Customer expectations are “changing”. Customers expect the same customer experience “quality” levels  as they “get” them from the best-in-class, regardless of industry. Higher customer expectations means upping the ante to meet them. That’s what everyone tells you – and it’s true.

Nevertheless, it’s key to not lose ourselves in providing “wow” customer experiences. The end-to-end customer experience requires more than that. Furthermore, customers don’t (always) want that “exceptional” experience or service.

The top five “traits” of the ideal customer experience:

• Fast response to enquiries or complaints (essentially, the stuff people want to be answered most): 47%.
• A simple purchasing process (note that the research was sponsored and has a focus that is somewhat consumer-oriented and shopping-oriented): 47%.
• The ability to track orders in real time (in other industries and situations we see the same – insurance customers, for instance, want to be able to track claims process progress online): 34%.
• Clarity and simplicity of product information across channels (clarity and simplicity always matters in a customer context and a mindset of ubiquitous optimization): 25%.
• The ability to interact with the company over multiple channels (you knew that and of course it’s not just online): 22%.

Lessons for digital customer experience optimization

Consistent customer experiences, fast response times, accuracy of information, choice and, last but not least, simplicity. That’s what matters and, again, it isn’t new at all. In fact, the findings in this research completely correspond with our growing attention to provide frictionless experiences and remove hurdles, one of the topics that rule the debates in, among others, optimization, customer experience and contact centers.

CXREFRESH    CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE         CUSTOMER EXPECTATION          DIGITAL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Many current business models are being disrupted. Retailers that are just providing shelf space will soon be out of business. Amazon is continually disrupting existing business models by combining a customer experience based on utility, with convenience at the center of their strategy.

The multi-channel buying habits of consumers demanding a seamless experience pose complex challenges businesses.

Businesses that are thriving have figured out ways to design experiences that attract and retain customers by offering a personal experience that is relevant and personal. Sometimes entirely new business models are required, other times altering the existing model is all that is required.

Creating new products is a daunting task. One study has identified what they term a “decay curve”. According to this study, it takes over fifty ideas to create a new product. By ideas they mean an idea that has been screened, analyzed, developed, tested and marketed.

The Customer Experience Challenge

The customer landscape is rapidly changing, it’s being transformed by a confluence of technology, the internet, and new consumer social behaviors. Digital transformations in unrelated industries play a role in shaping consumer expectations in all industries. For example, when Starbuck’s created their mobile app that enabled increasingly elaborate purchasing interactions, other industries began to look for mobile solutions.

The availability of smart devices provided unprecedented mobile computing power for consumers. As the adoption rate of these devices has soared, so have expectations for a personal, seamless mobile experience.

In the new consumer landscape disruption isn’t a destination or an event, it’s a journey. Companies that want to survive recognize that the reality of the new competitive ecosystem requires new rules of engagement. This shift in mindset starts at the top, it’s a critical success factor.

Consider some of these statistics

According to McKinsey over half of all customer interactions happen during a multi-channel journey.

Today’s internet consumers want their online questions to be addressed promptly; 42% expect a response within one hour.  Source Gigya

45% of consumers prefer a cross-channel combination of online, mobile, and in-store shopping. Source Gigya

68% of consumers agree that shopping today is less about brands or products themselves and more about what they are feeling and needing. Source Gigya

74% of modern consumers rely on social networks to guide purchase decisions. Source Gigya

86% of buyers will pay more for a better customer experience, but only 1% of customers feel that vendors consistently meet their expectations. Source CEI.

Various studies detail levels of customer frustration with the friction they encounter in many organizations. Having to wait on hold for lengthy periods of time, repeat the same information to multiple employees across multiple channels, and failing to get their questions answered in a timely fashion are just a few examples of friction.

The Customer Experience Solution

McKinsey’s research dispels the traditional buying funnel. In the new landscape, consumers operate differently. The new buying process is more like a journey than a linear trek through buying stages. To be relevant firms must recognize that their customer’s experience journeys vary depending on the product or service they are offering. These journeys are continually evolving with the rapid pace of digital innovation.

A few journey examples might be:

• Onboarding
• Making a payment
• Resolving a customer service issue
• Billing
• Reordering
• Checking product or service availability

Brands that are closing the customer experience gap are finding ways to remove friction by transforming the customer experience from moments to journeys. Even more critical, is evaluating the efficacy and experience of each journey from the customer’s perspective.

Most companies are finding ways to get their employees in close proximity to their customers so they can observe and interact with customers to gain an empathetic perspective. In an ecosystem, solutions may be found outside your existing buying process.

Customers expect a seamless multi-channel experience that gives them access whenever wherever and however they choose to connect. When in the midst of a journey, they expect to continue with the process from their last contact point.

50% of all customer interactions happen during a multi-event, multi-channel journey.

