Learned from 216 Client Visits

A year ago I decided to meet face to face with as many of our clients in 2008 as possible.  In total I visited 216 individual clients, prospects and partners during the year.  I wanted to share a few of my observations.

First, let me say I love being with our clients.  In a certain sense, it was like an advanced MBA program listening to the executives talk about their major initiatives and challenges.  I learned a ton and there were many common themes across all industries.

Here are a few of my big take aways:

1. Times are tough, but projects are still getting done and forcing some tough decisions.  

Often our discussions would turn to the economy, but just as quickly the conversation would then turn to the key initiatives related to keeping existing customers or driving cost out of the business.  There is a consensus that now is not the time to be complacent or satisfied with the status quo.  Tough times are forcing companies to make tough decisions they have known they have needed to make. The softer times have provided the impetus and air-cover to better align resources and priorities.  This is good; the best companies are making these moves aggressively.

2.  Customer Experience is seen as a key competitive strategy.  

Most organizations I met with had identified Customer Experience as a key strategy and were working to implement a program of incremental improvement; as opposed to big, swing-for-the-fences type bets.  Some were more focused on cost reduction, others on revenue enhancement, but there was universal agreement that improving the Customer Experience is the best way to keep and expand a customer base.

3. Our clients expect us to be THE experts and they want us to push them.  

They hire us because of our expertise in the areas of eService, Customer Experience and Call Center Transformation. We have completed thousands of projects and learned thousands of lessons and they expect to benefit from those lessons. We have incorporated this fact into our plans for 2009 and beyond.

As I have said in this blog previously, I think the negativity we see in the press is overblown.  If you have an initiative around improving the customer experience you deliver to your customers, we would love to engage and lend the benefit of our experience.

I plan on doing many more visits in 2009.  I will keep you updated on what I learn.