Ten important things to consider when improving an organization's client experience:
Be data driven and not anecdotal about what to fix. Listening to the “loudest voices” rarely fixes the biggest opportunities.
Using Net Promoter Score is a great way to segment clients and discover service opportunities issues for all three segments ( detractors, passive and promoters ).
It is most effective when the client experience improvement efforts are continuous. While onetime “repair” projects can make an impact, an ongoing process allows data analysis to iterate improvements and show ongoing efficacy.
There is always a rich ROI when repairing customer service defects that result in re-work. Cost of poor quality, and elimination of “egregious” customer service situations should be a first priority.
There three major things drive your organization's client experience, and each of them will need thorough analysis:
Your client facing teams
Your systems (applications, web, phones, statements, kiosks, etc )
Your controls, rules, restrictions
The best way to start an “improve our client experience project” is to process map the five most important client interactions; usually good places to start are registering for the web and moving money /paying invoices.
Client experience work is fun but intense. It is like bringing a “B” grade up to an “A” grade, it feels good; however, the team and its culture need to be fully engaged. Making things better for clients almost always requires night and weekend testing, use of personal accounts, and sometimes tedious sampling to make sure improvements are effective.
Look for jargon and remove all of it. Using “internal vocabulary” on client facing systems is almost always a mistake.
Be ADA complaint on the web and printed material. Large fonts and good color contrast help aging clients. Older baby boomers are usually great clients to keep happy.
Perform “negative testing” by entering incorrect fields and answers. Expecting customers to enter the correct answers on forms, IVRs and web sites is pollyannaish. Making sure customer facing systems handle incorrect client entries with great error messaging always improves client satisfaction and straight through processing.