November 1, 2021 - Vivantio, a leading provider of customer service optimization software and solutions for demanding B2B service teams, has been named Best Customer Service Management Platform - USA by Acquisition International's Corporate Excellence Awards. The Corporate Excellence Awards were launched by CV Magazine to showcase companies and individuals that are committed to innovation, business growth, and providing the very best products and services to clients across a wide range of industries.

"Today, every business is a service business. Even traditional companies in industries like healthcare and energy/utilities are rapidly acknowledging their roles in ‘co-creating value’ with their customers," says Greg Rich, CEO for Vivantio. "Business leaders seeking a competitive advantage are realizing that they need to align their organizations so that customer service plays a central role in all their business activities. Vivantio continues to help thousands of users across multiple industries elevate their customers’ experience and I’m proud our company has been recognized as a leader in the field of customer service management platforms."

What sets Vivantio apart is that it empowers its customers to take charge of their service operation and deliver the best possible service experience to their customers. Implementation can be completed in a fraction of the time compared to other enterprise solutions, and through intuitive and easy configuration, not customization, system administrators are in full control of their service operations.

Vivantio is also one of the only solutions that have combined a native CRM module with ITSM processes into a platform designed to enhance and elevate customer support and experience. By leveraging these two technologies, all service teams can now make use of decades of proven best practice to elevate service across the enterprise, not just in IT.

The Corporate Excellence Awards are judged purely on merit with all potential winners assessed against multiple relevant criteria, including company performance over a given period of time, expertise within the industry, sector or region, previous accolades won, and client testimonials or recommendations.

More information on the award and how Vivantio keeps "Customer Service at the Centre" is available in the latest issue of Corporate Excellence Magazine found here.  

Learn more about our award-winning Customer Service Management platform by booking a demo today.

About Vivantio

Vivantio is a leading provider of customer service optimization software and solutions for demanding B2B service teams. By combining the power of enterprise-level software with the flexibility of a cloud-based solution, Vivantio is the only unified service management solution that empowers teams through rapid configurability enabling effortless operations and elevating the customer experience for future-ready businesses. 

 

If you're using one of the big "standard-issue" service management platforms. You might be forced into some very costly Customer Service practices.

For B2B companies, in particular, it is critical to be able to segment the allocation of your firm’s time and attention to your most valuable customers. The issues might include being able to address each customer with individual rules and to accommodate dynamic re-prioritization.

B2B customer journeys often grow complex because they must accommodate the special needs of small percentages of the client base.

Better connectivity and flexibility to the rescue

From a technology and process perspective, segmenting Customer Journeys into standard and specialty tracks can minimize complexity for a majority of clients,

resulting in easier journeys for clients and significantly lower costs. Additionally, customers can realize economies of scale as multiple large complex relationships are facilitated in similar ways to many smaller relationships. Being able to dynamically shift workloads and route customer service traffic without changing the ”sources of truth” or access rules is another way that a flexible Service Optimization Solution can support the kind of transformative processes required.

From a technological standpoint, a solution that can seamlessly integrate across the whole enterprise is essential. In particular, finding solutions that can accomplish this with a minimum of coding and work-arounds will not only save you money, but will help ensure the timely success of your initiative.

Ask your CS/CX platform vendor these essential questions

• How much will you be able to accomplish in-house?

Don’t leave yourself at the mercy of consultants. The more capabilities that exist “out of the box” the better. Look for solutions that allow your team to configure processes, rather than solutions that require extensive custom coding. Solutions that empower your administrators to make decisions and changes save costs and delays of third-party reliance.

• How quickly can you adapt the solution to evolving customer or business needs?

Here too, solutions that require custom coding every time you make a change to your system may be cumbersome. What happens as your customer base evolves...or as systems outside of Customer Service change? Look for solutions that allow for simple interface adjustments vs. prolonged customizations.

• Does your solution allow you to work independent of other teams’ solutions, supporting the necessary autonomy to evolve?

