HONIC: Customer Satisfaction Index Based Framework to Transform Customer Experience

Rose Neena Tom (roseneena.tom@hcl.com ) 1Customer Voice Measurement (CVM) Group

2HCL Technologies Ltd, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

SERP’15: POSITION PAPER

Abstract - HONIC framework applies growth parameters in the transformation journey of a business relationship. A well developed and institutionalized customer satisfaction (CSAT) measurement process helps to gather business parameters or metrics. These are in-turn applied on this framework to help business to predict and proactively grow the relationship. Customer expectation and experience management procedural steps are brought in to help in the operational flow.

Keywords: Customer Experience, Expectations, CSAT

1 Introduction Customer experience is the product of an interaction between an organization and a customer over the duration of their relationship. This interaction includes a customer's attraction, awareness, discovery, cultivation, advocacy and purchase and use of a service [1].

Gartner defines customer experience management as “the practice of designing and reacting to customer interactions to meet or exceed customer expectations and, thus, increase customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy.” [2]

1.1 Technology led growth Organizations in today’s world are moving away from focus on basic process improvements towards understanding capabilities of digitalization. Business led technology value chain transforms user experience effectiveness into agility, growth and profitability.

1.2 Business Transformation: Market observations

Competitive challenges posed by the advent of digital provide clear business imperatives for most organizations:

Most companies are vulnerable to new, low-cost born-digital startups or existing competitors with strong digital strategies.

Margins will be placed under great pressure as digital business drives down unit costs.

End customers already expect high-end digital capabilities, and those without them will struggle to keep up[2]

1.3 Service Delivery: Transformation Program Customer engagement is a strategic collaboration to manage, fulfill & value-add. The engagement matures along the life cycle starting from commencement, optimization, and maturity to re-invention and it is imperative to track the health of the relationship at all stages.

Transformation journey for a typical service oriented organization can be depicted as below:

Fig. 1 Service Delivery

Digital technologies offer new opportunities to attract, engage, win, serve and retain customers. But they also add hugely to the complexity of customer strategies:

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Manage customer relationships across multiple channels and touch points

Deliver better customer experiences across marketing, sales, service and e-commerce

Remove the political and cultural barriers that cause customer initiatives to fail

Unlock the real business value in your customer data

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows:

Section 2 describes the newly instituted framework with its components, objectives and methodologies. Section 3 the case-study of application of this framework. 2 HONIC Framework: Transformational

Journey

Fig. 2 H.O.N.I.C Framework

Transformational journey in a Business relationship can be found analogous with Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs – a theory in psychology proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" in Psychological Review [3] [4]. The hierarchy remains a very popular framework in sociology research, management training [6] and higher psychology instruction.

HONIC Framework is derived based on applying data from Business grown indicators as given in the grid below. As relationship matures over the years expectations increase and hence steps to ensure customer experience differ at each hierarchical level in the Transformational Journey.

A continuous CSAT measurement process has been deployed to gather data against each of these business parameters. Some of these measurements are carried out in monthly, quarterly or even annual cycles. Each parameter is rated on a scale 1-7; 1 being lowest and 7 being the highest. Business parameters against each of Transformational Level

are developed and applied in the grid as below. In addition to these often deployed attributes additional aspects may also be applied as and when needed.

TransformationalIntegral Partner Business

TransformationIncreased revenues for clients

Client/ Corporate Governance

HCL's contribution to improving client time to market

Thought Leadership

InnovativeMulti service approach

Industrialized Global Delivery

Showcasing value adds

Decision Making Ability to Innovate

Alternate solutions/support

Innovative Approach

Integrated Excellence in Delivery

Account Management

Predictable Delivery

Understanding clients business

Program Governance Processes & Methodologies Tool Deployment Collaborating

with all teams

ManagedOn-Time Delivery

Project Management

Deliver right 1st time

Domain Knowledge Project Status Update (Reports/Timelines/Accuracy)

