Amazing Customer Experience (CX) is a culmination of Small Experiences (Part 2 of 4)

Hi,

Welcome to the third edition of the Weekly newsletter – ‘Customer Experience (CX) in Retail’. Before we move to the third week's newsletter, let me answer some of my connections and followers who would like to understand the reasons behind starting this weekly newsletter.

I have been on LinkedIn for a long time but started writing posts and engaging with others' posts only in recent years. In the beginning my posts used to be only a few sentences, which later became a few paragraphs and then long posts (I always tried to exhaust the character limit). As my followers and connections grew, they started complaining that my posts feel curtailed and always made them wanting for more. So, they advised me to instead use the ‘article’ option and thus the idea of this Newsletter was originated.

W.r.t. the subject of the newsletter, as the name says, the idea was to focus on my favorite topic of Customer experience (CX) but then I thought, I can't focus CX in general as it would be too vast a subject to cover so I decided to focus on CX in a particular industry and off course i chose my most favorite industry i.e. Retail Industry.

I feel blessed that in just two weeks of sending these newsletters, we have already created and garnered support from more than 1000 subscribers (and growing) who are not only reading the articles but also sharing their awesome feedback and comments which encourage me to keep writing and bring out new contents every week. Thanks a lot for all your support!

Please do reach out to me If you have something which you would like me to include in the future articles.

Enjoy reading the articles and stay updated!

Thank You and best wishes

(UMESH AGARWAL)

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Let's see what is in store this week.

As you are already aware that I started a four part article last week for the topic of “Amazing Customer Experience (CX) is a culmination of Small Experiences” and the last week's article was part 1 of 4 so in today, we’ll look at ‘Part-2 of 4’ of this topic.

At the start of Part 1 of 4, I mentioned about the?'12- Points of Evaluation' which can be used by any retail business to create an amazing CX. I mentioned the first 3 points in that article as listed below:

1. “Don’t overlook anything even if it’s a minute one for you, it’s not for your customer"
2. “Communicate but with respect and in a personalized way”
3. “Focus on what customers need, even if it makes you to go extra-mile”

(Note: You may wish to access the full text of last week’s newsletter using this link: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/amazing-customer-experience-cx-lies-small-experiences-umesh-agarwal)

In this post I will discuss the next 3 points of evaluation. So let's start.

“Go to the extent of defying company policies to make customers happy”

In most of the policies in organizations are made to restrict certain employee behavior and at times it hinders in them doing business with the customers. these policies are restrictive in the sense that they put a lot of road blocks for the employees to not do anything beyond what they are supposed or trained to do. However; if we think through it, we know that the sales associate are an organization's front face to the customers so if they are allowed to do a few things here and there by which they can win customers, their loyalty and repeat business, then there is no harm in letting them do what they have to do in particular situations.

Eg. In the vegetable sections in a supermarket, there are certain items which are not found in loose qty but are kept plastic-wrapped. The size or the qty under those wrappings, might be more than what you want so you have to either buy it full or don't. But to our surprise in one of our weekend supermarket visit recently, when we were put into such a situation, we didn't mind asking the employee around the section, to give us half of what was kept wrapped. He hesitated a little but then went beyond his authority to do the needful and we bought what we wanted. Consequently some of the other customers who were leaving without buying also got encouraged and ended up buying. A small gesture from the employee, created a few happy and repeat customers.?

Therefore; If you as a retailer has to make certain adjustments in the authority you give to your sales associates, then do it. This gives the customers a message that you don’t want them to go away from you. Always have a customer focused thinking and encourage the associates to identify situations where it makes good business sense to be flexible with the policies and do right thing for the customers and the organization.

“If your product or service has a problem, take responsibility and compensate the customer”?

When your product or service has a problem— especially one that’s related to the safety and well-being of your customers—act boldly and without hesitation to take full responsibility and do something to restore customer confidence.?Don't shy away from accepting the mistakes, thinking about the competition, reputation or the cost repercussions.

Eg: How many times in recent past we have heard that certain automobile companies had to recall their vehicles (produced in a specific batch) because one or a few parts was/were faulty and created issues which might have been a cause of life & death for the customers. Most of them replaced the parts at their own cost and even gave replacement vehicle to the customers when the parts were being replaced.

Therefore; it’s important to not only fix the problem at hand but also do it at your cost because this is the way to restore customer confidence and this may be what it takes to create customer loyalty.?

“Show the world that you not only care for external customers but internal ones as well”?

Most of the businesses, if they have to make choice, they will always look for their external customers relatively better than the internal ones. However; one needs to understand that it’s the internal customers who create amazing customer experiences for the external customers so treat them the way you want your external customers to be treated. Apart from this you also need to show to the world that you take care of your internal customers equally.

Eg: Once Starbucks closed all its stores in USA for 3 hours because they wanted to train all their store employees at once to avoid discrepancies in the message being delivered. This is an ultimate example of not only passing the message to the internal customers that the organization respect their time and they are all equal, it also make the external customers happy that there is something awesome being developed for them.

Therefore; an amazing CX can be created by defying the organizational policies, accepting the mistakes and doing something extraordinary. And as I always say that you need to do all of this consistently because it's the consistency of your efforts which creates a tribe of repeat & loyal customers!

We will talk about the next 3 more points of evaluation next week. Till then, do leave with your comment and feedbacks. Thank You!!!