When it comes to providing a top-quality customer experience, smarter working is going to be your best friend, as it will allow you to tailor your offerings to each individual within your target demographic.
Having said that, however, you will find it hard to deliver a premium customer experience if you don't blend your intelligent execution with these six core elements.
The good news is that if you work to enhance your performance across the key pillars of customer management, you will in turn see exponential growth in customer satisfaction, and the rest will flow naturally.
With that in mind, we've put together this overview of each measure of success, alongside personalised tips to help you excel.
Pillar One: Integrity
Acting with integrity has always been a key part of providing a good customer experience. However, consumer focus on this aspect has been increasing rapidly over the past few years, and this trend shows no sign of slowing down.
By acting with integrity and ensuring that your business walks the walk, you'll build good customer relations with a solid foundation of trust.
Implementation Tip:
Take the time to dig deep within yourself and really assess your morals and values. Then repeat this process with your business. If the two are in alignment and your practices embody your truth, there's a solid chance you're already acting with integrity. If you discover discrepancies, however, it's time to re-evaluate how you operate.
Either way, this reflection will prove quite productive, as you'll either confirm that you're on the right track or be able to identify exactly where you need to correct your course.
Pillar Two: Resolution
Customers come to you to have their problems solved, not to have new ones created, so it is always a delicate situation when something goes wrong. Having said that, once you have mastered the art of resolution, your ability to create a positive outcome from an initially negative experience will set you apart from the competition.
Implementation Tip:
The resolution process is always a highly personalised experience, but this doesn't mean that you cannot prepare for when things don't work out as expected. Review your customer avatars and try to establish how each would respond to any given issue that may arise when dealing with your brand. From here, you'll be able to identify a tool kit of resolution strategies that can be applied to drive better outcomes and improve time management in this area.
Pillar Three: Expectations
If you don't want to be featured in one of those expectation vs reality memes that have become quite popular on socials, you'll need to have a strong plan in place for meeting or exceeding what customers expect from your business.
Implementation Tip:
Caring for customer expectations comes back to fulfilling the need that they came to you for. This means having solid strategies in place to solve their problems. Much like how you evaluated your customer avatars in the previous section to work out how to resolve any conflicts, it is now time to go back and investigate what their expectations are when dealing with your brand. Address and exceed these, and you'll be on your way to becoming a winner.
Pillar Four: Time and Effort
Customers will want their needs to be met as quickly and easily as possible. So, the less time and effort it takes them to get what they want from your business, the happier they will be.
Implementation Tip:
The simplest way to improve the amount of effort required for a customer to complete a transaction with you is to go through the purchasing process yourself. Take note of anything that slows down or impedes your journey, and then work to eliminate these roadblocks.
Pillar Five: Personalisation
Much like how we've thought about how this piece could be personalised for our audience, you'll want to consider how you can personalise things for your customers. Showing your clients that you understand their needs — and putting strategies in place to adapt things to them — builds rapport with your customers as it shows them that you care about their experience.
Implementation Tip:
When selling via eCommerce, your only real chance for fully customised personalisation is if a customer reaches out to your company for support. If this happens, be sure that your support team practises active listening and provides personalised tips to assist the customer. This can also be applied to bricks and mortar interactions — find out what the customer needs when they arrive, offer support where required, and tailor your selling and service style to their preferences.
Pillar Six: Empathy
Our final pillar is all about taking your customers' needs and circumstances to heart and providing an experience that makes them feel seen and understood. Empathy is a valuable skill, and it should never be underestimated.
Implementation Tip:
Show that you care. It really is that simple.
Focusing on these six core elements of a great customer experience will help ensure that your customer management runs smoothly and that everyone walks away happy at the end of the day. If you've identified any gaps, follow the implementation tips outlined to help fill them. If not, good job — you probably provide an amazing customer experience.
