James Taylor's Decision Management

Gary Cokins had a post this week When Analytic Solutions take the Back Seat in which he bemoaned the fact that customer facing processes so often fail to be improved analytically. For all the work done in supporting technical, back-office processes, customer service is often left out in the analytic cold. I have blogged a lot recently about how decision management can drive a better customer experience but Gary's point is a good one - all too often customer facing processes are not improved in this way. Part of the reason is, as Gary notes, a lack of will power on the part of companies and a failure to realize just how much damage bad customer service can do. But pat of it comes from failing to see how and where a customer facing process can be improved.
One of the clearest things when discussing customer treatment decisions in customer-facing processes is that companies massively underestimate the number of treatment decisions they make. Every time they display a webpage, list a voice prompt, make a customer service rep refer someone to their manager, generate a script for someone in a call center, display member details to a store clerk they make a treatment decision. These decisions are often made the same way for every customer, failing completely to deliver the kind of customer service people want. Find these decisions, focus on them and you will find plenty of ways to usefully apply analytics to improve them.