Executive Summary
In March 2013, Ricoh commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate the importance and business impact of*document and process support at the point of service. To explore this topic, Forrester Consulting conducted in-depth*surveys with 250 global customer service strategy and operations decision-makers as well as 36 customer-facing*individual contributors. We found that customer-facing workers are seen as a strong differentiator by companies*coming out of recession. This is a big change; customer-facing employees have now become the target for investment*and process improvement. We surmise that, without investment in new technologies and processes, organizations will*be facing a new competitive landscape at a substantial disadvantage.
We found that poor customer support often stems from inadequate time to focus on the customer and inadequate*document and process support that would allow more human-centric interaction. Current systems consume too much*human bandwidth with low-value tasks and rain energy from workers that could provide a richer customer*experience. Furthermore, the workforce is losing its most experienced employees: roughly 10,000 Baby Boomers will*reach retirement age every day for the next 19 years in the US alone. Younger workers and their customers entering the*workforce will need to improve basic document services such as entering data, searching for information, copying and*printing receipts and materials, and leveraging emerging mobile, collaboration, and cloud-based solutions. This*transition opens the door for a new generation of employees who think and work differently. Enterprises that do not*capitalize on this transition will be at a competitive disadvantage.
Key Findings
- Customer-facing workers are seen as a strong differentiator by companies coming out of recession.*Customer-facing workers are viewed today as key assets to differentiating and growing business. 64% of global*customer service strategy and operations decision-makers think that investing in customer-facing technology is*valuable because customer-facing employees are a way to differentiate their company and are critical to*improving the customer experience.
- Gaps in systems and document services do not allow time for a rich personalized experience. Decision-makers*believe that customer-facing workers could be more effective with more time available to personalize the*customer experience. Poor information access and time spent capturing, searching, printing, and filling out*documents and forms that do not add value absorbs valuable client-facing time and are major limitations in*supporting customers today, with a significant opportunity cost to the business.
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