Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | JANUARY 2021 | 29 Customers "Technology has been a really big help, but you've got to link that in with your data, you've got to understand the journey and prioritise which journeys need which chan- nel approaches," he added. Customer journey mapping can help A message from participants was that to understand how best to balance costs to serve while serving customers' needs, it's important to use customer journey mapping. This a process of creating a visual story of customers' interactions with a company. It helps utilities gain insights into common customer pain points and how to improve those. It has evolved from the traditional whiteboard and Post-It note approach, which results in a static, one-dimensional outcome, to use technology to undertake this process. This results in a cross-functional, dynamic view of all customer journeys, which can feed in live data to keep pace with the ever evolving customer behaviour. Said one participant: "We've covered 19 new journeys that cover all aspects of the customer's approach in terms of the life cycle. Our architecture is now 'discover, buy, begin, help and reconsider': they're the different areas a customer can come in, we've built our journeys around these customer needs. "And by actually understanding what our customers' pain points are and where they need to have an actual conversation – "I can't pay" being one of them – we've been able to prioritise those journeys and the one which has the biggest human interaction within it. "And we've looked at where customer journeys can be self-served – which is what they're used to in everyday shopping experiences." Denise Chevin, intelligence editor British Gas transforms customer journeys Having already streamlined its communications and ensured they were personalised and relevant with Quadient Inspire, British Gas chose Quadient Cus- tomer Journey Mapping to begin the next steps on its journey to transforming the customer experience. British Gas began by creating a new, cyclical, customer-experience lifecycle architecture that better reflects customers' real-world journeys, rather than the journey that would best suit the needs of the business. It identified 23 key customer journeys to map, such as: joining British Gas as a new customer; booking a visit from a home engineer; and reviewing or modifying current service offerings. By mapping these, British Gas could not only gain an understand- ing of the pain points that customers might face. It could also align existing communications to these lifecycle stages and journeys, thereby understanding common sub-journeys and ensuring customers would receive the communications they needed, when they needed them. With the initial discovery work nearing comple- tion, British Gas could then restructure the organi- sation into multi-disciplinary teams. This leads to breaking down existing silos between customer information, communications and journeys, increas- ing agility, and finding new ways to use their ever- increasing understanding of the customer journey. One example of the benefits this brings is that the new understanding and consolidated data will prevent separate business units from acting without one another's knowledge. In the past, this would potentially have led to a wave of communications directed at a single customer and ultimately confu- sion for both the customer and the business. Now, British Gas is able to identify where established busi- ness processes do not necessarily align with the ideal customer journey, and review these to ensure the customer still has the best possible experience. British Gas will also be able to identify pain points where direct interaction will be needed to avoid los- ing a customer, and whether that interaction could be automated or human. As part of this, British Gas identified the need for new roles to help provide a human experience for certain journeys. "Modern consumers are tech-savvy and expect seamless, online self-service options like those provided by digital businesses such as Netflix and Amazon. At the same time, they still want a personal- ised, in-person service over the phone when neces- sary," explains Adam Firbank, journey practice lead, customer communications, at British Gas. "Trying to second guess customer preferences would be a recipe for disaster. Instead, we can ensure that customers always have the exact support necessary, and can create new services based on our understanding of what the customer needs, not what we think they want," he says. "You can have all kinds of omni-channels but quite often speaking to a human being is the most important thing for customers who are having a really difficult time." "Data quality is a major problem, as is data in different places and not connected. I think eve- ryone struggles with data problems." Utility Week, working in association with Quadient, has produced an Insight Report called 'Communications for the New Norm'. Downloaded the pdf at: https://utilityweek. co.uk/communications-new-norm-harnessing- communications-technology-deliver-agile- customer-response/ in association with

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