Forrester Research recently published research finding that 91% of executives felt that customer experience was either very or critically important to their business in 2008, and 84% say that improving the usability of the online experience is somewhat or considerably more important in 2008 than it was in 2007. Further, the same report also stated that the growing importance of cross-channel interactions will lead groups that have traditionally operated separately — like the Web and call center teams — to work together.
Tealeaf provides visibility, insight, and answers for companies doing business online. Tealeaf's powerful customer experience analytics empower companies to optimize ebusiness by eliminating obstacles that block successful conversions or completion of business processes. Its deep insight enables you to answer many of the most compelling, yet difficult questions that plague ebusiness executives: "Why are my conversion rates down?" "Why is my business growth not over-achieving against market growth rates?" "Why can't we resolve more customer issues in our web call centers?"
Tealeaf is committed to helping companies make sure that every customer can complete every transaction, every time. To date, our Tealeaf CX solutions are used by leading companies, including more than 70 Fortune-class companies. Our customers include eight of the ten largest banks worldwide, as well as numerous other financial services institutions, including brokerages, exchanges, investment banks and mutual funds; more than 40 property and casualty insurance companies; more than one third of all online retailers generating more than $100M in annual sales; and many other leading companies in industries such as healthcare and life sciences, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, transportation and logistics, manufacturing, high-technology and business-to-business distribution.
Why Customer Experience Management?
The web and ebusiness have matured into robust, powerful components of the modern economy. For example, according to Forrester Research, online retail sales are expected to reach $270 billion by 2011, more than 9% of total retail sales. Banking and other financial services business find that online services, both consumer and commercial, are distinct differentiators, with customers who utilize online services representing their most valued customers, with more than 86 Million households banking online.
The travel and hospitality industry has seen dramatic increases in online usage post 9/11, with leisure travel sales of $142 Billion in 2007 and more than 90% of all business travel booked online. This growth happening coincidentally as the fuel costs have risen (and associated costs) and travel providers have reduced call center agent staffing levels and embraced driving users to self-service online channels. Business-to-business channels are critical in pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, transportation and logistics, high-technology, and manufacturing.
Unfortunately, rapid application deployment, the increasingly complex environments that offer sophisticated functionality, and the vastly different experiences of each and every customer force companies to deliver applications that do not provide the same level of customer-centric service as offline channels. Too often, customers fail online due to obstacles that prevent them from successfully completing a business process.
Businesses are challenged to understand these issues because their sites ultimately deliver their "storefront" or marketplace into the one place they cannot see — the browser of the customer. That challenge has led to startling levels of customer complaints and massive business impacts.
Recent Harris surveys have shown that nine out of 10 users have experienced some sort of application obstacle forcing them to abandon a transaction. Forty-two percent of those users surveyed said that the action they took after experiencing an issue was to simply switch away — permanently — to a competitor, either online or offline. That represents nearly five percent of all customer transactions impacted — putting as much as $50 billion in consumer transactions at risk through the remainder of this decade — in just retail and travel alone.
53% of users said they would contact customer service after experiencing an issue conducting business online. Unfortunately, nearly half of those surveyed were still unable to have their issue resolved after contacting the company — because of significant "disconnects" that often exist between the web and call center teams.
Why is it acceptable for customers to fail online, when it is not acceptable for other channels of business? When was the last time you were unable to buy an item in a store during regular business hours? Or not make a transaction in your bank branch or at an ATM? Or not have your insurance agent write you a new policy in his office? When was the last time you were unable to complete a business process online? It's likely to be much more recently and significantly more often.
The same Harris surveys showed that the vast majority of customers (85 percent) expect doing business online the same as doing business offline. Users are adaptable. We embrace technology quickly, and therefore pretty rapidly expect "dial-tone" delivery. Just a few short years ago, cell phone service that frequently dropped calls was ok. Not anymore. The same holds true for the web. Customers (especially "new" users — not early adopters) expect the online channel to work the same as all the other channels they conduct business with.
Company History
Founded in 1999, Tealeaf is an independent spin-off of SAP. Our technology originated from within SAP Labs where Tealeaf's Founder and CTO Robert Wenig and his team began gathering insight into customer interactions on the company's first web-based applications. Tealeaf is privately held and is funded by leading venture firms, including Foundation Capital, Matrix Partners and Bay Partners. Tealeaf is based in San Francisco, California, with offices across North America and Europe.
