In a recent survey of businesses in the UK, mainland Europe, and the U.S., 62% of respondents agreed that differentiating their value proposition by customer service rather than by product was essential or very important (click here for the article). In fact, as customers, 74% said they were likely or very likely to buy more from a company as a result of service excellence that goes beyond expectations.

The Baldrige Criteria ask how you engage customers to serve their needs and build relationships. Engaged customers are loyal, do more business with you, and recommend your products and services to others, which is why more and more companies are taking steps to develop “very satisfied”—as opposed to merely “satisfied”—customers.

One obstacle to engaging customers, according to Pegasystems, which commissioned the survey, is the constraints imposed by legacy Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms. Only 43% of respondents can provide a consistent customer experience across all delivery channels. Part of the problem can be traced to the digital divide: legacy CRM systems don’t have the flexibility to adapt to differing requirements and can’t deliver a high-quality customer response to all customers.

I’m reminded of a story Michael Dell tells in Behind the Cloud by Marc Benioff and Carlye Adler. Benioff had told Dell about an internal networking technology they were using at salesforce.com to create a feedback loop with their customers. Dell adapted the technology to create IdeaStorm, an online community forum that Dell uses to engage customers and elicit and act on their ideas. To date, Dell customers have contributed more than 13,500 ideas, which have been promoted by other customers nearly 714,000 times with more than 88,800 comments. Dell has implemented 409 ideas to improve its products and services. You can read more about IdeaStorm here.

Salesforce.com is a perfect example of using an open platform that makes it easier to connect with customers versus a “walled garden” client like Lotus Notes. It shows the impact digital can have on what you offer your customers and how you interact with them, and the advantages it offers in engaging and satisfying them.

To read more about customer engagement, click on these articles:

• Which Side of the Digital Divide Is Your Organization On?
• Lessons Learned from Dell Hell
• Why Customer Loyalty Matters
• 10 Critical Questions: Your Customers
• Bottom-Line Value of Customer Engagement
• 9 Ways to Get Closer to Your Customers
• Customer Loyalty Myths

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