Page 39 - AIMA : Foundation Day Souvenir

NEW FrONTIErS, NEWEr OPPOrTuNITIES
The evolution of, and some crystal ball-gazing, into customer experience management.
Saumabha Barua, TCS
Customer services is the cornerstone of building a successful brand and perhaps the most important differentiator for products and services that are increasingly becoming commoditised. From walk-ins and call-centers to deflection to digital and increasing shift to non- voice contact centers and now the paradigm shift that is expected with the maturing of the metaverse and its various manifestations, this paper briefly traces the journey of customer services and the various channels that exist and how they have evolved over the last few decades. All in the quest of providing that exemplar service that will sway and delight your customer to ensure they become your true brand ambassadors.
Customer experience management through an
effective and efficient sale and support services constitute one of the most important functions of any industry, especially for the ones which require a direct continuous connect for the products or services that are being sold, often with relationships spanning multiple years. Examples of such industries include banking, insurance, telecom, utility, etc. These industries need to employ a large workforce of customer service agents to ensure that the customers are serviced properly not just to continue the existing relationship but to additionally grow the relationship through upselling and cross-selling of other relevant services/products whenever
such opportunities present themselves. Over the years the nature of the delivery of these services has changed dramatically. We will attempt to present how this industry has shaped up in the last several decades as well as try to analyse some of the future trends that are emerging. Customer services, initially, was a completely voice-based in-house function as it was thought that only the employees of an organisation can best support its customers. However, this meant that organistions needed to carry a large workforce of people on their payrolls which over the years seemed to have an impact on their profitability. Organisations tried to reduce costs by way of outsourcing some routine non-core customer voice
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