Front office transformation

Marketing, sales (CRM), customer experience and customer services together form the front office of a client-focussed organization. Together they provide integrated and optimized customer services, and effective and efficient cooperation between these departments is therefore of the essence.

Many organizations are struggling with front office silos and insufficient integration with departments, causing unnecessary growth impediments. Silos often go back a long time. In this article, we describe the history of the front office function and explain why customer demands have become the driving force behind the transformation. We also share the trends that will drive front office transformation, and we outline the fundamental capacities and the operating model front offices will have to compete on.

Customer services is an age-old principle. Customer experience took off with the first self-service shops in the nineteenth century. More than before, it led to shopping becoming an emotional experience and a form of leisure. Shoppers were able to browse by themselves, to look at the prices and to hold products and try them out.* All senses were involved, and the logical consequence was a stronger emotional experience.

Senior Manager
Customer & Brand Strategy
KPMG The Netherlands
vanKaam.Kim@kpmg.nl

 In 1936, the first shopping trolleys were introduced, enabling people to buy more products in one go. This was the start of mass consumption. Client service during this period mostly centred around choice, ease, comfort and quantity. The nineteen sixties saw the introduction of the first ERP systems and the corporate world discovered the computer. Card index files were replaced by digital stock systems which were better adapted to serve the mass consumption needs of customers. From this point onwards, everything is always available, from everywhere.

Mass consumption also translated into mass communication. New media channels such as television and radio were introduced and the marketing function rapidly professionalized. As early as in the nineteen sixties, a number of companies started to fill large offices with call centre staff. This was the beginning of the customer services function which developed quickly over the years.

Sales mostly consisted of sending letters, making telephone calls and a continuous manual update of the card index files. During this period, customer focus became a key distinctive feature for companies. Whereas ERP systems started out focussing particularly on the back office functions, in the nineteen nineties we saw a shift towards the use of ERP systems for the front office functions. CRM systems became an essential part of the sales process, and marketing departments also started to use client databases to set up their campaigns. Marketing and sales started to serve the same customers, with their fields increasingly overlapping.

_{* Source: The evolution of customer experience 18:00-2050, Mood Media}

From this point onwards, the front office consists of marketing, sales (CRM) and customer services, all working independently to achieve the best customer services and experience. Integration does not exist yet. Each client-focussed department follows its own, sequential and linear model. Marketing finds the target groups for the company’s products or services. Sales converts prospects into purchases. And customer services, at the end of the cycle, deals with customers’ complains and resolves problems to ensure retention. Each department uses its own customer and staff targets and reward systems. Technology is deployed differently within each department.

The rise of e-commerce and direct delivery in the nineteen nineties enabled customers to contact organizations efficiently and to purchase products directly. The sharp rise in web shops integrated with ERP systems made e-commerce successful. In the nineteen nineties, customer experience made spectacular progress as brands enabled their customers to personalize their experience or products, such as Nike with its ID concept allowing customers to design their own shoes.

• Brands are involving consumers in the development of their products and co-creation of solutions. 
• The rise of service propositions in addition to a straightforward product push has become a reality. 
• Companies’ partner eco systems are becoming increasingly important. 
• The distinctive capacity of companies lies not only in the product they sell, but also in who they work with to optimize the customer experience. 

During this period, Amazon and eBay were established, leading to a further surge in personalization.

KPMG helps organizations transform their front office functions, starting by the development of a uniform customer service strategy which translates into new business and operating models in linking up technology, processes, culture, people, and data & analytics through a central customer profile. 

Do you want to know more about the status of your front office within your organization? And about what is needed to achieve seamless cooperation between marketing, sales (CRM) and customer services to create a uniform customer service and customer experience?

Senior Manager
Customer & Brand Strategy
KPMG The Netherlands
vanKaam.Kim@kpmg.nl

Partner
Customer & Brand Advisory
KPMG The Netherlands
Molenaars.Edgar@kpmg.nl