Embracing the Customer Experience Challenge.

Removing friction requires agility, collaboration, engaged stakeholders and a culture that nurtures continuous learning and an accurate understanding of what matters most to the consumer. Consumers and brands now function in a world of constant innovation; all are subjected to a barrage of multi-channel noise each and every day.

Here are five factors that can contribute to a satisfying and differentiating customer experience.

Culture

An innovative culture is the fertile soil of new ideas and innovation. It creates the space where the mission, vision, and values of the firm align with the behaviors of the employees. At its best, it’s a community of all stakeholders working toward a common goal.

Are you part of creating a culture that values the customer experience? When values are aligned employees are motivated to serve the customer and each other. Is everyone able to articulate the mission and values?  Are new employees screened for behavioral alignment with the values of the organization?

Listening

Feedback is the fuel of innovation. Giving and receiving feedback is a skill that must be developed and honed. Our biology works against us. The brain doesn’t always appreciate feedback, especially the developmental kind.

The folks at IDEO, a design thinking firm, are careful about language. Because they must provide a lot of feedback they have adopted language that encourages candid feedback. When critiquing they use two types of statements:

“ I like …….”

“I wish….”

I like is obvious, I wish is a way to communicate improvement feedback without any judgmental baggage. Personally, I like these statements and I’ve found them quite useful.

Social media has created the opportunity for a dialogue with customers and associates. Emerging tools offer marketers a means by which they can monitor and even enter conversations. However, it’s important to understand the appropriate etiquette to avoid missteps and maximize the benefit.

Asking customers, prospects, and employees open-ended questions is a very useful practice. We are often blinded by our own knowledge and assumptions. Allowing, even encouraging candid feedback is a helpful way to identify opportunities and challenges.

Good listening practices can serve as an early warning detection system allowing companies to respond before potential problems become serious ones.

Empowering

Consumers are frustrated by an inability to get:

• answers to their questions
• resolution to their problems

According to an American Express survey, 78% of consumers have bailed on a transaction or not made the intended purchase because of a poor service experience.

More importantly, when companies engage and respond to customer service requests over social media, those customers spend 20% to 40% more money with the company than other customers do.

Many companies spend a great deal of time and effort defining the customer’s journey. They realize that designing an engaging customer experience can offer many benefits and ultimately have a positive impact on the bottom line.

Try asking your associates a few open-ended questions about their experience with each other, customers, supplies. Ask them about suggestions for improving their lives.

Speed

Customers expect quick answers and solutions; this is essential if you are committed to listening socially. Even if you aren’t committed to social listening customers are increasingly presuming you will be listening or they’ll switch to a competitor.

Associates need the tools, training, and trust to quickly handle and resolve customer questions and complaints without transferring consumers from one department to the other. Ask frontline stakeholders to identify gaps and barriers that create friction and slow down responses. Are these gaps created internally? Externally? Experiment with design changes that offer faster solutions. In some cases, self-service options may be an effective alternative.

Speed is often relative, so it’s important to appropriately set and manage expectations. Make use of the feedback loop to develop an appropriate understanding of how your customer defines speed.

Agility

If companies are going to transform the customer experience from moments to journeys, then they’ll have to be willing to continuously learn and make adjustments. This is a new paradigm for many because it may feel more like a laboratory than a business. Successful companies will always be innovating, trying new ideas and methods, keeping what works and dropping what doesn’t.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE     CXREFRESH     CX                  BUSINESS MODEL

Today’s rapid pace of disruptive change is shaping customer expectations and, therefore, Customer Experience (CX) in ways that threaten to leave less agile brands behind.

What’s more, customers are judging brands against their most recent stellar customer experience. Your CX must be on par or your business future could be in question.

“Customer Experience is at the top of every business’ priority list. It concerns the CEO to the CMO and even the CIO. Emerging technology, changing consumer needs and effective use of customer data are critical elements to ensuring your Customer Experience Strategy is as powerful as possible in a competitive and digital landscape.”

In this article, we’ll look Top disruptions that have contributed to and are shaping Customer Experience and Customer Experience strategies today.

The increased pace of change.

Technological advances are unfolding at a vastly accelerated pace and it seems that not a day goes by without the next groundbreaking development emerging. What was groundbreaking yesterday is yesterday’s news today – I am being facetious but the reality is that the half-life of technology seems to shrink every year.

The challenge in all this from a Customer Experience perspective is to identify what is useful, relevant and desirable. The big wins being realized from this disruption happen when technology is humanized and made relevant to real people.

Abundance of customer data.

These days, brands are collecting vast amounts of data about customers, their interactions, buying preferences and behaviors, and more. Essentially, data can be collected in three ways:

• By asking customers for it directly (via profiles and preferences).
• By indirectly tracking customers (via interaction analytics).
• By connecting other data sources to our own (via third-party data providers).

