As digital CX continues to grow in importance, strategic business outcomes – aimed at establishing a genuine partnership between enterprise and providers based on mutual trust – are set to redefine the measurement of success. Delve into this blog to explore the advantages and potential hurdles of adopting a strategic business outcome in CXM.
The revolutionary integration of digital CX solutions is significantly transforming customer experience service delivery. Already a driving force, this evolution is poised for even greater momentum with the rapid evolution and substantial investments in generative AI. Amid these advancements, achieving outcomes for enterprise businesses has become more crucial than ever.
Adopting strategic business outcomes in CXM operations has emerged as a key differentiator for enterprise success. In today’s dynamic business landscape, staying ahead necessitates not just embracing digital technologies but also cultivating a results-oriented approach, ensuring customer interactions seamlessly translate into tangible business value. This emphasis enables companies to stay competitive, adapt to rapidly changing market dynamics, and foster customer loyalty by consistently delivering meaningful and impactful experiences.
The paradigm shifts toward delivering meaningful and tangible outcomes go beyond the conventional and transactional metrics that have historically dominated the Customer Experience Management (CXM) industry. While benchmarks like Average Handling Time (AHT), First Call Resolution (FCR), and other Service Level Agreements (SLAs) have been integral, the current era demands a recalibration. Metrics now need to go beyond merely gauging efficiency; they must directly contribute to strategic business objectives.
The advent of strategic business outcome metrics in CXM
Strategic business outcome metrics are aimed at accomplishing specific business objectives. This collaboration transcends mere verbal agreements or contractual obligations; instead, it entails establishing a genuine partnership between enterprise and providers characterized by commercial alignment and the pursuit of shared, measurable goals. Strategic business outcome metrics in CXM, marked by measurable impacts on the broader business landscape, are poised to become the new benchmark for a provider’s success.
Strategic business outcomes in CXM can be categorized into four categories: cost optimization, customer excellence, revenue enhancement, and digital transformation as illustrated below:
Adopting strategic business outcome metrics requires a nuanced approach that acknowledges the industry-specific nature of certain metrics. Rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all model, CX providers must customize their metrics to align with the unique needs and goals of specific industries.
For example, decreasing the patient dropout rate may emerge as a pivotal metric a provider can achieve in helping accelerate the clinical trial process for a life science enterprise. Conversely, increasing the volume of orders across channels might be essential for optimizing strategies for a retail or Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) enterprise. In the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) sector, a targeted metric could be reducing forbearance negotiations or improving loan collection efficiency. This industry-tailored approach ensures the metrics chosen are directly relevant and impactful in addressing each sector’s specific challenges and objectives.
Obstacles to realizing benefits of a strategic business outcome metric approach
Adopting a strategic business outcome metric approach poses challenges, demanding a fundamental shift in measuring and pursuing success. This shift, particularly for large global businesses, demands standardization across all global practices.
Several factors contribute to the difficulty of this transition including:
- Cultural change: Adopting strategic business outcome metrics in CXM entails a cultural transformation, often necessitating collaboration among multiple teams. Contact centers may not solely influence certain CX metrics. Achieving this shift requires buy-in and commitment from all organizational units, with employees embracing new ways of thinking and working collaboratively
- Data complexity and attributability: Strategic business outcome metrics often demand a more sophisticated approach to data collection, analysis, and interpretation that might make it difficult to track, validate, and attribute actual benefits
- Measuring intangible outcomes and baselining challenges: Some strategic business outcomes, such as brand perception or customer loyalty, are inherently intangible and challenging to quantify. Moreover, limited information to establish the baseline metric or outcome might pose a challenge. Developing effective measurement mechanisms for these outcomes can be complex
- Contractual adjustments: Traditional service contracts may need restructuring to accommodate the shared responsibility model. This could involve renegotiating terms, aligning revenue recognition models, introducing performance-based incentives, and establishing clear expectations for success and failure
- Regulatory hurdles and billing: Changes or conflicts in tax and compliance rules could potentially impact revenue recognition and billing mechanisms as well as timelines
The success of the strategic business outcome metric approach hinges on establishing a robust collaborative partnership between CX providers and enterprises. Building trust is central to this collaboration. Trust forms the basis for open communication, a willingness to share insights, and a joint commitment to success, which can serve as the bedrock for achieving shared objectives and driving meaningful differentiation within the market.
This approach involves equally sharing responsibilities and benefits for business success and failure. Both providers and enterprises must acknowledge that success/failure is a collective effort. Enterprises should acknowledge the role of providers in contributing to meeting agreed-upon targets, including fairly sharing commercial benefits, whether through performance-based incentives, revenue-sharing models, or other mutually agreed-upon mechanisms. On the flip side, in cases where strategic business outcome metrics are not met, providers should also be open to bearing the burden.
If you have questions or would like to discuss strategic business outcome metrics, frameworks, strategies, and best practices, reach out to Chhandak Biswas, [email protected], or Uday Gupta, [email protected].
Explore the anticipated shifts in sourcing expenditure and strategies, and the digital CX services expected to be in demand in our report: Customer Experience Management (CXM) Services CXO Insights: Key Issues Report 2024.
Discover insights into CXM outsourcing during early maturity stages and strategies for the effective selection of suitable outsourcing partners in our webinar, Navigating the CXM Outsourcing Landscape: A Comprehensive Guide for First-time Outsourcers.
