The buzz word is customer experiences. Good customer service used to be the cornerstone of highly regarded companies. Excellent service would wow your clients. But now the game is a bit more intense. You have multiple touchpoints where a client can connect with you. Reviews of your business and products are posted on line. And everyone is reading about others’ experiences with your organization.
A Customer Management IQ survey found that 75% of customer management executives and leaders rated customer experience a ‘5’ on a scale of 1-5 (5 being of the highest importance).
Source: https://www.superoffice.com
Customer experience does matter. Today’s customer is savvy. Deals and discounts are not their focus. Value and involvement in the customer’s need is what it is all about. Slashed prices and BOGO’s will attract the bargain hunters. Then they will move on to the next discounter.
Excellent customer experiences that create value and fill a need gain repeat business and customer loyalty.
3 Foundations of an Excellent Customer Experience
The Temkin Group’s 2017 Customer Experience Rating Study bases customer experiences on these three elements:
- Success: How well do experiences meet customers’ needs?
- Effort: How easy is it for customers to do what they want to do?
- Emotion: How do customers feel about the experiences?
Your product or service may meet the need and be easy to use – just like your competition. How you make your customer feel when purchasing or interacting with you is the differentiator to making your company stand out among the rest. And it must be consistent at every point of connection: In person, on the phone, at your website and on social media.
Measuring Your Customers’ Experiences
The same study recognized to improve customer experience, companies need to master four competencies:
- Purposeful Leadership is having a defined company vision. A vision to which every employee is trained to work toward every day.
- Compelling Brand Values. These are the promises you make about your product or service. What do you guarantee will happen each and every time they do business with you?
- Engaged Employees need to be empowered and in tune with your customers– especially those on the front line.
- Customer Connectedness is understanding what your customers truly need. Know your customer and listen to the feedback and insights from your customers.
Customer experiences do matter. To your bottom line and the growth of your company. Customer experiences are measurable and trackable. What tools and programs do you have in place to make sure your customer experiences are better than your competition’s?
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