Customer Experience is contact with a product or company whether that be inbound or outbound.

It is dependent on delivering effortless customer journeys that are personalised and proactive whilst maximising company productivity.

In these times we don't usually have the comfort of speaking to someone when we want a product or a company service, many customers shop online, so the main touchpoint of any company usually begins online.

With customers engaging with your company over multiple channels — web, chat, email, mobile and social — a focus on customer experience is more critical than ever to gain a competitive advantage and for the longevity of any business.

Journeys / Touchpoints

What might be considered critical by a company may be far from the experience expectations of a customer. Companies sometimes overthink the user journey and add unnecessary complexity that can quickly trip up the customer and causing a bad experience.

In order to better identify and align each customer touchpoint with the business expectations, the integration and automation of customer information from back office systems into contact centres helps a company streamline the customer experience. It provides agents and representatives with preemptive knowledge – from multiple sources – to get a holistic view of each customer’s expectations when they engage with a company.

Central to this strategy is the ability to meet your customer expectations, understand the context of each interaction across all channels, optimise the routing of customers and how to best leverage customer feedback with detailed analytics to achieve better results.

Essential Elements

These core elements provide the engine needed to create a view into the customer journey, with process refinement and intelligence to power great customer experiences. The business advantage to meeting a customer expectations with great customer experiences will ultimately drive higher revenues, lowers costs, improve efficiencies and create happier employees! 

Well-Designed

A company website is usually the first place customers look for information about a shipment, a return policy, or even how to contact, and a well-thought-out FAQ section can save employees the hassle of answering routine questions all day.

Accessibile

If your customers can’t contact you easily, then your customer service isn’t as good as it should be. As was mentioned above, having a good website is crucial. Your contact information should be clearly displayed on your website, alongside your hours of operation. If a customer has to search for too long for information on how to contact you, when they finally do get you on the line, they’re already going to be disgruntled.

Quick Response

Customers hate waiting. Especially in today’s instant-gratification-oriented society, if a customer has to wait for too long for a response, they’re going to become unhappy. A quick response time to emails and phone calls (and a sincere apology on the rare occasion when you’re unable to be prompt) keeps customers satisfied.

Empowered Employees

If your employees do not have the ability or the permission to solve a customer’s problem, you are creating a recipe for awful customer service.

If you don’t feel comfortable allowing your customer service representatives to make small decisions without having to answer to a supervisor for every choice they make, then you don’t trust them. And if you don’t trust them, then they probably shouldn’t be employed by your company.

Thick Skin

In order to deliver great customer service, you’re going to have to change the way you look at mistakes and criticisms. Instead of getting offended or defensive, try to view these inevitabilities as opportunities. Every mistake or bad review is another opportunity to fix something that was previously broken in your company. Take advantage of it.

Surprise

Surprising your customers is a great way to make a good impression. There are many ways to surprise your customers with something meaningful to them. For example, if you recently solved a complaint with a customer, consider following up with a gift card or credit on their account without giving them any notice beforehand. This is a small step, but because it’s so unexpected, it will make a big impression and will show the customer that you care about their needs.

Trust

Trust in your customers. Too many companies in today’s business world operate under immense paranoia. They assume that every customer is trying to game the system and that if they let their guard down even momentarily, they’ll find themselves out of business and out of money. This simply isn’t true.

Most customers who need your help have legitimate complaints and just want their issues addressed with as little hassle as possible. If you trust them, then you can give them what they want and save both of you time and stress.

Responsibility

Everyone knows that they need to stand behind their products and services, but there are other aspects of a business that are probably overlooked the need for which to take responsibility.

Customers expect continuity, and failing to provide them with that continuity will make them dissatisfied. In the customer’s eyes, your company and your partner/ manufacturer/ distributor are one and the same. But customers gave you their money, so they expect you to take responsibility for their service, not place blame on some third party that they don’t know anything about.

Recognition

One of the most important aspects of CX is making sure that your customers feel appreciated. The key here is sincerity. Recognize their efforts in a sincere way. Post a message at the bottom of your website for a day, send them a handwritten thank-you card, or send them a small gift card – anything that will show them that you appreciate their help.

Patience

Some customers simply are not worth the business they provide. Some customers are bad people. Despite your best efforts, they’ll whine, complain, curse, write bad reviews, demand free products or services, make unreasonable requests, and generally make your life a living nightmare. Recognizing this and learning how to drop the lost causes while still focusing on those customers who actually deserve your time will save you a lot of stress.

#cx #ux #businses