What does couples therapy have to do with customer success?

With the basic assumption that you can’t improve what you can’t measure, measuring customer experience on a recurring basis is key to your ability to improve it. Voice of the Customer (VoC) aims to achieve this by asking customers for feedback on their engagement with your people, products and processes, the quality and value of your services to their business, and more.

Now let’s say you’ve done that, you’ve even built an improvement plan to address weaker areas that were uncovered. You now intend to share the plan with your customer, agree on it, then monitor its progress.

Can it get better than that? Yes it can!

Take a venture beyond the tactical

All relationships have their problems, but some have more than others. This includes customer-vendor relationships. Something resembling to couples therapy to get to the bottom of the reasons behind the problems could be the best and maybe the only way to truly resolve the bigger issues. And when projects involve mission-critical systems and customer relationships extend over the long haul, this becomes even more critical.

Be proactive about it

So let’s say there is some very negative feedback in your latest VoC assessment with no simple solutions in sight. A workshop which offers a safe setting, where participants from both companies can be open and transparent with their thoughts and feelings, can help to get rid of assumptions and carefully dismantle sensitivities relating to people, teamwork and collaboration to face the issues head on. By going to your customer and proactively suggesting such a workshop – you will be showing them that you are really listening to what they have to say and that you care enough to find a way to make it work.

Get everyone in one room

It’s important to get everyone involved in one room. Participants should preferably be customer stakeholders who contributed to the VoC assessment, especially those who raised the issues, and their vendor counterparts. People can come from both business and technological domains – the issues to be discussed will transcend above that. And while they don’t necessarily need to be the more senior folks, it’s important that senior managers demonstrate their sponsorship and support of the activity.

It will help to get people engaged and open for change.

Make it real

To identify the real reasons behind the issues you are facing, simulations of real-life situations are conducted and analyzed. Participants then brainstorm ideas for solutions. While doing so, they also learn to put themselves in the other side’s shoes and that issues can be solved by working on them together. A short list of the best, most practical solutions is then created, prioritized and mapped to accountable owners. And of course, there’s no point in any of this unless you are committed to taking these solutions forward and monitor their progress.

In the words of famous American football coach Art Williams: “I’m not telling you it is going to be easy - I am telling you it is going to be worth it.”

Are you ready to take your customer relationships to the next level?

The Amdocs Voice of the Customer assessment and the Amdocs Voice of the Customer workshop are programs developed by the Customer Centricity team at Amdocs in support of our customer journeys throughout their engagement with us.