The expanded partnership between Qualtrics, a leader in experience management (XM), and Lumen, a global technology and telecommunications company, is poised to elevate Lumen’s customer and employee experience programs significantly. By integrating the Qualtrics XM® for Customer Experience suite and Qualtrics AI into Lumen’s operations, this collaboration aims to enhance the quality of service provided to customers and improve employee engagement. The core of this initiative revolves around developing a robust real-time customer insights platform that consolidates various feedback types to offer a comprehensive view of customer and employee experiences.
Real-time Insights for Improved Customer Experience
A standout feature of this integration is the Customer Health Score, which gets updated daily based on real-time operational data. This dynamic metric empowers call-center agents to communicate with customers in a more empathetic and contextually relevant manner, aligning their interactions based on each customer’s specific experiences and needs. The tangible results of this improved engagement are evident, as Lumen has experienced a 17-point year-over-year increase in its Net Promoter Score (NPS), a vital indicator of customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Kristina Nissen, Senior Vice President at Lumen Technologies, emphasized how real-time data signals empower employees to respond to customer needs with increased empathy and accuracy. The enhanced customer health scores provided by Qualtrics grant employees a nuanced understanding of each customer’s situation, allowing for targeted and efficient actions that significantly boost the customer experience. This real-time data integration enables a seamless and personalized service, ensuring that customer interactions are both meaningful and effective.
Enhancing Customer Loyalty through Emotional Engagement
Research conducted by the Qualtrics XM Institute firmly establishes that the emotional component of customer experiences has the most profound impact on future loyalty behaviors. While Lumen had previously amassed extensive experiential data, it lacked the crucial operational context needed to fully understand customer sentiments. Integrating Qualtrics AI’s natural language processing capabilities has filled this gap, enabling the creation of a comprehensive real-time customer insights platform. This platform amalgamates diverse data sources, including unsolicited feedback from online forums, social media, and customer service interactions, alongside operational metrics.
Manisha Powar, Chief Product Officer of Qualtrics XM for Customer Experience, underscores that unstructured data constitutes nearly 90% of data generated today. Qualtrics AI excels in extracting detailed insights from this unstructured data, offering a thorough understanding of customer experiences and pain points. This invaluable information empowers organizations to prioritize improvements that most significantly impact customer emotions, thereby boosting loyalty and enhancing profitability. The ability to tap into a deeper emotional understanding allows businesses to forge lasting connections with their customers, driving sustained loyalty and satisfaction.
Linking Employee Experience with Customer Outcomes
Beyond enhancing customer experiences, Lumen has also harnessed insights from Qualtrics to establish a strong connection between Employee Experience (EX) and customer outcomes. It was discovered that frontline service technicians who feel appreciated for delivering exceptional service are nine times more likely to resolve customer issues in a single visit. This critical insight has driven Lumen to intensify its efforts to promote and recognize outstanding customer service within its field organization.
Focusing on recognition not only results in cost and time savings but also fosters a more loyal and engaged workforce. Nissen stressed that exceptional customer experiences are inherently linked to unlocking the employee experience. By concentrating on both customer and employee satisfaction, Lumen fosters heightened growth, profitability, and increased customer loyalty. This dual focus illustrates the importance of simultaneous attention to customer and employee satisfaction for overall business success. The holistic approach of understanding that happy employees lead to happy customers sets the stage for continuous improvement and sustainable growth.
Achieving Operational Efficiency through Partnership
The expanded partnership between Qualtrics, a leader in experience management (XM), and Lumen, a global technology and telecommunications company, is set to significantly boost Lumen’s customer and employee experience programs. This collaboration involves integrating the Qualtrics XM® for Customer Experience suite and Qualtrics AI into Lumen’s daily operations. The goal is to improve the quality of service provided to customers and increase employee engagement.
Central to this initiative is the development of a robust, real-time customer insights platform. This innovative platform will consolidate various types of feedback, giving a comprehensive view of both customer and employee experiences. By leveraging Qualtrics’ cutting-edge technology, Lumen aims to better understand customer needs and expectations, allowing for more personalized and efficient service. Furthermore, the platform will help identify areas for improvement in employee engagement, ensuring a more motivated and satisfied workforce.
Overall, the collaboration promises to transform how Lumen interacts with its customers and employees, setting new standards in experience management and driving sustained business growth.