Resource Management Proactivness

Requirement Eliciation skil ls

Transactional Responsiveness

Resourcing / Staffing

Quality of Deliverable

Technical ExpertiseCommunication Soft Skil ls

Lowered cost of operations Meeting SLAs

Maturity Level / Parameters

Fig. 3 HONIC: Business Parameter Grid

2.1 Framework objectives The primary objectives of this framework are:

Focus on customer disposition – (experience with the firm, attitudes)

Progress on the route of being a trusted business partner

Expectations from existing customers

Increased wallet share

Desire loyalty but not at the expense of lower price realization

Advocacy through referrals

This can be achieved as depicted below:

Fig. 4 Business Relationship Trajectory

2.2 Framework Institutionalization HONIC framework was applied over the years over multiple business relationships. This has been sampled over various engagements and is believed to provide a repetitive performance and a predictable outcome.

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Some of the categories of business engagements where this applied are:

Young relationship (2-3 years)

Growing relationships (5-6 years)

Matured relationships (> 10 years)

3 Case-Studies 3.1 A young/budding business engagement –

start of relationship When satisfaction measurement (CSAT) parameters collated and applied for a business case study where relationship was around 2-3 years a pattern as below emerged:

3.1.1 Young business: Start of relationship

Fig 5: Young Relationship – at the start

Fig 6: Young Relationship Level

3.1.2 Yong business: Subsequent Year

Fig 7: Young Relationship – Year 2

Fig 8: Young Relationship Level – Year 2

3.2 A Growing business engagement When satisfaction measurement (CSAT) parameters collated and HONIC framework applied for a business case study where relationship was around 5-6 years the pattern that resulted is given below:

3.2.1 Growing Relationship: Year 4

Fig 9: Growing Relationship – Year 4

Fig 10: Growing Relationship Level– Year 4

3.2.2 Growing Relationship – Year 6

Fig 11: Growing Relationship – Year 6

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Fig 12: Growing Relationship Level– Year 6

3.3 A Mature business engagement When satisfaction measurement (CSAT) parameters collated and HONIC framework applied for a business engagement where relationship was 10+ years the pattern that came forth was as depicted below:

3.3.1 Mature relationship: Year 12

Fig 13: Mature Relationship

Fig 14: Mature Relationship Level

4 Case-study Inferences Some of the salient inferences that were drawn from these outcomes are:

1. As business matures over years the relationship grows over a predicted path

2. Expectations over the years grow as per a value chain hierarchy – longer the relationship higher the expectations on the ladder

3. Businesses need to proactively find solutions and alternative approaches to cater to ever changing needs of the industry and in turn their customers

5 References [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_experience - Retrieved 10th June 2015 [2] http://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/customer-experience-management-cem: Retrieved 13th June 2015

[3] Maslow, A.H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review 50 (4) 370–96. Retrieved from http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Maslow/motivation.htm: Retrieved 13th June 2015

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs : Retrieved 13th June 2015 [5] Maslow, A. (1954). Motivation and personality. New York, NY: Harper.

[6] Kremer, William Kremer; Hammond, Claudia (31 August 2013). "Abraham Maslow and the pyramid that beguiled business". BBC news magazine. Retrieved 1 September 2013

[7] Joseph P Elm, Dennis R Goldenson, ‘The Effects of CMMI® on Program Performance’, Carnegie Mellon®

Software Engineering Institute (SEI) , 5th CMMI Technology Conference and User Group, Denver 2005

[8] CMMI® for Development, Version 1.2, CMMI_DEV V1.2, CMU/SEI-2006-TR-008 / ESC-TR-2006-008, August 2006, Carnegie Mellon® Software Engineering Institute (SEI) [9] Robert S Kaplan & David P Norton, ‘Strategy Maps’ & ‘The Strategy-focused Organization’ & “The Balanced Scorecard – Measures That Drive Performance”, Harvard Business Review, January- February 1992

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