What is the core of every business?
What is the ultimate goal of your business?
What is the purpose of your business?
Well, there are a lot of possible answers to these questions (depending on the person you ask), but one thing for sure, the primary purpose of a business is to deliver the unmet needs of the market. But with products mostly being commoditized nowadays, making the competition tougher and tougher each day, businesses and organizations should make themselves more relevant to be able to get a piece on their chosen market.
With tighter competition, the most common differentiator that you can always hear is to be able to provide the best possible customer experience. So, what does that mean? Does it mean improving the contact center processes? Is this about post-sales support (well, you are not a customer until you bought something)? Or what?
In the past, the keywords Customer Experience is tightly correlated to contact center operations, it being the most common channel. But with the increasing usage of Social Media globally in the past ten years, the same context was just extended to these new digital channels that keep on popping up in the market. But is it really about the channels?
The short answer is a big NO.
Customer Experience should be encompassing.
- It is the end-to-end journey on your typical customer lifecycle management framework.
- It is about the value and quality of the product you deliver.
- It is about how effective your efforts are in the eyes of the customers.
- It is the customers’ perception of your brand.
The only time that Customer Experience is not an issue (yet) is on a monopolized industry, where your customers do not have any choice but to stick with you.
So how do you provide the best customer experience? Well, ”best” is a big word, ”better” is more achievable. Here are some points to consider:
- Have a better product from your competition (this should always be number one)
- Focus on the right target market (well you really can’t make everybody happy especially if they are on different segments)
- Design a proper customer lifecycle based on your market and customer segment (a good process is the one that is relatively easy to explain)
- Automation is good, but don’t make your customers feel that you have no time for them
- Understand your competition (you can’t be better than them if you do not know what they are doing)
- Get your market and customers feedback, and most importantly, act on it based on importance and reality to execute. (customers tend to ask for everything)
- Be proactive, but not intrusive. (knowing what I want is great, but try to be subtle about it)
- Be relevant, be everywhere.
- You have the DATA, Analyze it, and don’t forget to act on it.
This list is not exhaustive but will allow you think things over and generate more questions for you and your organization to solve.
Customer Experience is not just about your channels and touchpoints; it is about how you do business. Don’t fall too much on technology and marketing buzzwords; the industry is just creating a more captivating name for most things that you should be doing. By understanding the WHY of your business (purpose), delivering a better customer experience is definitely achievable.
What do you think? Comment below or message me. Thanks for reading!