BPO & BPM - Improving customer experience

Improving customer experience

Great customer experience is the driving force behind every successful business. In fact, a recent study from PwC* found that 73 percent of consumers said that customer experience is one of the key factors impacting their loyalty to the brand, and 65 percent said it was more influential than advertising. How can businesses offer their customers a more positive experience? Cutting-edge operations management tools, such as Business Process Management (BPM) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) can help organisations differentiate themselves in a crowded market.

Boosting customer experience with BPM

BPM relies on several methods to identify, model, analyse, measure, optimise and automate business processes. At the core of BPM is driving improvement by putting the customer at the heart of the business approach, ensuring any changes or developments implemented always adds value to the end-user.

For customers, nothing can be more frustrating than dealing with siloed areas of a business that do not communicate with each other. By using BPM, a business can unify customer touch points, making it easier to personalise the experience, in turn, ensuring happier customers.

Alongside a personalised experience, BPM supports companies with analysing the impact of their decisions on consumers, as opposed to the traditional analysis of cost, resources and capabilities. This promotes a strand of strategic business thinking linked to better customer experience, rather than the bottom line. The added benefit is that businesses which rely on BPM systems to streamline operations and reduce waste, can cut costs, creating the opportunity to pass the savings onto customers – a key element of customer satisfaction.

Using resources wisely with BPO

Originally linked to manufacturing firms which outsourced areas of their supply chain, BPO allows organisations to contract specific business functions to a third-party service provider. Whilst lowering costs has always been a traditional driver in outsourcing, it does have many more benefits. Not only is a dedicated outsource partner more efficient, with greater access to the latest technology, it also allows businesses to hand over time consuming tasks and prioritise more value-adding aspects of their business.

In today’s office environments, BPO can be used to support back office, or front office areas. Back office generally comprises internal business functions such as finance and purchasing. By outsourcing back office areas, BPO can allow businesses to use their resources more wisely elsewhere in the business, investing in customer experience strategy rather than ‘keeping the lights on.’

By outsourcing front office functions like the technical support help desk, or the contact centre, businesses can get support in ensuring a responsive customer service. Customer experience tends to suffer when businesses spread their teams thin, tasking employees with managing customer service alongside other aspects of their role.

Customers value a rapid, effective and personalised experience when dealing with a brand. BPM and BPO can play a key role in building that experience and in turn trust and loyalty. However, to harness the benefits fully, it’s important to establish a Centre of Excellence (CoE) within the business, which provides best practice standards for these functions.

Businesses’ biggest challenge is establishing a differentiating factor in a competitive market, but customer experience can really set a brand apart. BPM and BPO can support businesses to refine and improve their customer experience journey, forging the path to sustainable and profitable business growth.