Capitalize on Experience

They say experience is the best teacher.

For any brand, big or small, what your customers experience with your brand, holds more value now than ever. Yes! You might have years of market experience and trade excellency, but today, if you do not pay heed to what your customers are experiencing with your brand, you are losing big time opportunities of building your brand.

In an era of customers critically writing the fate of brands, Customer Experience (CX) is the key differentiator for brands in the current market. Your customer’s considerations need to be at the core of everything your brand does – business operations, supply chain, product and service design, customer service, user experience (UX), and pricing strategies, as well as shipping and logistics. Because, the term customer experience implies a journey, it is about the relationship between a customer and your brand. It talks of the customer purchase behavior right from being introduced to your brand and purchasing your product, to becoming your loyal customer or going over to your competitor in hopes of better and newer experiences.

Though a business’s goal is to turn lagging indicators into leading numbers, it can only be achieved by bringing an equilibrium between the aspirations of your customers and your brand’s experience as perceived by the customer i.e. with a smarter customer experience plan. The equilibrium between supply and demand of customer experience must be achieved. Only when you flourish your customer’s experience economy, shall your revenue grow. According to the Guardian, by 2020, the quality of customer experience provided by a brand has become a more important key differentiator than price and product. When it comes to making a purchase, 64% of customers find customer experience more important than price.

Seamless over stitches

Customers typically gravitate towards brands that can deliver smarter, personalized, and seamless, engaging, multichannel, and personal experiences.

But, can you make a smooth sculpture out of dry cracked clay? Data, systems, and organizations need to work seamlessly if you want your customer to experience a seamless journey. Fragmented pieces of data, systems, and organizations, not flowing and not connected, would never create an appealing journey to your customer’s satisfaction. A patched journey will contribute to the frustration of consumers who are always hunting a seamless customer experience.

Building an unforgettable CX often requires transformation. Rethink your approaches for strategy and culture, channels, data and insights, technology and organization and skills. To summarize the essence of every customer demand, here’s what you must take care of:

• Connected journeys:
  • Connected processes such as seamless handoffs
  • Contextualized engagement based on earlier interactions
• Personalized customization:
  • Being treated like a person, and not a target
  • Understanding how the customer use products and services
  • Tailored engagement based on past interactions
• Innovation:
  • New products and services based on customer needs and new technology
  • Frequent improvements or revolutions
• Data protection:
  • Prioritized trust
  • Use of customer's personal or business information by companies
  • Security of valuable personal information

Design it with your senses

Understanding your audience is the key to a great CX. Who they are, what do they fear, what do they believe, what do they need? Start with the customer’s life and their needs, and then blend in technology to enable them, to deliver memories that customers want to repeat.

To plan on creating customer experience as only a reaction to your customer's feedback, would be to limit your own brand's potential. Though technology remains a critical enabler for creating the best customer experience, insights will guide you to drive operational change – new business models, different capabilities, simpler processes. Proactively designing your customer journey will only add to the ease and delight of your customer.

• See
  Observe the customer behaviors and purchase patterns
• Listen
  Collect feedback and data regularly
• Speak
  Let your brand interact with your customers
• Smell
  Sense every possibility of disconnection
• Touch
  Connect with your customers in an engaging and creative manner

Think!

Why is Amazon the #1 on American Customer Satisfaction Index Internet Retail Category, 2020 - Ranked in the top 10 for eleven years running?

All of us know Amazon as one of the most customer-centric companies ever. With an integrated business model and genuine focus on customer’s interests and behaviors, Amazon discarded every friction experienced by its customers, on its way to the top. In addition to market adaptability, Amazon’s power lies in its algorithm which predicts what each customer wants and then brings it upfront. It is one of the most appealing elements of its strategy, mostly because it fuels customers' wish to buy more. Personalized recommendations based on shoppers’ previous purchase decisions are a big plus when you’re operating in the retail segment. One-click purchase options, faster delivery across globe, advanced package tracking system, easy return policy, and 24/7 customer service are other elements that keep users hooked and coming back to their website for shopping. It is always the whole1 company and not just one department. The entire business should be participating and feel responsible for the customer experiences their actions create.

It all boils down to gains

A successfully designed customer experience meets the customer's experience aspirations of seamless transactions and customer lifecycle efficiencies that they crave, make the customers come back, make your brand thrive and become irreplaceable. Research says, Investing in Customer Experience doubles your revenue. It may not be the exact formula. (You could also generate 10x the revenue!) But the essence that, alleviating your customer experience is sure to boost your revenues, holds true eternally.