In today’s world, customers take different paths when making purchases, making it crucial to view CX as a series of touchpoints instead of a set path. To create great customer experiences, there are four critical components you need to consider.
1. Customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is a measurement of how happy, fulfilled, or content your customers are with your products or services. It’s directly related to how well your business meets your customers’ needs and lives up to their expectations.
Customer satisfaction depends on two elements:
Perception
Perception is how your customers feel about your brand and the opinions they form on their buying and customer journeys. Measuring perception requires collecting customer feedback and watching behaviors to understand how customers think about your business.
Interaction
Interaction includes activities such as customers making purchases or speaking to your customer service team. However, interaction can also occur when a customer reviews your website or reads an ad, so identifying and optimizing all interaction points is crucial.
2. Customer relationship management
CRM stands for customer relationship management, which refers to the way your company interacts with customers. Effective CRM is characterized by a customer-centric approach.
By prioritizing the customer, you can provide better experiences and increase satisfaction. This is simple when your and your customers’ expectations are aligned, but disconnects, like the ones below, can occur and it’s important to find ways to overcome them.
Friction
At times, customers may have unrealistic expectations that lead to friction when interacting with your product. Friction can also occur when customers do not get the desired outcome from using the product, like when a vending machine fails to release a snack after inserting coins. To enhance the customer experience, it’s important to identify and address these points of friction by modifying the product or improving the customer interaction process.
Issue resolution
It’s unrealistic to expect all customer interactions to be completely smooth, so it’s crucial to have a skillful customer service team to handle any issues that may arise. Effective communication with customers can help resolve any points of friction and improve the overall customer experience.
Empowering your customer service agents with the CX technology solutions and training they need to resolve issues in a way that leads to customer advocacy and satisfaction is vital.
3. Touchpoints and channels
In today’s digital world, customers can interact with businesses through various channels. To provide the best experience, it’s important to optimize every touchpoint.
Customers expect a seamless and cohesive experience across all channels. This means your website should have the same look and feel as your brand, and customers should be able to access information and complete transactions consistently across all channels.
Communication
It’s crucial to prioritize appropriate communication at every interaction with customers. How brands treat their customers greatly impacts their purchasing decisions, and they prefer to buy from brands that treat them well. Your brand’s outgoing communications play a significant role in shaping customers’ perceptions and interactions with your product, while your customer service team resolves any issues or deescalates customer concerns that may arise.
Speaking of, effective internal communication is crucial for creating exceptional customer experiences. If different departments or business functions fail to communicate effectively, customers will notice it in how they are treated at various stages of their purchasing journey. It’s vital to optimize all communication channels and provide appropriate training to your team to ensure they communicate effectively.
4. Customer journey mapping
The customer journey is the process a customer goes through when they start interacting with a brand and throughout their entire relationship with that brand. Successful companies don’t leave this process to chance.
They identify the steps their ideal customers take and guide others along that same path, from acquiring new customers to maintaining ongoing relationships. By mapping the customer journey, businesses can identify areas that need improvement and use that information to enhance the customer experience and satisfaction.