Leveraging a Connected Platform Can Lead to an Improved Customer Journey
By Duane Craig
At a recent Groundbreak session hosted by Rob Frank, Customer Experience Director at BW Workplace Experts, attendees considered the benefits of using a connected platform to deliver first-class customer experience. Over the course of the session, entitled “Transforming Construction through Customer Experience and Platform Technology,” Frank discussed why prioritizing a positive customer experience is just as important as focusing on the finished product.
BW is a London, UK commercial fit-out contractor specializing in offices. The company does about 85 projects each year with values up to £60 million. It collaborates with HITT in the U.S. and SHAPE in Australia.
The customer experience for many construction customers is far from exceptional. That’s partly because its character-construction is complex, with numerous project pieces done by multiple independent parties.
And yet, BW has created processes that let them define and deliver an exceptional customer experience. According to Frank, technology offers tools that construction companies can use to please their customers. He said BW’s approach is to use specialized data with Procore’s reliable tech platform. Those elements create the framework for delivering an exceptional customer experience.
What Customer Experience Means Today
BW defines customer experience as “the art and science of coaxing loyalty out of daily transactions.” In today’s environment, BW believes, customer experience matters more than ever for contractors.
“I can tell you now, with over twenty years in the industry, defect-free projects have improved financial performance. It makes sense. They don’t have snags, they finish on time, and they are recommended,” said Frank.
BW has its own punch list for a defect-free customer experience, and it begins by delivering the project without a punch list. Next on the list is delivering on the schedule and providing turnkey manuals for the structure makes the customer experience predictable and memorable. Finally, getting customer feedback reveals valuable insights for future projects. It also shows whether the customer would refer the firm’s services to others. Achieving all four means the project is defect free.
How BW Uses Platform Technology to Track CX
Besides pleasing customers, BW’s platform use in achieving defect-free projects gives them distinct company benefits. They know whom they’ve delighted and why customers recommend them. They have better project financials, and their teams-better working relationships. BW also finds they can attract and keep the best talent and provide job security. To do all this, the company relies heavily on customer feedback, data analysis, and reporting.
BW uses the platform to distribute, track, analyze, and report on multiple customer questionnaires and comments received throughout the customer journey. They segment the job by client type, first-time versus long-time, by project phase and more. Their analyses of the data reveal the highs and lows of the customer journey. If they find some part of the journey needs improvement, they run workshops to explore the problems and solve them.
Why Platform Technology Matters
Continually improving daily transactions is a task for technology. All transactions are connected, and technology provides the link between them while supplying the framework BW uses for analyzing and reporting the findings.
Leveraging a platform like Procore’s provides visibility into projects because it reliably captures and keeps project information while making it easily searchable by users. With the data readily available, users can produce reports in many formats that show what the customer experience was like at any time in the project.
The speed at which it all happens is another benefit of the platform. Instead of finding an unhappy customer experience after the project is over, BW employees can quickly pinpoint the fall in satisfaction, allowing them to react promptly.
Without a digital platform technology, the information stays sequestered in silos with its relationship to other data obscured. Without the digital platform, capturing and recalling information takes days instead of seconds. The platform matters because it’s ubiquitous, accurate, and reliable.
“For us, the benefits of having a really solid technical platform is that all the data is readily available. It’s all there, it gives us one single source of truth, and allows us to then focus on the customer experience,” said Frank. ◾️
Duane Craig is an esteemed writer who specializes in covering a number of sectors within the construction and real estate industry. Following roles as a photojournalist, education director, landscaper, and residential project manager/superintendent, Duane Craig moved to writing for a less stressful life. For the past 14 years, Duane has covered the construction, food, finance, and tech industries.
Originally published at https://www.procore.com on January 18, 2021.
