No matter what your company offers, one thing is for certain, customer experience management is more important than it has ever been before. Customer experience is more than serving your customers online or offline. It is about knowing your customer, listening to them, and responding to their complements or complaints in a timely manner.
Today billions of people have access to the Internet, which exposes them to social media and other websites. According to a publication by the Pew Research Center in 2016, 62 percent of U.S adults get their news directly from social media.
In 2014 CTV news reported that a survey conducted by Media Technology Monitor where 6011 people were surveyed, suggests that around 45 percent of Canadians go to the Internet for their news. It’s 2016 and this number is most likely higher. So why does this matter?
It matters because the world is now so connected that it has become really easy for customers to voice their opinions, feelings and anything that they deem important. If a customer feels that your company provided a negative customer experience, it is likely that the details will be shared on social media, forums and other Internet-based platforms.
However, we cannot forget about word of mouth. In truth, social media has only amplified word of mouth. Customers are interacting with each other online and offline. It is important that organizations adopt systems that can help them predict and respond to situations quickly.
So what is Customer Experience Management Anyways?
Customer experience management is the practice of reacting to customer interactions and designing systems or processes that assist an organization in meeting or exceeding customer expectations. The goal is to increase customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy.
Some organizations love to talk about customer experience management but very few excel at it. The ability to manage your customer’s experience can be challenging. There are many channels of communication available to the consumer and it can be a challenge to deliver a consistent customer experience across all channels.
4 Tips For Improving Customer Experience
Here are four tips that you may use in order to improve customer experience in your organization.
1) Define What Makes Your Customers Happy
On a large scale, buying decisions are made based on how people feel. You must define what you want your customers to feel or what a happy client means to you and focus your efforts there. Customers are different in many ways and it is impossible to please everyone.
For instance, cost could be the dealmaker for someone who is financially focused. For an inexperienced user, it could mean a more simple and user-friendlier interface. For a graphic designer, it could mean access to more images.
2) Focus on Engagement and Relationships
Focus on engaging your customers and creating long-lasting relationships. This can be difficult to do, especially in large organizations. You can use a customer relationship management (CRM) system to do the heavy lifting.
A tool like Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM Online can help you grow your organization and win more customers, as well as keep your customers happy. For setup assistance, you may find a reliable IT consultant.
3) Be Led By The Needs of Your Customers
With the technological possibilities that CRM systems offer, it is easy to become too focused on them and forget about your customer’s needs. The needs of your customers should be the deciding factor when selecting features or innovations to use for customer relationship management.
4) Fix Things Before They Happen
Be proactive rather than reactive. Identify potential problems and address them. By identifying and addressing potential problems before they happen, you can create a seamless customer experience.
Mark Sanborn’s 4 Ingredients to Elevating a Customer’s Experience
Customer experience management success comes from elevating the customer. Mark Sandborn is an author, professional speaker and entrepreneur. In one of his videos, he shares his four ingredients for elevating the customer experience.
1) The Guest Always Receives Value
According to Mark, this is when your guest gets what they expected even if the expectation wasn’t right. If the expectation of your customer is out of alignment with your brand value proposition, then you need to educate them.
2) The Customer is Pleasantly Surprised
Anything that the customer expects from your business is considered value. However, anything you do that the customer doesn’t expect is a surprise.
For example, let’s assume that you own a mechanic shop and your client came to fix their car. After repairing the car, you decided to clean their carpets and vacuumed the interior at no additional cost.
Your customer is pleasantly surprised and he or she now has a story that they can tell their friends and family about. The idea that Mark is trying to get across is that small deeds can lead to big customer experience wins for your organization.
3) Manage Guest Emotions
Did your customer leave your establishment happier than they came in? If they did, they will tell others and if they didn’t, they will tell others too. Give your customers stories that they will be passionate about sharing.
4) Work Together
Make sure that your team is working together to elevate customer experience. Work to know your customers. Simple things such as remembering your client’s name, holding a non-business related conversation and listening to your customer could improve customer experience.
How is your organization managing customer experience? Do you have anything else to add that we may have missed? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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