All of your customers are partners in your mission.
Last year, every business and customer had to endure the worst of the coronavirus, particularly in service delivery. Not only were delays in the delivery of products and services heightened, but businesses faced a raised demand for their products and services due to the lockdown imposed by most countries. Most customers had more time on their hands hence the upsurge in demand. This was an increase that not many were prepared for and this led to many bad customer experiences.
Today, how can your company, like other companies adapt to the new trends and improve your customer’s experiences (CX)? Companies seeking to have better CX than bad CX must be willing to invest in newer strategies, methods, and systems. It is no wonder that a survey sponsored by Oracle tagged “Global Insights on Succeeding in the Customer Experience Era” holds that a single CX determines whether a customer will become a regular customer or not. About 74% of company senior executives support this.
Bharat Poddar, the Managing Director of Boston Consulting Group, opines that companies will not improve their CX if they continue to employ conventional methods. To make a significant difference, these companies must utilize customer journey programs. This is a great strategy that not only repositions them to handle their customers’ needs in an ever-changing world but offers the opportunity to expand. Enhanced customer advocacy scores, cost rebates, and additional profits make this possible.
Despite having good intentions, your company may rack up an unhealthy number of bad CXs. Remember that an unsatisfied customer is more likely to sever ties with your company. If you've got a customer feedback section, they may leave a negative review that could prevent prospective customers from using or purchasing your service.
The following sections will explore the meaning of CX to a reasonable extent with emphasis on what factors contribute to producing an unhappy customer. Asides from identifying the problems, you will also learn how to build on these mistakes in a healthy manner.
Customer Experience: An Overview
Search Target interprets customer experience (CX) to mean “the total of customers’ perceptions and feelings resulting from interactions with a brand’s products and services.” From this, we can say that all companies, regardless of size, provide CX so long as they provide products or services to customers.
CX begins before a customer purchases your service and you actualize a good CX when the customer becomes a loyal customer. A good CX depends on how customers see your product or service, whether, for them, it's easy to use or complicated.
Customers are diverse in their desires, hence the need to efficiently identify each customer’s touchpoint. A touchpoint is defined as the experience which a customer has with using your product or service. For each touchpoint, a customer can have either a positive or negative feeling. So, ensure that your company has the propensity to produce more satisfied customers than angry ones.
The Relevance of Customer Experience to Your Business
Today, what separates a successful business from an unsuccessful one is not only the quality of their products or service. A study by Walker Info shows that CX will take charge as the determinant of a business’s superiority over other businesses in 2021. When your clients have better CXs than unsavory ones, it's a good thing. If you're curious about what to change in your CX strategies, consider the following questions:
- How often do your marketing strategies capture your clients’ needs and wants?
- Is your business capable of providing services to B2B and B2C clients at every touchpoint?
- What do customers think of your e-commerce website?
What Can Constitute a Bad Customer Experience (CX) for Your Business?
A bad CX refers to the time when, after using your product or service, a customer feels unsatisfied, irritated and goes on to leave a negative comment on your feedback section. As we stated earlier, customers have diverse desires, hence they expect that your business must satisfy each of their needs. Nowadays, customers don't want to just use your service, they want to connect with what you provide. So, if that connection is lacking, then such customers are less likely to use your service again.
A bad CX often arises when you provide:
- Problematic E-commerce websites.
- Products or services that do not align with their needs.
- Unbelievably slow customer service that fails to resolve a problem.
- Services that do not incorporate modern-day CX technologies like market cloud, service cloud, sales cloud, and commerce cloud.
How Can You Overturn a Bad CX into a Good CX?
In 2020, many businesses faced increased demand for their products or services. This caused shortages and delays to be a regular occurrence. This can make customers frustrated and unwilling to use your service again. To avoid producing worse CX, communication about delays and shortages should be done through modern-day strategies.
According to Son Busby, Head of U.S. Black Chambers, Inc., “people are much easier to deal with when they're informed about what is happening,”. So, below are some ways to do this:
- Utilize ideal marketing strategies.
- Build easily accessible e-commerce websites.
- Integrated customer experience software like commerce cloud, etc, to enhance the customer experience throughout the touchpoints.
- Facilitate self-service options that are easy to navigate.
- Train your customer response team to resolve customers’ problems on a round-the-clock basis.
Final Thoughts
Companies with bad CX suffer in today's world as their development halts and profits dip instantly. Technology has made it easy for customers to give an account of their experience with using your product or service. One of such outlets is social media, a powerful tool that has high followership. To avoid being in the bad light often, ensure that your business invests in its customers’ needs. Prioritize your customers’ desires to generate a good CX that lasts from the first to last touchpoint. A good CX is possible, but only if you employ the relevant strategies and tools while trusting the process.
