Did you know that 32% of your customers will walk away from your business after one bad experience? That’s according to a PWC study, which suggests that businesses should be more focused on creating positive customer experiences to avoid losing such a high number of customers, retain the current ones and attract more. The question is, how do you do it? How exactly do you create an outstanding customer experience? This article has all the answers, so keep reading!
Start by empowering your employees
There’s always a strong link between an empowered employee and a satisfied customer. Consider a situation where a customer wants to get a discount. The back-and-forth between them and the agent goes on for ten minutes as the agent waits for a response from their manager as to how to resolve the issue. The customer grows tired, and when they’re about to leave, the agent gives them a response, which the customer finds unbelievable. The customer doesn’t believe the agent because they realized, in the engagement, that they’re not allowed to use their own judgement in such matters. There’s no way to tell whether the manager even gave any response. Frustrated, the employee leaves and resolves to never return. It’s always a lot easier to empower your employees with the skills and knowledge they require to use their judgement and take appropriate actions when dealing with the customers.
Understand what your ideal customer experience is
Also, you need to know your customers. Take some time to understand the particular demographic you serve, what they need and how your business can fulfill their needs.
Based on your customers’ needs, try to think of ways in which you’d want your customers to feel when they interact with your brand. If you discover that your ideal experience involves not putting your customers on hold when they call to reduce the number that hangs up, then you should look for ways to address that. You can invest in quality on hold messaging services systems with quality music and messages.
If your ideal customer experience involves a quality self-service platform, then create one. Understanding what your customers need, and what your ideal customer experience is can help you come up with a sustainable technique to improve your customer experience.
Pay attention to your customers’ feedback
Many successful business owners believe that the best way to improve a product or service is to listen to the customers. Your customers know what they need, and they will always communicate it to you covertly and overtly. Your job is to provide a good feedback mechanism to help you receive as many reviews as possible to help you address the right issues and implement the right changes. There are many techniques you can utilize to collect your customers’ feedback, and some of them include:
- Website and email-embedded surveys
- Feedback buttons
- Mobile app surveys
- Chat surveys
Personalize your interactions
According to an Epsilon research, 80% of consumers prefer brands that understand them better. According to Accenture, customers prefer brands that understand them well and know when to approach them and when not to.
Making your interactions more personalized is a very easy way to make your customers’ journeys stronger and smoother. More precisely, it strengthens the bond between your customers and your brand.
How do you do it?
You can make a deep connection with your customers or prospects by making sure they see your face when they read your messages, such as emails. You can also place your team’s photos on your customer support pages, or your messages.
Remember that focusing your experience on what you know about your customers is important when it comes to personalization. It’s important to know your customer’s history with your brand and use it whenever you interact with them. For instance, after serving a customer, you can thank them for being your customer for the duration you’ve been working with them. A simple extension like, “…and thank you for being our customer since 2006. It means a lot to me and my team that we’ve been together for so long” is enough to keep the customer loyal.
Conclusion
Improving customer experience has been the goal of many businesses for the longest time. Unfortunately, many companies fail to achieve the necessary level of customer experience because they lack consistency. Remember to maintain consistency when you start to implement these ideas. Your customers will thank you with loyalty.