By- Jacqueline P Mundkur

Service On boarding is a key stage in the customer lifecycle .. mess it up and you can pay the price with customer non usage , drop outs and churn as well as  complaints  and bad mouthing. Don’t also expect to tap that customer for any other additional potential business . We look at factors that contribute to poor Onboarding and explore possible  fixes to improve the on boarding processes to positively  impact  customer longevity and a start of a enduring relationship  .

Covered here are

–      Expectations of Onboarding process

–      Various stages where Onboarding just not come up to expectations

–      Impact and Implications

–      Recomendations

Expectations -When we Think On boarding  we rightly associate the word with integration of  new Hires into a company with activities aimed at  induction , orientation and getting them integrated  seamlessly into the mainstream .

On-Boarding in Service parlance is not so different .Its an after sales process aimed at ensuring  that a newly acquired Customer’s  experience  is smooth ,  seamless,  fulfills his service expectations and brand promise .

Inspite of Onboarding now acknowledged as a vital step in many businesses most attempts to make the customer’s entry  and early lifecycle experience a happy one  hinges on providing  mindless tick mark  activities like welcome  calls, welcome kits  which have a limited benefit to customers  . A successful On boarding program should  meaningfully guide and hand hold the customers initial insecure stages thus preempting his need to reach out and  providing transparent solutions at every stage that he traverses . 

A successful Onboarding program should  enable seamless  transition  through         “ Just active on system “  to  “ Just started Using “ to “ Comfortably using and discovering  “ .  It should aim to Engage and Connect at every  stage being relevant and empathic of needs  ., and  no rude  surprises and no jerkiness in the hand offs  .  

On boarding is a crucial Starting point for customers . In  the service industry  like banking , insurance , credit cards it may stretch from Day 0 to Day 60 or even  upto  90 days . In  Durables  like refrigerators , water purifiers , TV on boarding spans order placement to   delivery ,    fitment / installation . As products become more and more simpler one to get started , it must be remembered that increased penetration to lower SEC segments may bring their own on boarding needs different from early adopters .In Consumer durables ,   purchases are not always made through retail outlets or channels completely controlled by a marketer its even more important to get the seamlessness right in the Getting Started aspect .

In  an increasingly competitive world based on customer insights and map – gap analysis  On boarding now being designed to embrace even in the  stage preceding the customer getting active on the system ie even before he is activated say in a new credit card or before the opening a new  bank account  . Therefore the stages leading up to activation of like filling in forms , submitting documents , checking of documents , acceptance of documents , paying a security deposit etc or even making a payment  for a  durables are included in On boarding process . Therefore all measurability and mapping should start from here.

Contributors to dissonance in new customers

Companies have woken up to fact that in the small window of time after sales plenty can go wrong if not planned and executed meticulously irrespective if the acquisition / purchasing channel is  manual or digital interface with the customer .

Telecom companies grapple with about  30% of complaints in < 90 day Age on Network ( AON ) period with sharply peaking the day after activation ie up to 15 days . Complaints remain   significantly high even through the 61-  90 day period .  

 So lets list down what  can go wrong and why the ball just drops for the customer in a simple scenario of a customer purchasing a new Telecom Sim connection .

–      Sales related

o  Half truths and False promises regarding service or price features

o  Too long to get started – Documents are accepted but inspite of reminders , the customer cannot use the service.

o  Fine print and lack of transparency esp. with respect to promotions or freebees  

o  Promotional freebies promised at sales don’t get applied or are not visible , the bill  based on usage not easily explainable .

o  Right fit data pack not applied / recommended leading to bill shock

o  Sales Person does not explain the impact of  key product features or upgrades hence the customer cannot  exercise the choice  .

o  Call to action when an alert or notification is received  is unclear and goes unnoticed

o  Sales personnel go  “off “ the radar after  they have made a  sale 

o  Lack of ownership between the company and its  franchisees

o  Sales and service contradict each other  .

 Service related

o  Frequent disconnection for multiple reasons ( documents incomplete or non compliant / over use beyond the initial credit limit  / wrong credit limit / non receipt of bill etc )

o  Significant Pay go rates are applied rather than recommending a suitable Data pack ( frequent balance deduction  in prepaid )

o  Manual errors for eg. Security deposit taken but a wrong number activated , sim not delivered ., sim not fitting in the slot of the phone etc.

o  Customer Service is not easily accessible . After accessing an Executive , some times again diverted to another mode with out resolution .

o  Customer out called at an inconvenient time / cannot address “ out of script “ customer queries . 

o  Traditional manual rather than Interactive On boarding programs  

Marketing related

o  Most product managers have objectives of revenue and activations ( sales ) maximization from new customers .Products are constructed on whats attractive to the customer with catchy slogans to bait the customer rather than relevance .. The details are left to sales to interpret the way they want to ..

o  The product fine print leaves poor taste in the customers mind and perceived to be used as a weapon to prevent the best deal .

The above example clearly shows how a simple mass used service can cause angst in a new customer .

Impact and implications

In this day and age the some customers don’t suffer in silence .They rant , tweet , email and call . Amidst all this stridency he actually provides the service provider which an opportunity to redress the issues he is raising . 

But in these unforgiving times , most customers don’t really bother . The silent majority  send back late behavior signals often passing under the radar for eg  when the product is not used , ( well he can’t  as the obstacles are too many  ) or throws away the product in disgust or if it’s a post pay product well he just contributes to bad debts , waivers and refunds .The impact on Sales , revenue loss , opportunity loss in a ruthlessly competitive market  are immense  .

The behaviors of new customers who complain , who churn , drop out or just stop using are staggering and are symptomatic  . In  the telecom industry just mobility across operators in non usage and churn alone 30% of all customers activated    don’t make it to the 91st – 120th day after activation . It’s almost the same story for other services like credit cards and insurance .   This adds up to immense sales process wastage.

