Are You Tracking the Customer Service Metrics That Really Count?

FORTY - ONE NORTH’S SELECT INSIGHTS: HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

While tactical customer service measures are typically managed by a single company department, strategic customer service innovations — that is, those that reflect what the customer is actually experiencing, not what you’re experiencing in your operations — necessarily involve the coordinated activities of multiple departments. Many leaders run into the issue of “organizational indifference,” where counterpart managers in other departments naturally focus on the measures top management has told them are most important, and for which they’re being held responsible. To break through this organizational wall and create truly effective strategic customer service innovations, leaders should roll out testbed projects: limited opportunities to experiment and discover potential breakthrough innovations. The authors present a three-point plan that innovative management teams can use to create strategic customer service testbed projects that will enable them to learn by doing and overcome organizational indifference.