fundamentally flawed, the process for deploying upgrades was dictated by “others” in the corporation;
- Reseller partners engaged in “work arounds” to satisfy customers;
- Corporate touchpoints were rated lowest performing by all audiences;
- The lowest cost touchpoints had among the highest efficacy;
- Highest-value customers averaged 14 touchpoints, while some of the lowestvalue had over 40.
In combination, these findings rendered the bulk of all company controlled upgrade-related touchpoints (740 in total, across 17 different types) irrelevant.
Recommendations: Define and integrate an upgrade strategy based on partner and customer input, and focus on high-value touchpoints.
Recommendations were filtered through the lens of touchpoint value, cost, and efficacy, as measured by their ability to move customers through the upgrade channel. This entailed reducing the number of individual touchpoints, focusing on high-value touchpoints, and reorganizing the upgrade process.
MCorp also made recommendations for ongoing measurement (and integration) of partner and customer feedback.
Results: Restructuring drives down costs, drives up sales, and boosts quality of reseller and customer experiences.
By quantifying business value and focusing accordingly, we were able to guide this client to better define responsibilities and feedback loops. This led to implementation of an integrated strategy across customer touchpoints based on actual upgrade motivations and customerdefined processes. Among other wins was a 37% reduction in touchpoints and a 20% projected reduction in the ongoing cost of creating and managing touchpoints—all driving better experiences, stronger relationships and stronger sales.
About MCorp Consulting
MCorp Consulting is a research, brand and strategy consultancy that maps and improves the touchpoints between organizations and their customers, delivering better brand, marketing and customer experiences.
Touchpoint Mapping®, Brand MappingSM and Loyalty Mapping® are proprietary research tools for brand marketers that take the guesswork out of decision making with proven, actionable and accurate data.
How might your organization benefit from working with MCorp Consulting?
Call 866-526-2655 or contact us to find out.
Copyright © 2009 MCorp Consulting, all rights reserved. Touchpoint Mapping®, Loyalty Mapping® and Brand MappingSM are trademarks of MCorp Consulting.
Success Brief: Global Software Leader
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