For a company to succeed both in terms of its reputation and its bottom line, it has to put customer experience at the heart of its vision, values and mission.
Twenty-first-century customers expect excellent proactive customer service and won’t hold back if they don’t receive it. We live in a 24/7/365 culture, and customer service has to keep up with the expectations it brings. Customers also take a broad view of customer service and
The stats are there to prove it:
- A 2019 Microsoft report found that 52% of customers worldwide believe companies act on customer feedback.
- The same report found that 58% of UK customers have a more favourable view of a company that offers proactive customer service notifications.
- 61% of UK customers have stopped using a company because of a negative customer service experience
SERVICEBRAND GLOBAL understands the impact poor customer experience can have on your profit margins. If you want to improve your customer’s experience with your company, here are three ideas to achieve the best return on the investment you make.
What Is Customer Experience?
Customer Experience, or CX, as it’s commonly referred to, is the end to end journey your customers take with your company. That includes when they:
- become aware that you exist (often from one of your customers)
- visit your website/store
- make a purchase or an enquiry
- make a complaint
- have a problem resolved
- receive any communication from your organisation
- receive outstanding service from your employees at the point of service delivery, exceeding expectations
Unless your customers have a positive experience, they won’t stay loyal to your brand, with 96% saying customer service is essential in their choice of loyalty to a brand.
1. Understand Your Customers
For your organisation to provide excellent customer experience, you need to know:
- Who your customers are
- What their communication and purchasing preferences are
- What issues they experience with your organisation
One way to better understanding customers is to create customer personas. By doing this, you’re making it easier for your teams to empathise and emotionally connect with customers and walk in their shoes.
Harvard Business Review’s New Science of Customer Emotions found that emotionally engaged customers are:
- Less likely to shop elsewhere (44%)
- Not be enticed by discounts elsewhere (33% expect a discount of 20%+ to shop elsewhere)
- 3 x more likely to buy from you again
SERVICEBRAND GLOBAL’s collaborative approach helps you and your customer experience teams create customer personas to help ensure your customers feel appreciated and understood, and your bottom line increases.
2. Act on Customer and Employee Feedback
By listening to your customer’s concerns and frustrations, not only are you demonstrating your commitment to improving your customer experience, but you’re also showing that you care what they think. Make it easy for your customers to offer that feedback.
It’s equally important to act on feedback from your teams too. If your teams feel heard and see that you are making positive changes, they will feel more motivated and work more productively.
Remember, it’s cheaper to retain employees than train new ones. A Gartner report The Secret to Boosting Rep Productivity found that the better the experience employees have at work, the less likely they are to quit. They’re also said to demonstrate a 19% boost in productivity.
3. Make the Call Count
Look at the number of repeat calls your customer service teams are receiving. These are redundant interactions that don’t contribute to your bottom line. Suppose your employees have both the tools and motivation to resolve customer queries the first time around. In that case, they will be saving you time and money.
Focus on identifying why your teams aren’t able to resolve problems the first time around. It could, for example, be because they have insufficient information about your products, or aren’t passing that information on to your customers. Or, your teams feel they don’t have enough time to resolve queries because they’re being pushed to deal with calls too quickly. This can result in customers making redundant callbacks.
SERVICEBRAND GLOBAL specialises in working with CX teams to identify where there are blockages and finding workable long-term solutions.
We understand the importance and financial value of putting excellent customer experience at the core of your business. Having a strategy is one thing, but living it is another thing entirely.
With the above mentioned Ideas on How to improve Customer experience we can help you align your customer experience so that it’s cost-effective and at the heart of everything you do without compromising on quality. Contact us today and find out how we can help you provide a values-driven customer experience.