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The ALM Vanguard report ranks Customer Service consulting firms based on their capabilities to create client impact through their depth of expertise and the ability to deploy across a range of engagement models. In ALM’s in-depth analysis of global firms, the report highlights the effectiveness of KPMG’s Six Pillars approach to Customer Experience Excellence.

“KPMG approaches customer service consulting within the context of accelerating differentiated customer experiences through the lens of the Six Pillars of Customer Experience Excellence: Personalization, Integrity, Expectations, Time and Effort, Resolutions and Empathy,” writes ALM’s Matthew A. Merker, Senior Analyst, Management Consulting Research. He continues, “the Firm advocates that if clients incorporate all Six Pillars into their customer experience, they will outperform the rest of the market.”

ALM’s report cites KPMG as “Best in Class” for its Customer Service Operating System capability and recognises the impact of KPMG’s Connected Enterprise framework in helping clients transform their customer experience. “KPMG’s customer service designs are integrated with middle-and back-office functions through [the Firm’s] Connected Enterprise framework, which provides a symbiotic relationship of information sharing throughout the client organisation,” the report states. “This closes performance gaps in customer interaction and service delivery while providing transparency into opportunities for improvement in daily operations to increase efficiency and reduce costs.”

“Customer service has the largest impact on customer experience in the battle to win, retain and grow today’s customers,” says Julio Hernandez, Global Customer Center of Excellence and US Customer Advisory Lead. “To deliver excellence and a differentiating customer experience, organisations need to think beyond traditional “operations” and be more intentional in the design of the service experience”.

The ALM report also praises KPMG’s service delivery model, highlighting KPMG’s effective use of “four key components” to help clients improve their delivery of a valuable customer experience:

• Customer service economics that includes rapid assessment of the customer-service landscape to prioritise change that balances cost-to-serve with value;
•  Intentional service design that enables best practice customer journeys and service processes through intelligent data engineering and market alliances;
• Innovative self-service capabilities that empower customers to self-serve more often and interact across channels;
• Modernised workforces that are equipped with digital tools to augment capability and deliver the highest value.

“Recognising the customer-centricity imperative, 3 years ago KPMG in Cyprus introduced a specialised team providing Customer Advisory services, which, through the utilisation of globally tested methodologies that can be customised to different business contexts and needs, assists our clients with their initiatives relating to Customer Experience mapping and transformation, customer data utilisation and analysis and the design and implementation of customer retention and acquisition strategies”, added Antonis Bargilly, Head of Strategy, Customer & Operations Services at KPMG in Cyprus.