By Wayne Benson
In years past, businesses in a competitive marketplace could hang their hat on an ability to provide exceptional customer service. If competing products are separated not by miles, but rather minute distinctions or subtle differences, then customer service becomes king. Clientele have been known to sacrifice additional features in favor of knowing their call will be answered; that problems will be met with real solutions, not excuses.
For core providers, this concept is more complicated. Oftentimes, our products are indeed separated by miles—not only in cost, but in operability, feature functionality and overall accessibility. Given our unique market, how does the customer service paradigm fit into the equation? A few years ago, the answer would have been that it sits atop the pyramid and is of utmost importance.
Today? We believe the concept of customer service is dead. Outdated. Asleep in the market.
In its place has risen a more evolved concept—customer experience. Customer experience encapsulates the entire customer journey, and is the result of multiple touchpoints and interactions throughout the duration of a business relationship. It includes the attraction, awareness, discovery, cultivation, advocacy, purchase and use of a product or service. It is measured by a customer’s experience during all points of contact against a set of previously held expectations, and is rooted in the development of a real relationship between parties.
What Customers Want
At EPL, we have been working to create a customer experience that is unrivaled in our market—not only to further differentiate ourselves from other providers, but to build long-term relationships that produce tangible results. We’ve shifted away from a focus on specific touchpoints to a more global approach to the customer journey. Our customers want to be part of our brand—engaged not only in the product development process, but also in key decisions that ultimately affect their bottom line.
Point-in-case: EPL’s Product Advisory Team helped design our new product roadmap, which guides our development process to ensure we exceed our customers’ needs and expectations. This team is not comprised of EPL executives hiding in a board room, but rather by a large group of engaged, dedicated credit unions who are committed to our collective success—credit unions not simply along for the ride, but on the same journey.
We measure the efficacy EPL’s customer experience against both their expectations and previous results. Take Profinance Federal Credit Union, for example. In 2013, they joined EPL after working with a big-box provider for nearly a decade. To Profinance FCU, those seven years represented a journey wrought with fiscal losses, including a deficit of over $280,000 in 2010. In 2015, less than two years after converting to EPL’s core solution, i-POWER®, Profinance realized its first profit in over seven years and attributes this success to our key differentiator—an unrivaled customer experience.
This case is not an anomaly. It’s evidence of our entire team’s commitment to do better; to be better for you—our valued customers.
Wayne Benson is CEO at EPL, Inc., Birmingham, Ala. For more info: www.eplinc.com.