Focus on Experience: Edition 6

Welcome to Focus on Experience newsletter and its sixth issue! On the second Wednesday of every month, while we try to bring you the latest developments and highlights from the field of experience management, don't forget to follow us closely and experience us in order not to miss the content we will create special for that newsletter or to see and read it first hand!

In this newsletter, we will examine some of the most important resources, reports, studies and best practices in the world of CX and EX, as well as some of the most prominent topics and developments in the world of CX and EX, primarily customer and employee experience. It is a time-consuming effort to find what makes sense in all this cacophony and what is important for your business. That's why Focus on Experience aims to bring together the latest developments in the field of experience and to provide concise, straightforward information

In the June newsletter, customer trust, which is shown as the backbone of the digital age, what are the misconceptions about customer experience, whether the customer is always right, the impact of augmented reality technology on customer experience and examples of brands that integrate it into their business practices, and how valuable a new customer is for businesses, Statistics of more than 70 studies in the field of customer experience that can be learnt from 2023, how insurance companies can use technological trends to increase customer experience in long-term insurance, how important the halo effect and the first impression of customers are for companies. There is also a section consisting of suggestions from our team that we have compiled for you in many areas. Don't forget to check them out!

So let's dive into the world of experience.

Experience Express

Customer Trust: The Backbone of Digital Age

The concept of trust has gained different dimensions and areas of meaning from the past to the present, but it has continued to maintain and even increase its importance more and more. While trust functioned as a survival mechanism in the early ages of humanity, today it has transformed to the point of being the cornerstone of civilization and the business world.?

Trust is a formula for creating value for businesses. When there is no trust or when the level of trust is below a certain rate, we can talk about value destruction, not value creation. As in human relations, building trust in the interaction of businesses with their customers requires a long process and many actions, while destroying it can occur even with very simple things.

Customer trust is not only formed by the quality of the product or service offered. Customer trust can be extended to every aspect of the interaction with the customer and can be influenced by every step in the customer journey. From safety and security to authenticity, from capability to emotional connection, from transparency to consistency, and from genuine engagement to personalisation, trust can be built and broken at every point.

In the age of the experience economy, one of the thoughts that businesses should always keep in mind is that customer trust is a currency today. Building and maintaining customer trust is critical not only for the production of economic value but also for enriching human connections. Customer trust plays a critical role on the way to memorable experiences in today's world where businesses have very limited opportunities to differentiate from each other in terms of products and services.

For more detailed information on the subject, take a look at the article written by Dr. Luke Soon in CMSWire , “Customer Trust: The Backbone of Digital Age”.

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24 customer experience misconceptions debunked

In the field of customer experience, there are many misconceptions and misunderstandings. These misunderstandings start from the definition of CX, its importance for businesses, design processes, its relationship with employee and user experience, and experience measurement metrics. While there are dozens of definitions of what customer experience means and it is difficult to agree on some points, this confusion can be exposed to a point.

Customer experience management or customer experience is one of the areas where today's businesses can differentiate from their competitors in a competitive environment and make a difference. However, this must first be gained within the businesses as a matter of awareness. Today, while customer experience teams have been established in some global and local companies, some have been following the development for a long time and are trying to integrate the company's mission into some areas. It should not be forgotten that everything you do at work is about the customer and for the customer.

So what are the common misconceptions about CX? There are many misconceptions about CX, from customer experience being one and the same as customer service to customer experience being the solely responsibility of the CX team, from a good product or service being enough for a great customer experience to customer experience and user experience being the same thing, from customer experience being difficult to measure to customer experience being a one-time project or initiative, and from customer experience being problem solving to a one-size-fits-all approach to customer experience design.

For more detailed information about these misconceptions and the background that underpins these misconceptions, you can take a look at Annette Franz, CCXP 's article published in MarTech .

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When the customer is not always right

There is a long-standing doctrine that the customer is always right. But is the customer really right in every situation and condition, or should we always behave as if the customer is right? The idea that the customer is always right and the attitude adopted leads to unfair and unequal communication. This increases the inconsistencies between current service standards and expectations.

In different parts of the world, the way of approaching the customer varies depending on the culture and background of the region. For example, Japanese companies use the word ‘kamisama’, which means ‘god’ in English, to refer to their customers in all industries.?

The motto of customer is always right is tried to be explained with the concept called ‘customer harassment’ today in order to express the negativities experienced in the direction of the relationship established with the customer. Customer harassment or customer annoyance reflects the communication established by the customers with the responsible persons of the relevant department before, during and after the purchase of a product or service. The customer, who always shows an attitude that he/she is right, sees himself/herself at a higher level in his/her communication with the employee and uses an offensive/rude language.

