CNBC recently aired a feature titled “Customer (Dis) Service”, a program that took viewers through the evolution of customer care and described the current state of customer service relationships as “wrecked, shattered and ruined”. As initiatives like automation and outsourcing were widely implemented to curb the costs of servicing customers, experience took a major hit. So where are companies most often not meeting customer needs?

Surprisingly even with the evolution of interaction channels that now include web, chat, mobile apps, social media and more, consumers still seem to value pretty basic tenets of service. ClickFox just conducted its second annual Consumer Tipping Points survey to discover the impact of poor customer experience, and the results support the network’s take: in 2010 and 2011, respondents chose “having to speak with multiple people/not getting what they wanted on the first try” and “rude or inexperienced service technicians” as the most frustrating service areas. Even in this digital age of the consumer, people still value efficient, convenient, quality service from the people delivering customer-facing support. During “Customer (Dis) Service”, CNBC pointed to a bright spot: industry leader ING credits its happy customers with happy employees who are all committed to building and deepening customer relationships. Longtime ClickFox client Sprint has seen extraordinary gains in JD Power, ACSI and internal satisfaction rankings due to an enterprise-wide focus on customer experience that extends far beyond the contact center walls to foster a culture where everyone is incented on CRM improvements. While both success stories involve focusing on the traditional ‘voice of the customer’, they also incorporate the ‘voice of the employee’, underscoring the importance of their critical role in relationships.

For organizations to truly be customer-centric, they must include employees in the process – Carl Lyon of the QoE (Quality of Experience Company), is exploring how this new ecosystem of stakeholders fits together to drive experience-focused decision-making across the enterprise and existing sources of data. Check out a video of Carl discussing an inside-out approach to tackling multi-channel challenges and the role of analytics in transforming customer experience.