In the face of growing competitive and economic pressures, organizations of all kinds are paying much more attention to satisfying their customers. Whether for-profit or nonprofit, any organization must fulfill customer expectations in order to be successful. Customer satisfaction is vital to the ongoing viability of any organization and ultimately provides measure of system management performance.
Customer satisfaction is vital to the ongoing viability of any organization and ultimately provides measure of system management performance.
For most commercial organizations, customer satisfaction represents the degree to which a product or service meets their customer's expectations. The factors driving satisfaction among car buyers, for example, are tangible and clear. Price, features and quality top the list. Even among service organizations, where “products” may be more emotional or psychological, conditions that spur customer satisfaction are still self-evident. Hotel day-spa operators, for example, strive to provide professional service, in a pleasant manner, to create "customer delight."
For some organizations, stimulating customer satisfaction is not as straightforward. Some organizations do not provide a commercial product, per se, and the service provided is less corporeal than that of most service organizations, the factors that influence the satisfaction of customers are much less distinct. How can managers improve the satisfaction of their customers? What “products and services” influence customer satisfaction? Where can management find opportunity to better meet the expectations of customers and other stakeholders?
One area of opportunity may be found in customer documents. Customer correspondence in the form of letters and statements, applications and notifications, beneficiary forms and prospectus booklets all combine to represent the face of any organization. Indeed, for most customers, documents compose much, if not all, of the product they receive and are the only tangible evidence of the service provided. As a result, documents have great scope and importance due to their direct influence on customer satisfaction. By improving the accuracy and quality of key customer documents, managers are likely to make significant improvements to the performance of their system overall, and take strides to ensure the continued satisfaction of their customers.
For most customers, documents are the product: the only tangible evidence of the service provided.
This paper will focus on customer satisfaction and the important role that customer-facing documents play in the overall satisfaction of customers. According to some surveys, organizations within all industries and sizes are all striving to improve their document systems. The key to success, however, may lie in the ability of managers to ensure that infrastructure improvements, specifically those that impact document communications, ultimately bolster customer satisfaction.
Documents drive Satisfaction
While electronic communications are growing, printed documents remain the primary means by which organizations communicate with their customers. Surveys indicate that nearly 90% of all communications between an organization and its customers are in the form of printed documents – general correspondence, applications and registrations, and beneficiary forms. As a result, printed documents represent the most important, if not the only, touch points available between organizations and their customers. Indeed, for most organizations, documents are the product; the only tangible evidence of the services provided. Despite the pivotal role documents play in customer service, most organizations still struggle with the process of creating and revising customer documents with most projects taking days, if not weeks, to complete. This, combined with the prevailing concerns over data accuracy, integration and control, and the manual rework and assembly of documents, suggests that now may be an opportune time for managers to initiate document system upgrades to enable a more accurate and agile document workflow.
While improving document systems and processes seems to be a “no-brainer” given the impact on customer satisfaction, many organizations struggle to find the sponsorship needed for document system-specific improvements. Even with the growing desire to bolster customer service, document systems are often overlooked in the large strategic planning associated with information system upgrades and enhancements. In addition, many organizations feel that transferring document communications management and production from IT to business users is an important initiative; the underlying sentiment perhaps being that business areas will be more fruitful in advocating for document system specific enhancements.
The Investment Implications of Customer Documents
Let’s face it, information technology investments are expensive. Projects, especially those surrounding core applications, routinely reach multi-million dollar proportions. Whatever the price tag, however 100% of the investment made to upgrade ultimately gets manifested into a document. Customer documents like statements, letters, applications and notifications literally represent the final “product” of any organization. Despite their importance in customer care, however, customer documents are often an afterthought during information system infrastructure planning; the implications of these vital touch points overshadowed by the scope of the bigger technology initiative. But regardless of the extent of state-of-the-art systems put into play, if infrastructure enhancements do not account for the implications of customer documents any technology investments made will not be fully realized.
Examining this example of a customer purchasing a new car will illustrate the implication of customer documents. The new vehicle is the result of considerable investment by the car manufacturer and comes fully equipped with a host of modern performance features. Soon after the purchase, however, the key breaks in the ignition and leaves the new owner stranded. A tow truck is called, because the key to the ignition is the only interface available to the customer who, despite the state-of-the-art features under the hood, quickly becomes dissatisfied with the quality of his purchase. Inferior car keys eroded customer satisfaction. Investments made by the car manufacturer missed this important customer interface.
Just like keys to a car, documents represent the only interface customers have with organizations. The danger for organizations is to invest heavily into infrastructure enhancements and overlook the documents that are ultimately output from the system. If this important customer interface is broken, customers perceive that their “product” is broken.
Poor documents can lead to dissatisfaction. This dissatisfaction in turn reflects poorly on the performance of the organization in the eyes of management and more importantly, customers. With competitive options available at the click of a mouse, customers can quickly “voice” their dissatisfaction with their experience.
Organizations must not become complacent when it comes to customer satisfaction. Consider the state of the phone industry prior to deregulation. With few exceptions, large telecom companies were not focused on customer satisfaction. Telecom customers had few options and competition was literally non-existent. Since deregulation, a war is being waged over customer satisfaction in the telecom industry. Organizations may want to consider the high cost of landing new customers versus the high profitability of a loyal customer base and reflect upon current information technology infrastructure strategy.
A Strategic Approach
Customer satisfaction is vital to the ongoing viability of any organization and ultimately provides measure of performance. Customer documents represent very important touch points that greatly influence the satisfaction, or dissatisfaction, of customers. Indeed, for many organizations documents are the product: the only tangible output of the relationship with their customers. As such, customer documents should be regarded with the same strategic focus and priority given to other important information infrastructure enhancements.
By adopting a more strategic approach to customer documents organizations will find fruitful opportunity to improve customer satisfaction.
By adopting a more strategic approach to customer documents organizations will find fruitful opportunity to improve customer satisfaction. While evaluating the technological and administrative aspects of core application enhancements consider the ultimate product of those systems: customer documents.
- How will system upgrades interact with and improve customer documents?
- Will enhancements enable greater accuracy and control of customer documents?
- What opportunities exist to bolster relationships with customers and ensure their ongoing satisfaction through documents?
Advances in document and information technology, along with the prevalent goal among organizations to improve customer documents, suggest that now may be an opportune time for system managers to move forward with document system improvements. A variety of automation and management solutions are available for a fraction of the expense spent on enterprise application upgrades. The key for “document strategy” advocates, however, will be to successfully include document system enhancements in the overall scope of infrastructure improvement plans. Information system managers must foster the sponsorship needed to include document systems as a line item in RFP efforts and embrace customer documents in the process of system enhancement. This endorsement can be found by delving more closely in to the relationship between customer documents and customer satisfaction. Oorganizations are in position to ensure that their customer documents ultimately do their part to improve and maintain customer satisfaction.
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