There is no doubt that Customer Experience is one of the major differentiators for successful companies today competing in digital.
The Value of a Great Customer Experience (CX)
These days CEOs rank CX as one of their top priorities. Hitting the challenge head on not only keeps competitors at bay, it also creates significant value. Each percentage point uptick in customer satisfaction can increase revenues. Satisfaction and experience go hand-in-hand, or tap by tap, as you will.
Creating a satisfying customer experience starts with identifying and understanding the customer journey. By that we mean the complete, end-to-end experience customers have with a company. Not the one you want them to have, but the one they are actually having in both your digital and land-based touchpoints.
The truth is, no matter what we think we’re doing or making, we are all in the customer-experience business. The more committed we are to this principle, the more loved our brands are and the more successful we become. Is there anything more important than gaining greater satisfaction from your customers?
Customer Experience Definition
The Gartner CX research teams spent 4 months on a proper definition and this one is as good as any: "The customer's perceptions and related feelings caused by the one-off and cumulative effect of interactions with a supplier's employees, channels, systems or products". They go on to define Customer Experience Management as "the practice of designing and reacting to customer interactions in order to meet or exceed customer expectations and so increase customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy".
Some basics to consider:
- Have you identified and do you understand your customer’s journeys
- Are you tracking customer segments and interactions across your channels
- Are your customers migrating to digital channels
- Do you have self-service tools for online issue resolution
- Is all the information about your products and services available in digital channels
- Do you have the means to listen to your customers in order to improve their experience
CX “Quick Wins”
When starting to explore the issues of digital transformation and especially customer experience, it is advisable to set as your goal a few quick wins. Rather than attempting wholesale changes, focus on the few issues that will have the greatest positive impact. In surveying customers, a few issues will pop out as the most critical factors that would lead to greater satisfaction, engagement and loyalty. An action plan can then be executed based on these findings.
Most brands can place their CX strategy into three master steps:
1-Getting Started
2-Copying From Others
3-Owning Your Customers
This basically shows the iterative process of moving through the learning curve and gradually optimizing. CX roadmaps are a combination of marketing requirements and technology, so it can be complicated to create and get sign off in the corporate environment. Small, quick wins are much more do-able.
Digital-first customer journeys
While we start with the expectation of removing pain points for customers when implementing digital solutions, it is worthwhile to differentiate your company as customer expectations change. For example, banking and insurance customers increasingly seek purely digital transactions. It would make no sense to focus on marginally improving the in-branch experience.
It is worth noting that digital-first customer journeys rank much higher in customer satisfaction surveys than traditional ones. Even if the customer journey ends in a branch, beginning online increases the amount and degree of satisfaction.
How We Can Help You
A great user experience starts by mapping the complete omnichannel customer journey, and includes all the methods of engaging, communicating and creating meaningful relationships with your audiences. At Sygnific, we embrace the pain points and the business goals implicit in the proposed transactions.
Customers expect to fully interact with your brand in all it’s possible touchpoints, which means the removal of silos that can break the flow of your customer’s interactions. We are not only creating great user experiences; we believe in more than just functionality. We believe in love. The kind that you share with your customers, they share with their friends and makes them all want to do business with you.
