What is CE transformation and why is it especially important for those companies whose business core is service? How can modern marketing research change customer service qualitatively and bring customers and businesses closer together? Alina Ruchyeva, a researcher at the Center for Strategic Marketing and Innovation at GSOM SPbU, answered these and other questions at the RBK conference “Service as part of the product: clients, employees, technologies.”

The discussion was attended by the experts in the field of customer service and the representatives of large companies with successful experience in designing and managing CE (customer experience).

As Alina Ruchyova said, CE management is becoming one of the key practices in modern organizations operating in a highly competitive and turbulent environment, and customer service as one of the most important points of contact between the client and the company is of particular importance here.

“We see that most business representatives agree on one thing during the discussion: the level (including the one expected by the client) of service in their markets is growing and will probably continue to grow. And companies view service as an important element of competition for the client. Researchers, in turn, are increasingly talking about the inadequacy of managing individual points of contact between a client and a company now (for example, customer service) and the need for comprehensive management of customer experience taking into account all points of contact and their relationships to create a company’s competitive advantage. And the creation of such a practice in organizations is the focus of our research, today the statements of business practitioners have confirmed its relevance,” noted Alina Ruchyeva. “While some organizations are born customer-centric, others need to undergo radical transformation to change their approach to customer service and become competitive in today's markets.”

According to the expert, the process of such transformation is poorly understood and there is a business request to present the organizational path to successful CE management in a structured manner.

GSOM SPbU is researching a process model for transforming a company into a CE-centric organization which is capable of effectively and comprehensively managing customer experience. First, the work clarifies the stages of CE-centric organizational transformation. Secondly, the challenges that organizations face at different stages of this process are presented. Third, critical success factors are identified that can help organizations cope with challenges throughout the transformation process.

The conference took place as part of the RBK project - the Customer eXperience Awards aimed at finding successful cases and identifying best practices in the field of customer service in St. Petersburg.