Why are we talking about the customer experience?

From time to time a very trendy word appear in our vocabulary (have you ever heard the word “Selfie”?), and it is continuously repeat, in a correct or wrong mode. In the business world it happen exactly the same, and right now it seems this trendy word is “customer experience”. It seems that this would be the unique solution or formula to sell more and better our products. Although this is not a new effect, as it happen cyclically. In this case we are right with the approach. We are getting back to the basics, trying to follow up the correct sales and marketing cycle, being focus on customers and their needs.

In order to continue with this analysis or exercise, we should put ourselves in our customer shoes. Some of our last experiences were bad but other good enough to recommend to other people. These last ones could, not only fit perfectly our needs but also all the buying cycle would be easy, fast and friendly. Even if we face up any issue, this would be solve at the moment. This is not rocket science, but not always things happen as described. In fact, there are some old concepts that could help us to have this fantastic “customer experience” in the most successful way:

• Product or service: Obviously this is one of the key points. The product or service we are talking about is required to perfectly fit the customer needs. There are some components to mention as characteristics or capabilities, it should be user-friendly and might be the product design.

• Advertisement and communication: Content marketing plays a key role in the part. All the info we get should be relevant, being clear and useful. Some business cases or best practice could be also share in order to make my mind with this product

• Sales cycle: a good customer experience should have a complete sales cycle. This contains all the phases as presales, acquisition or purchase and post sales/customer care. In our customer shoes we like to be supported, and if any question or problem happen, they will be solve as soon as possible.

• E-commerce: this is not applicable in all the cases, but it is important to talk about it. When online shopping is available, we should take into account the web design, how fast the system is and be sure it is user-friendly. Also product checking and checkout, customer data security and supply chain cost are essential in the success.

• CRM system: it is on top of all this bullet points. It should be the customer knowledge repository and the engine that provide the company perform the best customer experience (loyalty program, customer care and support, renewal initiatives...)

Wrapping up, there are several concepts very important for the success; solution should be end-to-end design. It is not only about the sales, but also the full sales cycle and all the nearby details. For sure there are lots of good examples, but I would like to mention Apple. Last TV ads are splendid, with a clear message. The web site, as well as the products is perfectly design and the online shopping experience is great. Talking about the post-sales, we could name the Apple Store. This is flagship of the company, with “Apple-consultants” ready to help us with any incidence or question.

Do you have any other example? Might be in the deluxe-automotive sector?