No matter how innovative or groundbreaking an organization is, it simply cannot exist without customers. However, customers don’t just appear out of nowhere—you need to reach your customer, educate them and gain their trust. A customer needs to see your product as a solution to their problem and your company as the go-to provider. Of course, it doesn’t just stop there—in order to be profitable, organizations must create and maintain relationships with their existing customers while attracting new ones.
This topic is highlighted in a SuperOffice.com article: “7 Ways to Create a Great Customer Experience Strategy.” In the article, author Steven MacDonald reveals information from an E-consultancy report stating that companies saw customer experience as the most exciting business opportunity in 2014. These companies agreed that customer experience is surpassing other areas such as mobile, content marketing and big data.
So, what’s the big deal with customer experience? MacDonald explains that “customer experience is an integral part of CRM (customer relationship management), and the reason why it’s important is because a customer who has a positive experience with a business is more likely to become a repeat and loyal customer.”
Organizations must constantly nurture their customers in order to keep them happy. Whether your customer base is 10 or 1000, this practice is undeniably time consuming and often stressful. We are in the age of the customer and they are:
- more savvy than they’ve ever been
- have more choices than ever before
- less adverse to switching to a competitor due to low or non-existent opportunity costs
The MacDonald’s article eases this process by outlining seven ways to create a great customer experience strategy.
- Create a clear CX vision: Much like a mission statement, your CX (customer experience) vision should explain your values and how they relate to serving your customers. These ideals should also be communicated to the entire organization to ensure consistency.
- Know who your customers are: If your organization is really going to understand the needs and wants of it’s customer base, you must be able to connect and empathize with the situations they face on a daily basis. One way to do this is by developing customer personas. Establishing customer personas helps your team recognize each customer by their preferences so they can act accordingly.
- Create an emotional connection with your customers: MacDonald cites a 2008 Mori study when he states that emotionally engaged customers are more likely to act as brand ambassadors for a company because they feel a unique , personal connection to the product or service and want others to reap the same benefits. According to the study, emotionally engaged customers are three times more likely to recommend a product or service, three times more likely to repurchase, and less price sensitive than customers that are not emotionally engaged.
- Capture customer insight in real time: This means interacting with the customer in every stage of the buyer’s journey. From assessing their needs and wants as a lead to delivering a solution at the end of the purchasing process, it is important to understand what is going on in the customer’s mind at all times. Post-interaction surveys do a great job of capturing that information once the sale is made, as they allow organizations to see how they can improve their engagement processes.
- Use a quality framework for development of your customer team: In order to ensure you have a solid customer team in place, you’ll need to first assess their training needs. Many organizations assess the quality of phone and email communication, however, a quality framework takes this assessment a step further by scheduling and tracking team development through coaching, education and hands-on trainings.
- Act upon regular employee feedback: A successful organization relies on happy employees. By acting upon the feedback of your employees, you are showing that you care about their needs and viewpoints. This helps them know that they are an integral part of the organization, thus creating a stronger workplace culture.
- Remember ROI: The most accurate way to tell if your customer experience strategies are paying off is to analyze business results. If something isn’t working, pinpoint the problem and adapt accordingly.
With the help of these seven strategies, organizations will be able to improve customer experiences, and in turn, raise loyalty, retention, and revenues.
How does your organization manage your customer’s experience?
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