Data collection on this scale, and the manipulation of the data collected represents a huge opportunity for the savvy disruptors to gain a competitive advantage and secure big wins over the competition.

Bear in mind, however, that in order to get the most from big data’s potential, it’s necessary to “translate” the information into actionable strategies that companies can use to grow sales, increase profitability and enhance Customer Experience. “Actionable” is key. If your translation is too complicated or doesn’t clearly demonstrate value, there’s a real danger it will be ignored.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)

Most applications of AI for business lie in the AI subset of machine learning. Programmers have designed clever algorithms that can “learn” from previous results and shape outputs based on that accumulated knowledge. These capabilities are being leveraged today to detect patterns in customer data, behavior and needs which, in turn, enable enhanced customer experiences through hyper-personalization and responsive customer service.

However, AI still has a long way to go and a massive amount of disruption is still lurking somewhere down the road. If you consider machine learning as functioning on a single layer between input and output, deep learning (the future) will function across complicated cross-functional networks, multiplying its output capabilities exponentially.

Video.

While you might consider video as being yesterday’s disruptor, it deserves a special mention because not only has it turned the way we consume information on its head, there are serious downsides to not engaging with video.

A good example is how video relates to your business website – if you’re looking to get found in organic search that is. One of the metrics Google uses to determine the relevance of your website or web page is “dwell time”, which is how long a user spends on page. Video greatly enhances this metric.

Brands today can leverage video in old and new ways to enhance customer experience – old, but still good, as in step-by-step instructions on how to use your product or new as in a virtual reality video that allows you to test drive a car when you can’t go to a dealership.

The seamless omni-channel experience.

Regardless of whether you use Salesforce to manage customer support, SAP to manage orders and Riversand (Product Information Management or PIM software) to manage product information, your customers expect a seamless and unified customer experience that doesn’t require them to hop across systems/applications to do what they need to do. This implies integration across your enterprise.

This holds true regardless of how your customers choose to interact with your brand, be it via the web, a mobile device, social media, IVR, a call center, chat or any other available channel. A seamless omni-channel experience, with a strong and relevant brand presence at each stage of your customer’s journey, is key to delivering a superior customer experience, encouraging brand loyalty and maximizing customer satisfaction.

Seamless CX Spells Opportunity For Your Business.

Intelligent use of customer data and integrated digital experience platforms represent a serious opportunity for savvy businesses to outperform their competitors. A seamless omnichannel experience, with a strong and relevant brand presence at each stage of your customer’s journey, with the right message and functionality, delivers a superior and compelling CX that builds trust and relationships.

The mantra of modern enterprise is “disrupt to deliver more value” — use it to your advantage for CX.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE       CXREFRESH         CX STRATEGY       GLOBAL CX         OMNI CHANNEL  EXPERIENCE

HR heads who are not aligning themselves to CX strategies would definitely fail.

When organizations don’t embed CX into key HR processes like hiring, training, and rewards and recognition, they miss a prime opportunity to foster an environment that enables employee CX success.

While it may seem counterintuitive, any organization that wants to deliver a great customer experience shouldn’t focus on its customers first, but rather on its employees. Engaged employees are valuable assets, and they trigger a virtuous cycle that drives great customer experiences, leading to more loyal customers and stronger financial results.

Yet despite research showing that more than 70 percent of companies have an ongoing commitment to significant employee engagement efforts, the level of employee engagement inside companies did not change between 2017 and 2018. One of the reasons companies struggle to engage employees is that their HR department does not participate enough in these efforts. In fact, when we work with large organizations, we often find that the HR groups haven’t fully embraced their role in either the company’s customer experience or employee engagement efforts, and that disconnect matters! When an HR group is significantly involved in an organization’s CX efforts with employees, the company is four times more likely to deliver a customer experience that is significantly above average in its industry.

For companies that want to deliver a great customer experience, employee engagement is not optional.

• Customer centricity is getting more attention. HR professionals not only indicated an increase in the belief that their companies need to become more customer-centric; they also reported higher levels of participation in this change. The percentage of HR professionals who responded that they are significantly helping their organizations become more customer-centric doubled over the past four years from 15 to 31 percent.
• HR is finding niches for CX collaboration. Six out of 10 HR respondents felt they were at least considerably involved in their company’s CX efforts, with HR leading the work in adjusting hiring and recruiting practices. When it comes to HR and CX teams working together, they are most successful in incorporating CX into training and onboarding and developing measurements and incentives to reinforce good customer-centric behaviors.
• HR has more time and wants more CX outreach. When it comes to the obstacles that impede HR professionals’ ability to help their companies become more customer-centric, the obstacle that dropped the most the last four years is HR professionals not having enough time. The only obstacle that increased over the last four years, coming in as the second most common obstacle, is that the CX organization has not engaged HR.

