Three letter acronyms. The technology industry would fall apart if we didn’t have them. “ROI” is a classic that has been around for quite awhile, although it has reached a bigger audience in recent years. For those who avoid buzzwords, it stands for “Return on Investment.” While we can acknowledge that ROI is the essence of business economics (money earned – money spent = profits), it should never take the place of providing a good customer experience.
The concept of ROI, while easy to quantify in a retail establishment or a traditional manufacturer, is more elusive in the IT industry. How to you put a price on saved time or increased satisfaction? For this reason, IT companies are taking the lead in providing a different kind of return on investment, that of great user experience. In the growing world of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), companies are investing in software and web-based applications to facilitate customer service. A recent article in Baseline magazine gives the example of British telecom company BT used Citrix Online’s Go-To-Assist improved their customer satisfaction scores by 97 percent.
BT had a problem with the way their help desk services were delivered to clients. While the issues were eventually resolved, customers disliked being passed from person to person, and each technician was spending too long with each caller. With the implementation of Go-To-Assist, technicians had remote access to clients no matter what their location or connection. Multiple technicians could work on the problem simultaneously, and the resolution was minimally invasive to the caller. Customer satisfaction went from 20 percent to 97 percent, and it’s hard to argue with the ROI of this type of marked improvement.
Another company which is focusing on CRM as a business strategy is Salesforce.com, which has made waves in the IT industry. Salesforce uses a web-based model for delivery, and it offers a “platform as a service” package through Force.com. Clients can customize the platform to meet specific needs, and they can choose to build or buy an application. Salesforce is self-described as “ROI for IT”, and their website argues that traditional CRM software is an unacceptable risk for businesses: “CRM should solve your business problems, not create more headaches.” The message seems to be getting through, and they’ve seen astronomical growth since the company was founded in 1999. They’ve now landed major clients such as IBM, Expedia, Dow Jones Newswire, Microsoft, and Kaiser Permanente.
Both Citrix Online and Salesforce.com are representative of this new trend in ROI. Your customer satisfaction is a factor of business success, and you can make your customer service efforts pay for themselves. While these two players focus on web and software applications, this concept could be applied to many different aspects of business, including product development, marketing, and manufacturing. Instead of viewing all business activities through the cost vs. profit lens, successful businesses have started looking at processes throughout their workflow as a means by which to improve customer satisfaction and user experience. A better manufacturing process means faster delivery of products, a more thorough market research strategy means better-directed advertising, and a fully-vetted design means a slick, intuitive interface for customers.
The maxim, “You get what you pay for” has always been true for customers, but it’s now starting to impact businesses as well. An investment in user experience is an investment which can pay for itself. That is the ultimate ROI, not just another buzzword. With IT projects failing roughly 75% of the time, it is important to set solid goals to work towards a beneficial ROI while mapping metrics to judge your success. If you ignore this important step, you will be “SOL”.