Adapting Engagement in the Age of the Customer How can companies identify where their customer experience needs work? What does customer experience mean to you? What are the most important components of the customer experience?
Talk with your customers and ideal target buyers directly. Ask them to share their perspective on doing business with you. This will help you identify where the gaps are in your process. The areas in which your customers identify frustration or disconnect are the areas causing a fragmented experience. Fixing these first will address your lowest hanging fruit.
With the growing number of goods and services available on demand, and the consumer expectation this is creating, it’s hard to imagine any business that can’t improve consumer communication. A good way to find out if improvement is needed is to look across your industry and see who is setting the new standard. No matter the industry, today every company is focusing on tech. Customer experience is shaped by the touch points, interactions and exposures a buyer has with a brand throughout the business relationship — from the introduction through purchase, usage and service. At each stage, the brand’s feel should be consistent, the messages unified and the transition between departments seamless to the customer. Customer experience is the result of how quickly and effectively a business can react to the changing needs of their customers. A great customer experience is delivered when a business is prepared to react as business needs, customer expectations, communication channels and other factors change. In today’s world, this kind of agility is absolutely necessary in order to stay relevant. Each step of the customer experience is vital. Consider the perspectives of your customers to understand what influences them to engage at each of the stages: awareness, discovery, consideration, purchase, use and advocacy. Define objectives, refine messaging, build content programs, assign departmental owners and identify KPIs to measure effectiveness. You don’t get to choose where your customers are. To deliver a great experience, you must meet your customers on all the channels where they communicate. A website or a phone number is not enough. The average consumer has several ways they want to reach out and it is your responsibility to be available on all mediums. Customers want to talk to businesses conversationally — the same way they talk to friends and families.