Are your customers speaking about you in a positive light? Are they your walking advertisements – raving on about your products or services, the amazing customer service and experience they have when they do business with you?
What would it be like if you were to have a customer experience strategy ensuring that you and your team members are all working towards the same goal, and that is inspiring your customers to do all the above?
So what is a customer experience strategy?
A customer experience strategy is a plan or framework that you create, which can be unique to any other of your competitors, to boost the communications and whole experience your customers have throughout their journey when they are doing business with you.
This strategy comprises of –
- determining your customers’ requirements,
- expectations, and
- pain points
You then turn this into a systematic way to deliver and go above and beyond what your customers expect.
To enable you to design your customer experience strategy, focus on these actions:
1) Outline your goals
It is important that you know this. What do you want to achieve with your customer experience strategy? It maybe that you want to improve customer satisfaction, have their loyalty, and repeat business so they keep coming back to you and not go shopping around, or you may want them to give positive word-of-mouth testimonials.
2) Know your customers
Have deep knowledge of your target market, what their demographics are i.e., age, race, ethnicity, gender, marital status, income, education, and employment, what are their behaviors, preferences, and pain points.
This information can be easily and effectively collected by conducting market research, collecting data, analysing customer feedback and surveys to uncover insights.
3) Time to map the customer journey
Imagine and evaluate the customer journey from the time it starts right through to the end i.e., from the time the customer becomes initially aware that your business exists, to the time they purchase and the after-purchase support you give them. Determine each and every touchpoint and interaction throughout the various channels (e.g., website, phone, social media, physical store) and gauge how customers see your business at each stage.
4) Establish customer experience benchmarks
Create the experience you want your customers to have at each touchpoint. Have specific metrics like response times, resolution rates, customer satisfaction scores. Measure and track to see if your strategy is working.
5) Align your organization
Make sure your whole organization is committed to providing a consistent and exceptional customer experience. Set up clear communication channels, give your team members training and support, provide incentives and rewards with customer-centric performance.
6) Create a customer-centric culture
Promote a culture within your organization that values and prioritizes customer experience. Encourage team members to understand your customers, anticipate their needs, go above and beyond, and take that extra mile to exceed expectations. Build customer experience as a core part of your company’s values and mission.
7) Apply technology and processes
You have created an amazing customer experience strategy, now invest in the right tools, technologies, and processes to support the strategy. You may need a CRM (customer relationship management system), data analytics platforms and customer feedback methods.
8) Continuous improvement
Gather customer feedback regularly. Analyze the data to determine areas of improvement. Repeat your strategy based on insights gained, experiment with new ideas, involve staff, they may have some incredible ideas, stay ahead with customer needs and expectations which are constantly changing.
9) Measure … measure …. measure AND monitor… monitor …. monitor
You have defined the metrics or criteria required to give an amazing customer experience. There is no point going this far and not measuring and monitoring. Use these metrics to track the effectiveness of your customer experience strategy.
Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs), conduct surveys, leverage customer feedback, use an undercover customer service to assess your progress and make data-driven adjustments.
10) Adjust and grow
Expectations of customers and dynamics of the market constantly change. Plan to adjust and grow your customer experience strategy. Remain agile and quick to respond. Repeatedly improve your methods in delivering exceptional customer experiences.
Bear in mind that a customer experience strategy must be an ongoing process, it is not about doing it once and never to be repeated, or that it is something that is set in concrete!
It demands continuous attention and improvement to stay relevant with evolving customer expectations and market trends.