In 2018 price and speed of service are no longer enough of a differentiator for Australian companies. Providing outstanding customer experience is something you can do to really make an impact on potential and existing customers and, if done well, create something that can be difficult for your competitors to replicate.
Customer experience has many definitions, but most come back to the interactions a customer has with your organisation over time and their perception of your business.
Emotions drive the decision to purchase
Consumers are highly influenced by emotion and a single experience, be it good or bad, could be the difference between retaining a customer in the long term or losing them to a competitor. This is backed up by research from Forrester which shows that 40% of consumers have a high willingness and ability to shift spend rapidly upon a poor experience. Gone are the days when customers picked a brand or company and loyally stuck with them for life.
Ultimately, your customers want to walk away from an interaction with you feeling happy, positive, well looked after and even loved.
How can I create and maintain customer loyalty?
KPMG’s Customer Experience Excellence Report 2018: Australia outlines six pillars of customer experience excellence:
- Personalisation
- Time and effort
- Resolution
- Integrity
- Expectations
- Empathy
These are very human elements that can be easily adopted by any business that has the time and desire to map out how this can be achieved – be it through interactions with social media, websites, ecommerce platforms and backend systems or those that take place in person at trade shows and meetings.
KPMG’s report also highlights the need for trust between customers and the businesses they interact with. The integrity of the brands that they purchase from is increasingly important and it’s easy for consumers to take their business elsewhere if they find that their values don’t align.
With the introduction of the notifiable data breaches scheme earlier this year and the global impact of GDPR, trust can be easily lost if careful consideration is not taken when it comes to protecting the personal data of your clients. This is becoming a more prominent concern with the increased usage of cloud solutions and the mountains of data that businesses create every day.
Digital transformation for customer experience excellence
As outlined in a recent article by Bain & Co, many companies that undertake customer experience projects do so by ‘going digital’ but the goal is too vague and does not deliver the desired outcomes.
A cohesive digital transformation strategy is needed to determine not only what the end goal is, but how it is going to be achieved. Careful coordination of systems to achieve an integrated approach will allow you to create the right mix for your business, incorporating the right platforms, data management tools and security measures.
The Missing Link has more than 20 years’ experience and we’re here to help you define and execute the right customer experience strategy for your business. Reach out today for a chat if this is of interest to you.
