Customer Service
Four best practices for delivering an improved customer experience (CX)
Customer experience (CX) is an idea that encapsulates how customers perceive a product or service during the different stages of their interactions as a consumer. Delivering customer satisfaction is no longer about just competing to deliver products or services that there is a demand for. How to deliver is as important as what is delivered.
Companies need a structured customer experience strategy that delivers a meaningful and engaging experience to customers throughout their buying journey. A worthwhile CX is the one in which the consumers are satisfied with products/services, recommend them to others and keep returning for more.
Ease of interaction is essential to ensure a networked and connected* experience for customers. This can either make or break a customer’s decision to purchase. Anytime a consumer interacts with a brand either through a salesman, a call-centre employee, a website, or an app, he/she seeks a responsive and supportive staff, hassle-free payment options, customised products or their upgrades and proactive solutions to different issues. A pleasant end-to-end experience for customers is a must-have.
To deliver personalised CX where customers feel in control, it is imperative to empathise with them and to understand their perspective. This can be done by predicting and preparing for their needs as consumers. To do this well it is essential to understand what works and what doesn’t, to identify gaps and fix them, and redesign customer journeys in a dynamic fashion for a great overall experience. Companies that fail in these aspects may not have repeat customers or referrals. There are a few best practices that companies follow to deliver a winning CX. Let us take a closer look at them.
Empowering teams
To make each CX a successful endeavour, it is imperative to empower employees. Trained and empowered employees are essential to translate a boardroom vision into reality. Studies indicate that emotionally engaged consumers are three times more likely to recommend a product or make repeat purchases. Focusing on individual customer journeys rather than on touch points (a brand or company’s point of contact from start to finish) makes the task of training and deploying a huge frontline workforce very challenging.
Astute processes
Though technological advances have made it a lot easier for companies to know their customers, still an emotional connection is important. This connection can be achieved through interactions between staff and customers. Creating a highly motivated and energised workforce requires acumen in hiring the right kind of people, willingness in listening to them and tackling their issues, tapping into their creativity and problem-solving skills, and assigning skill-appropriate responsibility and autonomy.
Smart tools
Speed and precision can transform CX with the help of digitisation. And most companies make use of it.
Several product brands incorporate artificial intelligence tools that analyse call logs, texts and comments received from various digital channels such as mobiles, apps, websites, and social media. With the use of mechanised chat boxes that are operated by robots 24x7, CX not only becomes personalised and engaging but data from these processes provide important insights into consumer requirements. The result is optimal delivery of top-notch products/services.
Timely feedback
Feedback from customers is an important factor of immense help in enhancing CX. Companies that realise the importance of this ensure they never digress from the needs of their customers, even when consumer needs evolve and change constantly.
Unresolved issues in the feedback can be frustrating for both customers and companies. The time taken from the occurrence of an issue to its resolution matters a lot. Speedy resolutions lead to a solid customer base. CX metrics such as time to resolution, net promoter score, customer effort score and churn rate determine whether customers are satisfied or dissatisfied.
In conclusion
Linking CX to value not only enhances the end-to-end journey of customers but also provides growth opportunities for businesses. When companies have a clear view of what matters to the customers, where to focus and how to keep the CX high on the priority list, it leads to brand recognition. Satisfied customers and an understanding of their buying behaviour create economic value in the form of new customers, repeat customers and recommendations from such customers that bring in more new customers. Such insights can lead to future investments with high returns.
Delivering exceptional CX can be a daunting task. The ability to identify, understand and master customer journey requirements is essential for businesses. The complete end-to-end experience that includes interaction, ease of buying, feedback and resolution of issues is all part of the same journey.
*For organizations on the digital transformation journey, agility is key in responding to a rapidly changing technology and business landscape. Now more than ever, it is crucial to deliver and exceed on organizational expectations with a robust digital mindset backed by innovation. Enabling businesses to sense, learn, respond and evolve like a living organism, will be imperative for business excellence going forward. A comprehensive, yet modular suite of services is doing exactly that. Equipping organizations with intuitive decision making automatically at scale, actionable insights based on real-time solutions, anytime/anywhere experience, and in-depth data visibility across functions leading to hyper-productivity, Live Enterprise is building connected organizations that are innovating collaboratively in future.