I think one of the things that should be remembered and not forgotten is that ‘customers can be wrong’. Communication established with the perspective that the customer is always right can also damage the brand's interaction with its customers in the long term. Leaving aside the distinction of being right or not, it should be tried to look for ways to make the experience smoother and more perfect.

For more detailed information on when the customer is not always right, you can take a look at Leo Lewis ' article titled “When the customer is not always right” in the Financial Times .

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3 Brands Making AR the Star of the Customer Experience

New steps taken in technology and new applications developed are becoming increasingly important in terms of improving customer experience and offering a journey close to perfection. From artificial intelligence technologies to chatbots, from augmented reality to virtual reality and many other developments are gaining importance as innovations that differentiate businesses from each other in highly competitive areas called the red ocean.

According to a study conducted by Deloitte, businesses that offer AR-driven experiences attract the attention of consumers at a rate of 41% compared to businesses that do not. At the same time, 66% of consumers stated that they tend to prefer businesses that offer AR-driven experiences while shopping.

Today, many global brands are using AR to improve their interaction with their customers at different points of their way of doing business. Some of these are the digital mirror developed by Coach, a fashion brand, with Zero10, Ikea's application ‘Kreativ’ based on the build your own place philosophy, and the virtual try-on experience application developed by Benefit, a beauty brand, for decision-making processes.

In this field and especially in sectors where it is extremely difficult to buy a product remotely/online, AR-based developments will make great contributions to both customer acquisition and customer retention rates. For more detailed information on how the brands mentioned above use AR on the customer experience side, you can take a look at the article published by Alicia Esposito in Retail TouchPoints .

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How Much Is a New Customer Worth to You?

Have you ever thought about how much your customers are worth to you? Or how much is it worth for you to gain a new customer? In today's competitive world, one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways for brands to stand out from their competitors is to be able to answer these and similar questions.

There are several ways to measure and calculate what your customers are worth to you and some metrics you can use. Initial contract value or average cart price, conversion rate and return of investment are just some of them. How much are you willing to spend to bring a new customer to your brand and make them loyal and your advocate on the street in the long run? In short, how much money are you willing to burn to win a customer?

Of course, in order to answer all the above questions, your company's marketing strategies need to be created dynamically and work elbow to elbow with the customer experience team. How much revenue your business wants to achieve in the quarter, half-year and year-end periods, and how many customers it needs to meet with the existing service or product in order to achieve this revenue, and how much spending it can allocate for customer acquisition.

It should not be forgotten that gaining a new customer requires a series of transactions and processes that are much more costly than keeping the existing customers. For more detailed information about how much your customers are worth to you, you can take a look at Anna Covert 's article published in Forbes .

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70+ Unignorable Customer Experience Statistics and Facts for 2023

Customer expectations and preferences are not static. On the contrary, their demands and expectations diversify and evolve dynamically. Therefore, there is no constant and one-size-fits-all customer experience approach. In order for businesses to offer their customers an exceptional and near-perfect experience, they need to understand both the consumption patterns of the age and the purchasing behaviour of consumers, and to analyse and integrate this into their business processes.

One of the most important ways for businesses to get ahead of their competitors and potential competitors in the market is to understand the direction in which the customer experience is heading and to integrate the studies for this into their systems. So what do today's customers expect and demand from companies?

According to Dimension Data, customer experience is a competitive advantage for 81% of organisations. According to Accenture, America loses 1.6 trillion dollars every year due to customers turning to alternative brands after receiving poor customer service. In Slideshare's study, 72% of customers share their experience with 6 or more people if they have a happy or positive experience, while 13% of customers tend to share it with at least 15 or more people if they are not satisfied with the information they receive.?

In the HBR study, they found that customers who had the best experience tended to spend 140% more than those who had a bad experience. According to PWC, customer experience is essential for 73% of people's purchasing decisions. According to Deloitte, customer-centric businesses are 60% more profitable than non-customer-centric brands. According to another study by PWC, 71% of Americans would rather chat with a human than interact with an automated system.

For more research results and statistics on the need for customer experience, customer maturity levels, ROI and conversion rates reflected in CX, the importance of data security for customers, omnichannel customer experience and mobile customers, you can take a look at Jeff Backman's article published on TechReport.

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Enhancing customer experience by embracing technological trends in long-term insurance

Due to the length and complexity of insurance processes, insurance transactions are a series of transactions that are sometimes avoided by the customer and sometimes out of necessity. So can insurance companies embrace today's technological trends in long-term insurance and use them to improve the customer experience?