Finding Ways for HR and CX to Work Together

There are many opportunities for HR and CX to work together, especially in the existing processes and activities that the HR organization manages for the company. Here are a few specific opportunities for CX/HR collaboration:

• Hiring and onboarding. CX and HR professionals can collaborate on ways to screen individuals for the attitudes and abilities needed to deliver on the company’s CX vision.
• Training and development. CX subject matter expertise and instructional design skills are often divided between the two departments. CX pros can work shoulder-to-shoulder with HR to contribute the required knowledge to design and deliver training to help employees become more customer-centric.
• Performance management. Many organizations put a lot of energy into defining what they want to accomplish, but don’t adequately define how employees need to act in order to achieve those objectives. CX and HR can work together to ensure that employee goal setting and evaluation processes include role-specific expectations or measures of success that connect employees’ efforts to the CX strategy.
• Rewards and recognition. When embarking on CX change, it’s important for the company to examine how it recognizes and rewards employees. CX and HR teams can make sure the desired employee behaviors are reinforced with the appropriate formal reward programs, peer-to-peer recognition opportunities, and team celebrations.

The bottom line is that unengaged employees don’t create engaged customers. Now is the time for the CX and HR teams to come together to engage employees in the company’s customer experience efforts.

CEOs of companies large and small are recognizing the importance of delivering a better customer service experience. Some are now emphasizing customer service more than product quality and price. That doesn’t mean quality and price are no longer important. It is. It should be a given that what a customer buys will do what it’s supposed to do. It’s expected that price will be, if not the lowest, at least competitive, although when the service experience is high the issue of price is less relevant.

NewVoiceMedia’s 2018 “Serial Switchers” report reveals that poor customer service is costing businesses more than $75 billion a year. That’s up $13 billion since its last report in 2016.

The report claims, “Brands are failing to create the positive, emotional experiences that drive customer loyalty.” The result is that 67 percent of customers have become “serial switchers,” customers who are willing to switch brands because of a poor customer experience. That’s an increase of 37 percent since NVM’s last report. The main reasons for customers ceasing to do business with a company should be obvious:

• Customers do not feel appreciated.
• Customers are not able to speak to a person who can provide them the answers they are looking for.
• Customers experience rude and unhelpful employees.
• Customers are being passed around to multiple people.

Customers are put on hold for unreasonable lengths of time.When the surveyed customers experienced poor service, 39 percent said they would never use the offending company again, and 36 percent would write a complaint letter or send an email.So, what is a brand to do?Eighty-six percent of customers surveyed said that if there was an emotional connection with a customer service agent, they would be willing to continue to do business. However, only 30 percent felt the companies they had interacted during the past year had made that connection.

And, what does all of this mean? If you’re not already customer-focused, it’s time. And even if you are, you must recognize the way your customers are thinking. Your customers no longer compare you to just your direct competitors. Instead, they compare you to the best service they have ever received – from any company. Yes, that service may have come from your competitor, or it could be that knowledgeable and helpful shoe salesperson at the department store who just sold the customer a $25 pair of “on-sale” shoes. Are you and your company as good as the last great experience your customer had? Whoever provided great service – from whatever company – has now set the benchmark for your customers’ expectations.

And, while the NewVoiceMedia survey focused on call centers and B2C customers, don’t think that B2B is immune from this customer behavior. A B2B customer may have fewer options than a typical retail consumer, but they do have options. And, when it’s time for a B2B customer to renew a big contract or restock supplies, don’t think they aren’t comparing you to that shoe salesperson too, because many of them are. Customers of any type of business want the same things. They want an experience that, at a minimum, meets their expectations, or even better, exceeds them.

If the numbers in the NVM survey scare you (and they should), there is some good news. For a company that provides good service, 66 percent of customers would be more loyal, 65 percent would be willing to recommend the company to others, and 48 percent would spend more money.

While the overall service experience is important, it’s the connection to the customer that can make an even bigger difference. Satisfied customers aren’t the same as loyal customers. Satisfactory is a rating. Loyalty is an emotion. Dennis Fois, CEO of NewVoiceMedia, states in the report, “In today’s Age of the Customer, personal, emotive customer interactions play a critical role in bridging the gap for what disruption and digital innovation alone cannot solve. For brands to compete – and win – in CX in 2018 and beyond, service leaders must ensure their teams optimize processes and communication in ways that create positive emotional experiences for customers.”

So, do you want to keep your customers? Don’t lose sight of that human connection. Yes, there is amazing technology today that businesses can use to simplify, speed up and enhance their customer service experience, but people will remember the way you make them feel. Make that connection, and hold on to your customers.

CUSTOMER SERVICE      POOR CX    CUSTOMER LOYALTY    SERVICE EXPERIENCE    CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR