What Contributes to an Outstanding Customer Experience?
- 16 Apr 2021
- Articles
The customer experience (CX) would overtake product quality and price in importance. That was the expectation last year. That is why organisations were increasing their efforts where CX is concerned. Okay, so organisations want to satisfy customers to make them loyal to a brand. But the vital question is - what is customer experience?
The usual definition of customer experience is the holistic perception of the customer regarding their experience with a brand or business. Customer experience is the sum of all the customer interactions with a business. It includes visits to the website, interacting with customer service, and purchasing or receiving a product or service from the company. CX also includes the customer's perceptions, feelings, and emotions while interacting with a brand. The total experience will make them decide whether they want to stay with your brand or choose another one.
Now you see why CX is essential to a company's success. Thus, plan your customer experience strategy carefully. It is a company-wide effort, which needs the guidance and expertise of a customer experience consultant.
Customer experience is everyone’s responsibility
Providing an exceptional customer experience is not the task of only a few people in the organisation, particularly those in sales and marketing. To make CX work, it should be everyone's responsibility, from the CEO down to the people who recently joined the company.
A company's workflow process is an integration of the work of all departments. Even employees not dealing with customers directly are likely supporting other staff members who do. Therefore, it is vital for everyone in the company to understand the organisation's customer experience program and how to achieve it.
It will not happen on its own. The company must train its employees to ensure they know what the organisation expects from them in terms of how their role in the company affects the customer experience. The company needs to communicate its customer experience plan constantly to all employees by reminding and reinforcing them of the CX vision.
The perceptions of customers of the organisation are their reality
Your customers are not privy to what goes on within the company. What you show them and what they see shape their perception of your company. It is their reality. If they feel your staff did not satisfy their needs after interacting with your team, i.e., sales or customer service, they will associate that with your entire organisation. And that negative impression will last forever.
The company has to develop CX strategies that will touch customers’ emotions and elicit positive reactions from them.
Consistency is vital
Training your employees will not have an impact if your organisation is not consistent. Building loyalty and keeping customers means you must deliver the same experience every time your employees interact with the customers. Use communication technologies that will allow the customers to reach you easily whenever they have concerns or questions. To increase customer loyalty, provide personalised interactions with them.
Make sure you integrate CX in your organisational philosophy and see to it that you continue to provide exceptional customer experience consistently, so customers will keep coming back.