Marketing and CFOs who concern them selves with ROI of every new product and promotion do not factor the service costs of complaints ( tangible ) , enquiries ( tangible) and reputation ( intangible )   . Another criteria that is not factored is non usage .. stories abound of customers going  from pillar to post to actually enable usage ( Get Started ) . Add that  to the cost of refunds and waivers and sops . Most of these are not well estimated and hence the wastage is not quantified .  

Opportunity

If we monetize even 50% of these wastages or drop – aways ( customers who start off as customers but don’t last till say the 90th day ) the potential to shore up the bottom line is of course  enormous . On the positive if the experience is smooth and seamless the advocacy and word of mouth can have immense cascade effect .

Lets evaluate what the wastage spans in the telecom case ., Say to activate a new Post paid Mobile subscription , sim card the sales channel is paid  approx. Rs 800  per number . To get a customer activated , there are associated costs including  cost of activation , movement of physical documents , scanning data entry , credit checking , Physical verification ( in case of Post pay connections ) , welcome call , welcome letter etc it can add up to anything from 150 to 300 Rs per new connection .

Which means that with out a single minute being used  or a single mb of data being consumed the service provider shells out conservatively a minimum of Rs 1000 per new connection . If this customer doesn’t last say till 6 months the chance of earnings is pretty much diminished .

Now , in our scenario of an unhappy customer , add the costs of incoming calls for various services and complaints to the contact centre .

We are not even talking about the cost of sales programs , new product configuration etc  or sales incentive and the advertising blitz extolling the virtues of the brand ..  we are speaking megabucks here .

In another service industry example ie opening of a bank account in a metro . With good enough penetration customers having more than 3 -4 savings is common leading to the non usage of a newly activated connection is much higher . But the company spends money for each of these idle assets. 

So why are CEOs and CFOs not looking at the On boarding stage with a more minute lens and as an incredible asset waiting to be harnessed with a little creative solutioning and belt tightening ?  I reckon the clue lies in what the organisation feels is the answer to the question – Who owns the customer ?  And the obvious answer may  not  be the right nor the complete one .

For most , the answer is Customer Services owns the customer base  . But that’s the naïve and simplistic   .Customer Services is the function which` speaks to the customer , discovers pain points and tries reactive resolution . As an extension they do provide insights into what can be tried out to mitigate a problem .

So if not customer service who then ? The answer is really simple – Every body who contributes to the customer angst should own the customer … that includes marketing who created the product , the CFO who approved the business case , the Sales department who sold the product and yes , the customer service department who continues to work to  delighting the customer . Now what that means is that  the KPIS of this group of people should be reflective of their joint ownership to wards building the most enduring on boarding experience  .

Easier said than done !

Significantly  , knee jerk fixes are assigned by giving the Sales folks only the credit for nett and not gross sales volumes in say a 60 day window accounting for all drop outs .  Who really approves that some one is empowered to tamper with customer sentiment and give him the authority to have a margin of error . Another down stream effect is that sales get into “ holding statements “ successfully pushing the customer to remain past this 60 day window  . Service is then the recipient of a cynical irate customer and probably a limited arsenal to make a service retrieval count . Add to that some times this retrieval comes with a refund tag !

With so many failure possibilities , its no wonder than On boarding becomes no ones responsibility .

We now take a moment on looking at how we can redress the issue with some sharp quick actions on the ground .

Recommendations and mitigation 

–      Assign 360 ° Ownership and Accountability

o  Pin responsibility on the sale force not only for longevity but also  complaints that come in

o  Cross functional Accountability – Sales , Marketing, Finance  and customer services .  

–      Listen to the Customer’s Silence

o  Learn from usage lag – can we shift to proactive communication to shorten and kick start usage .

o  Learn from non usage – set the mile stone at say 15 days , 30 days after sales and  deep dive – is the customer telling us some thing  which we can fix ?

o  Learn from non payment or part payments . Collections teams to be aligned to actually understanding

–      Build common threads and understand patterns across  in the 0-90 day window

o  Better monitoring – Simple very few CRM or system related reports are built to capture this wastage . Fix this immediately In services for instance , sales responsibility rarely lies beyond the 1st 60 days after which it moves to service which has a separate budget and separate accounting from sales

o  Connect data and analytics with qualitative nuggets and insights with a definite co-relation with competitive and market activity

–      Accept and confront the bald news

o  Denial of customer service complaints and blame throwing are commonly found .

o  Don’t bury the messenger ( in this case Customer Services )

–      Monitor Right

o  CFOs musts start monetizing this loss , sensitize stake holders and set targets to plug the drain

o  Start reviewing  and recognizing “ saves “ and learn as to what is the influence able part of the turn off .

–      Audits must contribute to the Top Line and be a major player in 6 sigma improvement projects .  

Action time

 While we set about spring cleaning its better to empower cross functional  6 sigma project or projects   The emphasis is to build for future and look at the opportunity with a longer range lens and a blue skies approach   .  A fresh look should cover –

–      Processes  – updated and refreshed

–      Opportunity from reactive to proactive

–      Opportunity for automation

–      Monetize the manual connect – CS executive or recommendation advisor ?

–      Content … build it with an outside- in and not an inside- out touch

–      One fits all ? Do our customers have Special needs . Do we need specialized agents and specialized  training modules   . 

–      Sales channels with a service mindset . Using the customer experiences to build scenarios to avoid .

–      Presumptions and assumptions with digital savvy customer

Finally ,for the business , the customer is our only enduring asset . Extending the life of a customer especially a new customer will yield rich dividends exponentially .