Make sure your company masters these five customer experience fundamentals to win business and keep customers coming back.
There may not be more ways to wrong a customer these days, but there are certainly more ways for that customer to voice his or her displeasure and much less time required for them to find a replacement for their consumer dollars. Customer experience (CX) has never been more critical for businesses, as shown by the global customer experience management market increasing 16.9 percent year-over-year to as much as $7.6 billion in 2020, according to Grandview Research.
Did you know that 89 percent of consumers are more likely to make another purchase after a positive customer service experience? Yet, it takes 12 positive customer experiences to make up for one negative one, according to one industry expert.
“So it goes in a world where customer loyalty often hinges on the quality of the experience,” writes Craig Halliday in Newsweek. The CEO of the Virginia-based software company Unanet offered five ways to implement an “effortless, loyalty-building” CX:
1. Be Comprehensive, Caring & Connected
Make sure your service and support are the best they can be across all your channels. You can’t just check the proverbial box in this omni-channel customer service environment. If you show up, you better show out. Whether B2B or B2C, Halliday says that customers “expect smooth, natural conversations and interactions that cater to their communications preferences” from text to chat to phone.
2. If You’re Not Improving, You’re Falling Behind
It’s important to constantly monitor and refine your company’s CX. When you regularly measure programs and new initiatives, you collect important, actionable data that will help you move forward and improve, eliminating friction points and whatever else that’s not working. Feedback — “via quick, in-the-moment surveys and other non-disruptive methods that provide insight into the attitudes, opinions and priorities of your audience,” Halliday writes — and enhanced data analytics will help your organization evaluate the real customer journey. Guesswork doesn’t work.
3. Emphasize Employee Satisfaction
The Golden Rule applies to your workforce as well. It’s critical to make sure your employees feel valued, especially in this labor market. After all, a happy customer service front line means that critical connection with the lifeblood of your business will be the best that it can be. “When your customer-facing teams feel valued and aligned with your organization's goals, they excel at their jobs. They're also more likely to stick around,” Halliday asserts.
4. Become an Indispensable Resource
Like that trusted handyman in the neighborhood who always makes time for a neighbor in need, you can make an incredible connection by making your knowledge, both institutional and industry, available to customers who need help. Free advice now can really pay off down the road with deeper, long-lasting business relationships.
5. Go the Distance
Speaking of relationships, you and your team should aim to be partners throughout the customer journey. Your clients notice when someone prioritizes a transaction over a connection and relationship, just like they know that the accessibility, accountability and trust are hallmarks of the latter. What lasts long after the initial sale? Loyalty. What lasts a long time with loyalty? Your business.
“We’ve all had that no-show, not-my-problem or other terrible customer experience,” said Michael Rivera, infinitee’s Creative Director. “To avoid those things and really embrace quality CX on the service side, let’s empathize and forge that understanding and enduring team dynamic that values all parts of and parties in the consumer equation. At infinitee, it’s not only about our unique, innovative ideas, but how we deliver them with a personal touch to the client.”