It’s the Last Mile That Counts: Valuing Customer Experience When Selecting a Solution Provider

Businesses know that customer experience (CX) is quickly becoming the key differentiator among brands. In fact, according to Gartner, when it comes to making a purchase, 65% of people find customer experience more important than price. So when a business is in the market for an AI-driven automation solution for its core business processes and becomes a customer itself, it needs to hold its solution provider options to the same CX standard.

The level of customer support you receive is critical for ensuring a smooth implementation process with minimized disruption to operations. Therefore, around-the-clock implementation and technical support needs to be at the top of your solution provider scorecard when evaluating your options. The product itself if obviously important to consider when assessing your functional wants and needs, but evaluating the company itself and its dedication to innovation and CX should be the first step in choosing the best vendor partner for your business. How a company supports and treats its customers’ needs speaks volumes about the organization’s integrity and the quality of service they provide.

When a solution provider lacks quality customer support, its customers can easily find themselves in a prolonged implementation timeline that seems to have no end in sight. In addition to a lengthy implementation or delayed go-live, poor customer support can lead to costly mistakes and new process bottlenecks caused by inadequate user training, poor employee experience due to frustration and unclear guidelines, and lower ROI.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A VENDOR’S CX APPROACH

As a customer, your needs and demands will continue to change over time, and the provider you choose should be able to proactively address those needs as they evolve. Some things to look for when assessing vendor options and their CX approaches are:

• Access to customer support and average response times. Do they offer around-the-clock support? Do they provide a customer self-service portal? Do they address issues with urgency?
• Ongoing solution training. Does the provider offer continued training to help customers get the most out of their solution? Do they continue teaching customers new ways to boost efficiency?
• Implementation methodology. Do they use a waterfall methodology with a linear approach, or an agile methodology where the solution is rolled out in stages?
• Collaboration and customization. Is the provider flexible and willing to customize to meet a business’s unique needs? Do they charge for each individual customization? Do they ask for input and feedback throughout the implementation process and post go-live?

ESKER’S CX APPROACH

At Esker, our customers are at the heart of everything we do, and our CX approach was crafted to ensure that our customers always feel valued, understood and engaged. In fact, that’s our CX promise.

In addition to a wide range of training courses designed to enhance the end-to-end customer experience, Esker’s online customer community, Esker All Access, gives users a way to grow and develop their Esker expertise while connecting with other users and like-minded experts. They also get exclusive access to Esker news, events and tons of helpful resources.

Function4 serves Houston, Beaumont, Paris, and the surrounding areas.