Businesses have gone digital – and there’s no coming back!
The new age digital consumer demands more, and expects something special each time he deals with a brand. The reason for this is that customers have a wide array of choices when it comes to choosing the right business to invest in, and often go with the best the market has to offer that fits their budget.
What’s the first thing someone does when they have a negative experience? They share it with other people. According to a research by American Express, 95% consumers share bad experiences with each other. If businesses don’t transform themselves digitally, they might lose their potential future customers to their competition.
Delivering an awe-inspiring customer experience remains imperative for a business to survive these times of digital transformation.
Here are some key challenges every business faces in delivering an awesome customer experience:
Deliver a Personalized Experience at Every Step of the Customer Journey
No one wants to speak to a robot. Customers today want businesses to treat them as individuals with personalities, and want to be dealt with like a human. They want businesses to build relationships with them and deliver value. But I see too many businesses not personalizing their interactions – and this causes high churn rates, lower satisfaction levels and decreased loyalty.
How to Solve it
Here’s how a business can start to personalize their interactions:
- Build personas for each of your target customers
- Segment your customers according to the profiles
- Analyze customer data – their interactions, their history, preferences, and demographic data – to better understand what your ideal customer wants.
- Leverage the data to identify engagement opportunities at every stage of the customer journey.
- Build customer advocates on social media
Realizing Single Customer Profiles to gain a 360 Degree Holistic View of the Customer
Let me share a complex experience I had while ordering online. Recently, I ordered some food online from a local food delivery service. One thing I didn’t realize – they were a food aggregator and not an in-house delivery restaurant. And, as you probably expected, it turns out that my food wasn’t delivered on time because of logistical issues. Not only that, it took more than 2 hours! Nevertheless, when I spoke to the customer service representative, they were constantly in touch with me while I waited for it to arrive. Plus, they gave me a couple hundred loyalty points without me even asking for it!
One thing is pretty evident here – the company does not use single customer profiles to gain a 360 degree view of the customer and enhance customer experience. If they did, they wouldn’t have waited for me to complain before giving me loyalty points. Also, they would have taken proactive action when my order wasn’t delivered on time.
Having immediate access to all the information a company has about a customer can really help an agent when he is interacting with the customer, or when the customer is about to make a buying decision.
How to Solve it
- Realize a 360 view by including past, present and future views of the customer
- Past view includes all previous interaction history and activity
- Present view includes key information about the customer in general
- Future view presents predictions based on the customer’s future interactions with the company, such as how likely is he going to answer the next call, his behavior patterns, etc.
- Connect operational data with big data
- Have a unified database display all the information on a dashboard
- Give an agent easy access to this data
Achieving Operational Excellence is Essential Hygiene
What was good customer experience yesterday has become essential hygiene today.
Achieving operational excellence is somewhat an essential hygiene in today’s world. This is because modern customers expect exceptional experiences when dealing with any business, and achieving operational excellence is a big part of it. Think about it – how can a business deliver an engaged & personalized experience without having a systematic & effective approach to each business operation.
On another occasion when ordering food online, I had complained quite a bit when dealing with a food delivery service, and now my deliveries are always on time and without any hassles. This has made me order from them again and again, just because of their impeccable customer service. If they had, however, not given me a chance to complain in the first place and engaged me further in a more personalized fashion, it would, according to me, have been a state of operational excellence for the company.
How to Solve it
- Align your customer experience goals to strategic business objectives
- Cultivate a culture that is focused on the customer
- Improve key business process and aim to increase efficiency
- Improve quality in all processes
- Deliver exceptional customer service
Using Multiple Channels to Deliver a Consistent Experience
Customers don’t resort to using a single channel when interacting with a business. They might first drop in an email, and then when unanswered, they might give a call or chat with someone on the website. These days, customer frustration increases when they don’t find the same information across multiple channels. It’s just not up to the mark, and sometimes feels as if the business is lacking in its part.
How to Solve it
- Ask your customers how they would like to be contacted – mobile, email, or social?
- Ensure the mobile experience is consistent with the overall brand experience
- Use 360 Degree view to your advantage and gain a holistic view of the customer
- Make the customer journey as hassle-free as possible
- Present many options across all channels to effectively engage customers
- Use an omnichannel customer experience solution
Enlighten your customer experience with Whatsapp Channel
The Answer Lies in Customer Experience Optimization
The answer to improving customer experience lies in Customer Experience Optimization (CXO). Customer Experience Optimization (CXO) is about taking a unified approach to customer experience by aligning the brand consistently across all channels, across the entire customer lifecycle. In CXO, every single customer interaction matters.
Believe it or not, customer experience has become as important as the product itself. In the 21st century, customers don’t want to be served – they want to be delighted by the overall experience. Creating a positive customer experience is imperative to survive and meet rising consumer expectations.
Learn more about how to optimize your Customer Experience with us in our next event in New Delhi! Ameyo is all set to feature its latest Fusion CX Customer Experience Platform at the 2nd Service Quality Excellence 2017 conference at Holiday Inn New Delhi International Airport Hotel on 6-7 July 2017. If you’re attending, don’t forget to visit Ameyo’s booth at the event to create CX Memories with us!
