How Can Service Providers Create A Robust Customer Experience For Clients?
getty  Every company contracting with third-party service providers wants a provider that gives them a good price. On the surface, this is an obvious selection criterion that would put a provider in the winner column. But customer experience is a much deeper and more valuable evaluation component than pricing. The reputation for the customer experience that a service provider delivers is a significant dimension. Dimensions are the providers capabilities  what the provider is good at doing. Yet, this dimension often gets overlooked. Because it is difficult to quantify the customer experience. The challenge in quantifying customer experience  The challenge in quantifying a providers customer service starts with the fact that service providers must provide a good experience for a wide variety of stakeholders. For example, they must serve the following stakeholders:   C-suite   Departments or power users reporting to the CIO   Provider management team   Category managers working for the chief purchasing officer   Legal department  The second aspect of the challenge is that the stakeholders do not have the same needs. For instance, C-level leaders may need advice and support in their strategic plans and go-to-market strategies. The power users reporting to the CIO focus on getting work done in a high-quality, fast and efficient way. The category managers are interested in finding ways to cut costs and get discounts consistent with the scale or volume of the services they purchase. Service providers or vendor managers look for an efficient and frictionless administration of contracts and dispute resolution. The contracting vehicles and attorneys look for professional, friction-free contracting. If left unmanaged, all these stakeholders may have a rough customer experience. For example, if the service provider caters to the C-suite, it may ignore or frustrate the category managers; so, the overall customer experience would be poor. Likewise, if the provider ignores the power users at the expense of catering to the CIO or C-suite, the overall experience will be difficult. Historically, service providers focused on a few but not all stakeholders and inwardly focused on themselves. For example, they looked to find ways to avoid risk and meet their contractual obligations. This strategy often causes friction in how they contract and how they manage change control and dispute resolution. Likewise, some service providers focus on the power user and give less attention to the C-suite. Other service providers focus on the C-suite, believing that whatever the C-suite wishes to do, the power users will go along with that. To focus on one set of stakeholders at the expense of another always proves to be a mistake. The enterprise customer needs all these functions served well. If a service provider ignores portions of stakeholder groups, then, inevitably, the frustration of that ignored stakeholder group  or the frustration of the service provider in dealing with that stakeholder group  reverberates back through the supply chain. The frustration of ignored stakeholder groups creates a difficult working environment and suboptimizes the value that the enterprise should get from the service provider. The remedy requires that the service provider and the enterprise customer both invest in the customer experience. For example, service providers need to intentionally design and invest in customer experience, not just to sell work but also to ensure that they manage all the different ways they touch the customer. They need to ensure the customer touchpoints align with the overall relationship. That sounds obvious, but it requires investment and focus. From the enterprise side, a company first needs to decide what kind of experience it wants. Then it must be vocal and consistent in behaviors with the service provider. Behavior begets a counter-behavior. So, if a customer constantly behaves aggressively in its contracting tone and actions, it can expect service providers to adopt an equally aggressive posture when working with the customer. That will filter down through other components. Likewise, if the company wants its service provider to understand where the company is heading strategically, it must invest executive time to build relationships and share the vision. Although many enterprises give lip service to these actions, they do not follow through. The customer experience must be thought out from both the enterprise customer and the service provider side. Both parties need to invest in the relationship. Both need to be disciplined in managing touchpoints and services across all the customers stakeholder groups. You can also read my previous blog, Challenges in Companies Reducing Third-Party Service Providers, which explores how companies are taking a step back from contracting with third parties with the goal of portfolio rationalization. This; however, creates substantial challenges in their organizations as well as pricing challenges in the services industry.