Look for relevant integration capabilities that are easy to understand and develop so that you’ll have maximum flexibility in creating a more rounded solution. (Be careful! Many current technology solutions fall short here. )

Read to learn more?  Why not schedule a free demo and see how Vivantio can elevate your service? 

 

In the old view, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system was used to house data about customers that could be tapped by sales and service organizations to support their efforts. Other systems—with varying degrees of connectivity and access—might house other customer data relating to things like credit terms, orders in-production, contracts, etc.

While some technologically advanced enterprises have tied more of these data sources directly to their customer-facing teams, there is still opportunity for radical improvements in transparency and access—with the aim of improved customer service and satisfaction.

The value of a Unified Service Management Platform

The concept of a single view into the enterprise has existed for some time, but remains something of a stretch goal for most B2B companies who face challenges such as growth through M&A (thereby inheriting disparate IT solutions), large or multi-national companies whose sprawling operations remain siloed, multi-brand/product companies, etc.

Fortunately, for forward-thinking service organizations, there are technology platforms that can—today—provide needed connectivity and visibility into a Service organization (and many of its adjacent systems) in a comprehensive manner.

Visibility and access—without an ERP overhaul

Vivantio's FLEXBridge integration platform offers users a single, shared back-end architecture and consistent user interface across all integrations— while providing centralized reporting and management. FLEXBridge opens up the Vivantio platform to meet future integration possibilities with other vendors—and customer solutions, whether cloud-based on on-premises.

This type of solution can help your team

• better address all use cases
• track and report on the KPIs essential to improved service
• tailor service provision at the individual customer level

This isn't just for consumer-driven businesses

Top consultants are pointing out how companies such as Amazon, Apple, and Uber “continuously reinvent themselves by delivering simple, immediate, and individualized experiences.”

Today, these consultants suggest that “even traditional business-to-business players in sectors such as chemicals and steel [need to make] bold moves to build dynamic shared digital ecosystems around customer needs.”

Several ways to leverage an "über API" to optimize your customer service

There are several ways a Vivantio/FLEXBridge solution can quickly integrate your solutions—both cloud-based and on-premises tools. Here are three examples:

To learn more or request a live demo, click here.

Meeting customers’ growing expectations while managing one’s business makes delivering sound customer service extremely challenging. Companies today must create a strategy centered around Customer Service and Customer Success in order to create a Customer Experience that generates business growth.

Defining the functions that revolve around the customer

Although they may sound similar, the following functions are not interchangeable:

Customer Service/Support
Customer Service or Customer Support is a reactive function. It focuses on helping customers solve immediate problems or manage requests for additional services such as products, features and licenses. Customer Service deals with customers who express emotions of anger or frustration. Following a positive Customer Service interaction, the customer will feel satisfied, valued and relieved.

Customer Success
Customer Success is a proactive function that helps educate customers about ways to garner further value from the products and services they use. The Customer Success team requires in-depth knowledge about the customers’ business, pain points and growth plans in order to align products and services. Customers may express negative emotions such as hopelessness, disengagement or apathy without the guidance of the Customer Success team. Interactions with the Customer Success team will lead customers to feel engaged, informed and confident. Customer Success is focused on building and maintaining long-term relationships.

Customer Experience
Customer Experience describes the interactive, end-to-end customer journey lifecycle. Indifference and lack of confidence or attachment are emotions that customers may feel prior to being introduced to the brand. Success in Customer Experience will make customers feel pride, advocacy and loyalty to the brand.

A People-Centered Approach

The Customer Service and Customer Success teams should work in harmony to garner a positive Customer Experience. All companies, but especially SMB B2Bs, should augment their Customer Service and Customer Success to drive meaningful, long-term business results. If a customer has a positive support experience, it promotes a good working relationship with Customer Success. Likewise, if a customer receives proactive updates about how to maximize value, they feel supported and are more willing to engage with their Customer Service Management (CSM) teams. Customer Experience is a predictor of revenue, which showcases how important it is for driving growth.

