Customer experience comes over everything. Businesses worship every aspect of it. In plain text, give customers what they want, and they will stay loyal and forever with you. Companies spend dollars on alluring customers with the latest designs, best offers, loyalty packages, only to retain customers but forgets the nuances of customer experience that is the most important factor.
What goes in great customer experience – speed, understanding, value for money, friendliness, and most importantly – the human touch. Giving a human touch makes technology more human and gives employees an upper hand to create an awesome customer experience. People connect with people. They feel more connected to brands, products, services, or devices, that deliver seamless customer experience without any friction or stress.
The real challenge is to effectively use technology with purpose and add human elements to it. By doing so, you will empower employees without creating any trouble or frustration.
Some important takeaways:
- A bad experience is killing a customer’s interest and trust. 32% of customers say they leave a brand permanently after they had a bad experience with them. You don’t get much time to retain customers.
- 70% of customers say speed, convenience, friendly staff, and great service matters most. To get it right, line up technologies that foster these benefits and provide cutting edge service to customers.
- According to 82% of U.S. customers, human connection matters, and they want technology to sync with human interactions.
- 54% of U.S. customers say that customer experience in most companies is old-fashioned. They need improvement with the latest trend and technology.
The formula to get it right
The only formula to get the customer experience right is through the right culture, innovation, and the right talent to unlock revenue opportunities through greater experience. But depending on technology will not help curb customer experience issues. If technology is used correctly, it can yield superior results and create phenomenal customer experiences. 82% of top-performing companies achieved exceptional results by focusing on human experiences around digital technology.
- Core demands of customers like consistency, friendliness, top-notch product or service are ultimate openings for companies to improve how customers embrace, interact, and spend on their brands.
- Don’t micro-manage employees, and forgive them for minor issues. Empower employees to deliver exceptional customer satisfaction, and reduce disputes with customers.
- Companies will never be able to resolve customer experience issues with the help of technology alone – it’s just a facilitator. Downright employee experience brings new ideas, which will open doors for solid customer experience.
Customer Experience Disconnect
- As per a survey conducted by PwC, 73% of people say they buy from a brand or make a purchasing decision because of good customer experience. In contrast, only 49% of U.S. consumers agree that companies provide amazing customer experience today.
- 43% of all consumers don’t mind paying more for greater flexibility and convenience. 42% would only pay more for a more friendly experience. Only 65% of U.S. customers are convinced by positive customer experience more influential than other marketing strategies.
What matters to customers
Most customers want speed, convenience, flexibility, friendly service, timely help, as some of the elements for pronounced customer experience. Customers are ready to shell out more money for same-day delivery. Speed can be as good as instant delivery without delaying, or instant service without making the customer wait for it.
Customers always think that technology will work faster, but new technologies disrupt seamless customer experience because of a lack of knowledge on how to use it. They want appealing website designs, user-friendly mobile-apps, easy navigation, and on-time automation to ease experience. But these activities will make more sense if other core factors also follow suite; otherwise, it doesn’t make any sense.
Define the successful customer experience
A recent survey conducted by PwC across all industries stated that an average of 48% U.S. consumers cited friendly and outgoing service as a unique selling proposition., while only 32%associated technology with customer experience. Customers are happy as long as the technology works, but a few of them get disappointed when it doesn’t work or when the service becomes slow.
There is a lot of disparity when it comes to what customers expect, what they receive, and what we deliver. But it’s possible to close the gap and identify sweet spots that complement customer experience through ease of technology and without creating any frustration. With new technology comes upskilling employees how to act on it and deliver amazing customer experience.
Don’t have too many chances and choices
No business would like to lose business because of customer experience. Imagine losing a major chunk of your business in a single day. No business would like to see such bad days. But it is possible. The majority of customers leave a brand forever because of bad experiences. Even if customers love your product, services, people, or culture, they will leave the brand even after one bad experience.
If maintaining customer experience is not difficult, it’s not easy either. Many companies have lost business despite the best product or services in the market. Once customer experience falls in place, brands need to maintain it and not let customers have a bad experience.
Steps to Win the Customer Experience
Be more human
Human touch is most preferred, after all. Even with advancements in technology and automation, most customers will still not be tech-savvy. They will prefer human interactions in all communications. People love to engage and explore apps, websites, new products, etc. But even a small glitch or issue in the service, they want to speak with a person. New tools make work easier and tantalize you, but the human touch is of utmost importance.
Understand the driving factor
Price, product quality, and service take the top slot as driving factors customers want to spend money. 79% of U.S. consumers will switch for a better price while 52% for product quality. The initial choice of the customer matters too. But most of the time, customers will not switch to another provider because of small issues.
Give employees freedom
Empower your employees with the latest technology, best-in-class training, and regular feedback sessions. Allow employees to enhance their skills and keep them abreast of what’s happening within and outside the organization. If employees are treated badly, they pass on the experience to customers. It’s a risk of not getting the human factor right. 60% of U.S. consumers would never do any business with brands because of unfriendly service.
Not every company can give money as goodwill gestures. But they can follow the ideal customer experience norms – to empower and raise your employees with the right ethics and corporate values. Obsolete or outdated policies often create hindrances in delivering exceptional customer service. Rework on stringent policies that reduce friction will end up delivering great customer experience.
Stay ahead of customers
Know what your customers don’t and stay ahead of customers and competition. Customers don’t know that AI and robotics will change the future of customer experience. They aren’t aware of many factors that will take over humans. But 47% of executives know about AI and robotics. Customers will always pick brands that serve them end-to-end without any hesitation or friction.
Work on areas of improvement
As companies, it’s perfectly fine if you falter on something. There is always a chance to work on areas that need improvements. Learn from competitors what they are doing best, and use it for your advantage. Research and utilize your customer experience team to build a solid plan that is flawless and superb.
By Dan Wan