Customer Experience: How to Deliver an Outstanding Service
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]What constitutes a good customer experience? The term “customer experience” is thrown around a lot, but what does it mean? Let’s look at five qualities that define it.
Today’s customer interactions are more diverse, spanning channels, devices, and time zones. Customers may see an ad, browse a company’s website, read products and reviews, and then go about their business without ever speaking to anyone. In addition to making our lives better, technology and automation have also resulted in a much noisier modern customer experience.
Customers interact with us every day, and many of those interactions go unnoticed. Despite hyperconnectivity, brands are struggling to meet their customers’ needs in the age of hyper connection.
How Do You Define Customer Experience?
A lot of companies talk about customer experience these days. How does one define this term? There are many interpretations of definitions available online. Based on their interactions, customers are said to perceive a brand. Customers tend to express their sentiments most strongly about customer service and user experience.
Both definitions fail to describe modern customer relationships adequately. It’s not just about how customers feel that influences brand perception and how they perceive brands. Customer satisfaction is not solely determined by the quality of service and user experience.
How Does the Customer Experience Begin and End?
Whether they are aware of it, every department influence customer sentiment. Value is communicated in pre-sale sales and marketing, and customer expectations are set. Leads become customers once they are converted into customers. The ball is then passed to product, customer service, and operations.
They are responsible for delivering that brand promise and taking care of any issues that arise. The pre-sale experience is equally vital to the post-sale experience. Everything else depends on it. They’ll soon regret their decision to buy if the company fails to provide them with excellent service or innovative products. The customer who gets what they expect, on the other hand, is far more likely to be satisfied and engaged.
How To Create a Great Customer Experience?
The customer generally wants and expects the same things regardless of the brand. The following five steps will help you improve the customer experience over time.
1. Identify your customer’s experience.
Setting standards early is the easiest way to avoid inconsistent experiences. Think about what sets your business apart and what you value. What makes you unique? Who are you, and what makes you special? How do you currently treat your customers? Are you maintaining the same tone from pre-sale through the sale?
Does inconsistency cause friction for your customers? It is much easier to reconcile the differences between your brand image and what your customers think about you when you are clear about who you are.
2. Analyze the changing needs of your customers.
How do you view your customers? Do you think they are all static, uniform beings with similar wants? Do you strive to create personalised experiences to meet their needs based on their differences? When companies listen to and iterate on the feedback from their customers, they tend to succeed.
In addition to showing your customers that you value their business, you should periodically check in with them. Don’t know where to start? Discover how to create a customer survey that engages your audience.
3. Identify the most problematic areas for your customers.
You can focus on areas of friction impacting your customers’ experiences once you better understand their needs and how well you’re fulfilling them. Prepare a customer journey map and focus on the critical touchpoints if you haven’t already done so. Where do you fall short? Are there areas for improvement? Take a look at your customer feedback. How can it be improved?
4. Improve customer experience as a priority.
Focus on the glaring issues after you pinpoint the problem touchpoints. Speak to your customers. Is there an issue that comes up repeatedly? What can be done immediately to improve these issues? You can also prioritize improvements based on customer feedback stored in Salesforce, which can be analyzed alongside crucial data, like customer lifetime value. When one of your most valuable customers is experiencing pain, you should prioritise that issue.
5. Ensure that your changes are gradual and measurable.
You might find it tempting to make drastic changes to your business once you have all this material in your hands. Unfortunately, this can backfire. Instead, focus on making small but meaningful improvements. Measure bounce rates and case deflection rates before and after making changes to your customer knowledge base, for example, if you want to make self-service content more accessible. This data can influence customer experience improvements in the future.
Wrap-Up
Our options as customers are endless. It’s easy to find an alternative to a company that doesn’t meet our needs. A simple Google search can often suffice. It means businesses have more opportunities than ever before to gain and lose customers quickly. Pricing is not the only factor.
Today’s customers are seeking better experiences; they want companies that know their needs, make their lives easier, and treat them like real people. Prioritizing the experiences that companies deliver puts them leagues, ahead of the competition.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]