Utilizing Service Optimization to Drive Growth

While 89% of CEOs believe they now compete on service, only a fraction have embraced Service Optimization, which allows businesses to glean coherent insight and use the most efficient processes and information—across all disciplines and teams—to provide business efficiency and optimal service delivery.

Service Optimization means that companies place customers at the center of a unified platform. This forces the business to consider the value of the end-to-end Customer Experience. Self Service, like one of the many features found on the Vivantio platform, is one way to augment Customer Experience as it sits at the intersection of Customer Service and Customer Success. It allows businesses to easily keep track of certain types of requests and the amount of tickets flowing through to keep customers engaged and happy. In addition, a unified platform that utilizes Self Service allows companies to connect with customers during an issue, provides insight into products and services and drives a better, more meaningful Customer Experience.

To get started in Service Optimization, companies should look at all the touch points that a customer has, both inwards and outwards, to see how the Customer Experience can be enriched, service can be personalized and sales activities become predictive.

To learn how to apply Service Optimization to the latest evolution of business service, read Vivantio’s latest report.

Not only is it easier for your team to sell (and cross-sell... and upsell) to satisfied customers, it's a whole lot more profitable—from 25% to 95% more, according the inventor of the Net Promoter Score, Frederick Reichheld of Bain and Company.

It's a phenomenon that makes intuitive sense, but it's even more impactful when you start looking at the numbers. Whether the KPI levers you're trying to pull involve increasing revenue from monthly subscribers or shortening the sales cycle for major programs, focusing on delivering superior Customer Experience (CX) will pay great dividends.

The "shortcut" that benefits every stakeholder

Better Customer Service has a direct effect on accelerating the sales process, by improving customer retention, upsell and cross-sell opportunities. Statistics show that acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing one.

Improving the Customer Journey—some concrete steps

Understanding the concepts and principles behind the Customer Journey can go a long way in helping you re-imagine current practices to find ways to streamline processes, break down silos, and increase transparency across the entire extended value chain. All of this helps bolster your team's ability to deliver a better CX.

Achieving these gains often means improving your human-driven processes, making sure your team is supported by the right technology—and giving your customers robust self-service options for quickly getting the information and services they need most.

For the technology piece, be sure to find a "good fit" partner

Two main considerations should be:

1. Does the Customer Service platform provide you with the kind of robust
   visibility and interfaces with your enterprise systems to make "one-call resolution"
   a reality? Look for solutions that can deliver on the vision of a unified customer
   service management platform.
2. Does the solution match your in-house skills/need and leave you free to configure
   for the future (without a lot of expensive consulting)?

Some of today's popular platforms require extensive implementation assistance. To make the product appealing, the monthly cost may not appear too high—until you begin to add-in consulting fees.

Vivantio offers an approach to Customer Service Optimization through our Unified Customer Service Management Platform that is truly poised to support better CX and customer journeys.

To learn more or request a live demo, click here.

(It may not even be cheaper - in the long run.) 

 

While no Service manager in 2021 has "extra" budget to throw around, it's also unwise to compare Service Management platforms simply on their advertised monthly charge per seat. Factors like inadequate functionality, costs of training, and the expenses of implementing and coding customized solutions can have major impact on the price you'll ultimately pay for your solution.

Fortunately, protecting yourself from unwelcome surprises can be accomplished by asking a few key questions at the outset:

Does the platform integrate easily with our other enterprise systems?

Achieving true service optimization requires new levels of enterprise visibility. And while all forms of integration require a serious effort, many popular platforms require extensive customer interface work—if they even accommodate real-time integration at all.

It's important to calculate the value of being able to give customers the latest information—from a single "source of truth" within your organization. Similarly, the ability for your Customer Service team to contribute to the updating of enterprise-wide data from a single interface can be extremely valuable in both time savings and accuracy/reduction of errors.

