Customer Orientation: the Real Deal

Customer Orientation: the Real Deal

?Today, everyone knows customer-oriented—especially in customer experience (CX)—is the best practice. But how, really, do we make it happen?

?Empower your employees

?Customer support agents need to be fully equipped – not just with the company-approved words they’ve been trained to say, but with the empathy and flexibility to listen to what customers are telling them, along with the capability and confidence to adapt to complex scenarios. To enable this, companies need to specify possible solutions and—perhaps more effectively—what agents should never say, do, or offer. CX leaders must develop and disseminate not just scripts but process flows that keep agents from getting in over their heads – yet also ensure that they know exactly what they should do if and when that does happen.

?Engage everyone

?For a business to be customer-oriented, the mindset can’t be confined to only frontline personnel. We may all have heard this, but what does it mean? HR, for instance, should be integrating customer orientation in their evaluations. IT needs to prioritize customer behavior, not just in what they do, but how and when they do it. For instance, if the company deals in flowers and chocolate, IT should know that February and May—Valentine’s and Mother’s Day—are hardly ideal for a system overhaul. Even the cleaning staff’s schedule in a CX establishment should be designed to work around peak call times and minimize distraction.

?Envision the experience

?Regularly, every business needs to step back and reexamine how customers experience their brands. Given recent updates, new releases, and whatnot, is the company website still straightforward and easy to use? When customers walk into a store, how do they find the brand – not just physically, but what impression do they receive? Are they getting enough guidance on new product launches, promotions, and markdowns? Do they have good options for payment and support? Are they getting enough, and how much is too much? Calibration is essential to keep your CX from being skimpy or clunky, so a frequent refresh of perspective is critical.

?Circumstances change, and customers keep changing, which makes great CX a moving target. But a customer-oriented organization can roll with the changes and always make its mark.