"Our Take" - Single View of the Customer

(Past Editions by: Date, Title, Topic)

 
About "Our Take" 
"Our Take" is a collection of daily vignettes covering a wide range of CRM topics. It's an attempt to add our own spin to the world of CRM. We will use the column to share our perspectives, opinions, epiphanies, web nuggets, or quite frankly anything that moves us. Get ready to expect the unexpected. And, don't be shy about sharing your thoughts.
 
 
6/28/07 - A Single View
Help me out. I'm struggling with what the "single view" strategy should really mean. Of course I get the idea that a large corporation with multiple business units needs present a single view to the customer. For instance, a bank that offers general banking services, investments, loans, etc. can own a larger share of the customer's wallet if they provide a seamless experience creating value in the one-stop shopping experience.
 
But I don’t believe it is good medicine for every situation. We've been talking about best practices in the citizen experience for the public sector this week and one of the recommendations from the Accenture report is "to create integrated business and system infrastructures." The point is driven home with a quote from the Canadian government’s CIO. He's quoted as saying, "By defining approaches to act more as a single enterprise, the view is that we will be more efficient, more effective, and obviously spend our taxpayer dollars better, and ultimately improve services."
 
For me there are limits and that is where I struggle to understand how to apply limits. For example, my federal tax concerns seem totally independent of the process of getting a license plate for my care from the state government. Where do I draw the line between having one connection to a generalist versus multiple connections to specialists? Also, I’m concerned that sometimes a “single view” strategy is nothing more than a consolidation effort driven by hopes of saving money more than improving the customer experience. How do you define those "single view" strategies in your business?
 
Gary Lemke, Publisher
(Share your thoughts)
 
6/29/07 - Single View versus Data Overload
Yesterday, I talked about whether or not a single view of the customers was always the best strategy. One particular response seemed to capture the essence of what many think about with regard to the single view and the strategies surrounding the goal. Consider:
 
"From a contact center perspective, the notion of a single view is driven by the need to empower the agent to have all possible data at their fingertips to service the customer and achieve first call resolution. The disconnect is that gathering and displaying ALL possible data about a customer does nothing to assist the agent during the 'moment of truth', when they are trying to meet performance measures . . . they just have to hunt and peck more folders, tabs and tables looking for what they need. An Intelligent View of the customer is what agents need - a representation of data and processes that maps to the customers intent, whether it is a billing inquiry, hardware service call, change of address or checking on the status of an order."
 
Do you think in terms of "intelligent views" when developing your customer strategies?
 
Gary Lemke, Publisher
(Share your thoughts)