Multiply that by the proven customer satisfaction "dividend" of proactive communications (based on dynamic information and triggers from all your interfaced systems) and the value of the right system becomes readily apparent.

Can the platform manage our external and internal customers as required?

Maybe you're trying to accommodate many different customers with different SLAs...Maybe you need to serve both external and internal customers in an integrated way...Maybe you manage several different brands within a larger parent company...

In any of these cases, it will be important for you to easily adapt the rules, scripts and processes for each of these groups of customers. Make sure the platform you choose can easily make these kinds of distinctions—without a lot of custom re-coding.

The more functionality you have out-of-the-box with your Service Management platform, the sooner you'll be boosting your KPIs for optimized service.

How dependent will we be on outside consultants to make it work for us?

Some of today's popular platforms require extensive implementation assistance. To make the product appealing, the monthly cost may not appear too high—until you begin to add-in consulting fees.

Being able to easily do more with your in-house resources not only save you money, but can get your initiatives moving faster as well. After all, who knows your company and processes better than your own people?

Look for platforms that allow for easy configuration as opposed to platforms that demand extensive re-coding and customization.

A closer look can make a big difference

Peeling back the label of low-entry pricing can reveal many hidden costs of a Service Management platform. Finding a partner that has the right features to support your full list of needs—today and in the future—is where you'll realize the ultimate value and keep your total cost of ownership exactly where you want it to be.

To learn more or request a live demo, click here.

Revenue pressure is at an all-time high—whether you're an established telecom provider or a scrappy SaaS startup. 2020's seismic impact will linger well into the coming months and everyone is struggling to make up for lost time. If you are looking exclusively at your Sales team to drive KPIs like monthly recurring revenue (MRR) you might be missing a major opportunity.

The shortcut to higher MRR runs through Customer Service

One of the major culprits in declining revenues is customer churn. The cost of continually finding, acquiring, and on-boarding new customers is substantial—not to mention how long that process can take.

Stopping the "leaky boat" of customer churn—by attending to issues of Customer Service— should be a first-priority for companies where this is an issue.

To see why, we can look at a typical customer journey that encompasses Sales, Service Management, and Customer Success phases. As the figure below shows, you can accelerate (or bypass altogether) several steps in the process by focusing on better service which can boost KPIs in retention, cross-sell and up-sell areas.

Methods for achieving this kind of acceleration can be gathered under the discipline of Service Optimization, and Vivantio can provide some excellent evidence for starting a Service Optimization effort. (Download our 35-page report here, for a start!)

A 73% revenue boost—from your Service Team

The venture capitalist and business author Tomasz Tunguz published an analysis of how achieving even a 5% negative net churn rate could impact the customer value for a SaaS provider. In his example, the average customer’s monthly recurring revenue (MRR) increased by 73%.

Vivantio can help you quickly and affordably develop an infrastructure—based around a Unified Service Management Platform—to support the kind of Customer Service that delivers on this promise. We're especially adept at helping Customer Service/CX leaders within companies that manage multiple teams or support multiple brands.

To learn more or request a live demo, click here.

If you've been looking to make leaps in Customer Service improvement, but have struggled with finding the right method—or justifying the investment to your boss—you shouldn’t miss this fast-moving and fact-filled webinar:
Vivantio’s 46-minute “Rethinking Customer Service in 2021".

In less than 50 minutes, you'll understand why a Service Optimization Solution could put you in an "uncatchable" competitive position for the foreseeable future.

We're going to cover the topics that are driving customer service leadership in 2021 including:

• Self-service configuration and ticket routing
• Load-balancing strategies and practices
• Optimized workflows and business rules
• Proactive vs. Reactive service for improved CX

Now available on demand, don't miss Greg Rich, CEO of Vivantio and Alexis Mackie, Customer Success Manager as they share the secrets to moving against your 2021 Cs/CX goals and start Rethinking Customer Service in 2021!