What is it that characterizes businesses that manage this?
Accenture has concluded that most companies are too nearsighted, and some of this is due to poor and unsuitable solutions for creating good customer experiences. The changes happen so quickly and are so clear, that the customer experience now tops the top bosses ' to do ' list, according to the research and advisory company Gartner. CX is much more than marketing, and the CMO’s are now experiencing increased expectations when it comes to focusing on just the CX, despite the fact that they do not have complete control in this area. Companies that succeed are characterised by the fact that they are set up to listen and give customer feedback all the time. They manage to add empathy to the customer dialogue, respecting privacy and they have the ability to motivate their own employees to take ownership to continually improve the customer experience. We’ll look into this more closely below.
«Never have marketers known so much about their customers, but yet customers have never been more unhappy with marketing.»
Head of Analytics in Google, Kevin Hartman
A fragmented and post-demographic world
Google knows that we experience at least 150 micro-moments each day. It’s about catching these and distilling the “I want to buy” moments. This means that you have to aspire to be present when customers actively and passively give up information; whether it’s about household, family, hobby or work. It’s not enough to use old-fashioned demographics to segment; the world has become super fragmented and channel universes extremely complex. One must have the ability to listen all the time. When is the time to interfere; When is the time to tempt, and when is the time to launch a ' call to action ’? The micro-moments revolve around “I want to see. I want to know. I want to discover. I want to buy.”
New tools stand in line
Eight out of 10 companies think they deliver great customer experiences, but only eight percent of customers agree. To improve on this fraction, there is no shortage of offers for advisory services and always steadily new tools. The basic idea is to attract more customers by offering customers more (experienced) value.
Put another way: Make businesses more empathic, human and personal through marketing, sales and customer service. To be successful, you need a good customer database and an integrated toolbox where tools and data talk to each other.
“Eight out of 10 companies think they deliver great customer experiences. Only 8% of customers agree.”
Accenture
The merry-go-round we call the Internet of Things
Our world will in to an ever greater degree hang together in an immersive ecosystem; The Internet of Things. In order to be genuinely with customers, you have to take advantage of this merry-go-round, and the research company Gartner has figured the traits that those who have managed it possess.
Six traits that characterizes customer-centric businesses
1. Listen continually to what the customer is saying
Customers give us active and passive information that we can use to work toward strong customer experiences. You do this by combining social media, as well as the web and an app-analytical approach when gathering data from digital channels. Good relevant customer data gives you:
- Purchase history -predict future visits and tailor offers
- Location -matching geography and gadgets
- Customer interests -possible to refine offers and create needs that the customer may not have before she came to visit
- Customer friend-universe -Provides deeper understanding of an individual + scaling options
Our model for securing good customer data.
“To form a tie with a customer you must know enough to be relevant.”
2. Cosistently follow up customers who have made contact
Believe it or not, most companies do a poor job communicating when they follow up incoming leads. Sustainable customer relationships are all about the fact that both parties must experience the relationship as valuable. Develop and use social networking to encourage customers to provide ideas; give feedback and thank customers for their trouble; give feedback about what has happened with the ideas your customers submitted. Such a two-way dialogue is the key to the process, and different ' Voice of the Customer ' applications can help with this.
3. Build customer empathy into all processes and routines
To ensure customer empathy in as many dialogues as possible, it is important to define so-called ' touchpoints ' that the customer has with you before, during and after a purchase. A good and insightful customer care description takes account of all the needs and frustrations that may arise. The customer journey must be seen with the customer’s eyes, and the starting point is that the customer hates friction. The journey is based on previous observations, feedback, assumptions and digital traces. To get the most realistic and valuable starting point, you can use both quantitative and qualitative methods-such as customer interviews. Key words for a good customer journey are channel-convenience-for the customer, timely response, proactivity in customer engagement, helpfulness and friendliness, fairness and honesty.
4. Respect customer privacy
Of course one should follow the rules, but it is equally important to know that half of us actually accept tracking. As you respect and anticipate needs through relevant communications and assurances, the customer’s acceptance is a good reward. Moreover, real transparency is important. The customer wants to know how, when and in what context data is used. Context is important; only use data in relevant contexts; the customer has the right to be ' forgotten ’; especially when it comes to finances and health. Also remember that the customer’s feeling of security is central; safe data storage in relation to hacking and preparedness if anything should happen. Privacy and ethics are about far more than dealing with the GDPR.
5. Motivate employees to show engagement
Companies that manage to involve and not least create internal understanding of where you are going and what you hope to achieve are going a long way. "Take care of your employees, and they will take care of your customers," said Virgin founder Richard Branson. Let the customer experience permeate through routines and product development. Here are some tips:
- Recruitment - let customer experience put a stamp on the selection process
- Onboarding -use technology to help new hires understand and feel belonging
- Emphasize responsibilities and rights- customer responsibilities, but also the freedom to take the initiative
- Time-use technology to help employees manage their time constraints
- Recognition- use gamification to motivate and reward achievement
- Working environment- Good user interface and dashboards take away frustration
6. Systematically work to improve customer experience
There are no shortcuts if you continually want to deliver strong customer experiences.
You must have engaging storytelling and vision. Then the foundation is in place for you to build a culture your employees are proud of and which customers want to be a part of.
Insight is not about big data, but relevant data. Therefore, you also depend on reporting and good analytical skills. If you have this, digitalisation can create value when building a customer-centric organization.