Insurance companies hold a large amount of data about the person, ranging from critical customer data. Using this incredible amount of data, they can optimise customer processes and provide personalised offers, predicting customer needs through predictive analytics. At the same time, continuous and seamless communication with insurance companies in many areas, from the first contact to policy ownership and subsequent transactions, is extremely important for the insurance industry and its customers. Businesses can make communication more seamless by optimising many processes from AI-powered chatbots to virtual assistants. However, it is important to remember that the machine touch should not completely replace the human touch!

In addition, other technological trends such as blockchain technology can be used to minimise the security and privacy concerns of insurance customers by signing smart contracts, and IoT technology can be used to obtain more detailed data about the customer through wearable products and smart home devices to provide real-time recommendations and improvements to the policyholder. However, it should not be forgotten that serious investments should be made in data security and cyber security.

To repeat what we said in the middle, in order to build and maintain long-term and lasting relationships with your customers, you need to emphasise human interaction and touch at critical points. For more information on how today's technological trends can be used to improve customer experience in the insurance industry, please take a look at this article by Keneilwe Gwabeni in IOL News.

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Halo Effect – Everything You Need to Know

Have you ever thought about how your customers' first impression of your brand is? Do you know that they are involved in a cognitive bias about your brand and many things that are shaped around your brand long before they meet with your product or service? Do you know how important the first impression, positive or negative, is at other stages of the journey with the purchase or brand?

This cognitive bias, known as the halo effect, is the generalisation of a person's first impression of a different person, product or service, brand or organisation. So the first impression is critical both for your customers and for you. A certain perception is formed by including the individual in this thought pattern completely unconsciously and intuitively. The negative result of the first impression and its generalisation is referred to as the horn/devil effect or reverse halo effect.

Imagine that you have bought a product from a brand before, and the majority of your impressions from the first meeting point until the product reaches you tend to be positive. Then you need a different product and your mind automatically directs you to the brand you had a positive experience with. This is exactly what the halo effect is all about. As a result of such an experience with any of the brand's products, you also make assumptions about its other products.

For more detailed information about the halo effect, its historical development, experiments in the scientific community and its effects in everyday life, as well as more information about how important it is for businesses, you can take a look at the article published by Roman Buri? in insideBE.com .

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Quote of the Newsletter

We think that customer service is simply giving people what they want. That’s not true. Good customer service is making people feel like you actually care.

Simon Sinek

Word of the Newsletter

Customer Centricity

Customer centricity or customer focused is a business philosophy approach in which businesses place the customer itself in all processes from A to Z. In customer centricity, businesses proactively approach the needs, preferences, expectations and behaviours of customers and try to understand them and adapt them to their processes. Since innovation and development are extremely valuable in customer centricity, businesses try to compete by making use of data-based insights on current customer expectations and market trends.

Suggestions from Wiseback team?

?? Book

• Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your Customers |?Jay Baer

• Since people and businesses tend to hear the positive, they tend to ignore people who have negative opinions about them or their organisations. This attitude increases the number of people who transfer the negative aspects of the brand to other people and make bad marketing of the brand. With the current state of technology, bad comments about a product or service can be expressed and spread much faster than ever before and in a way that everyone can see. In this book, Jay Baer tries to reveal how (using which words), where (through which channels) and why people complain. According to his conclusions, he talks about two types of complainers. The first one is offstage and the second one is onstage haters. Hug Your Haters addresses how to deal with these two groups by utilising case studies of businesses around the world from different sectors.

??? Film

• Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine

• Steve Jobs: The Man In The Machine, directed by Alex Gibney, explores the life and legacy of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. The documentary explores Steve Jobs' role in creating technologically revolutionary products such as the iPhone and Mac, as well as his vision and leadership within the company. The documentary takes an in-depth look at Jobs' life, exploring his achievements as well as his controversial behaviour.

?? Video

• In this short but fascinating video, Simon Sinek talks about how the path to good customer service is through good leadership, that is, a good employee experience. Here he talks about the importance of empathy and caring for customer service through the interaction of an airline ticket buyer with two different companies, and how at the end of the day, what the customer values is not just getting what they want, but feeling cared about.

???Podcast

• Navigating the Customer Experience |?Yanique Grant

• Hosted by Yanique Grant, the Navigating The Customer Experience podcast brings together entrepreneurs and experts in the field to help businesses navigate their customer experience and follow the trends. Through this podcast, Grant discusses what customers really want and expect from businesses and how businesses can understand the customers they interact with. Topics covered throughout the podcast include technology, leadership, customer experience and strategies, complaint management, and many more CX-related topics.

Are you ready to create a customer and employee experience success story for your business??

Then meet Wiseback?

Do you want to comprehensively review your business' customer and employee experience processes, leverage technology effectively and elevate your customer experience for the future??

If you want to learn more about Wiseback solutions, feel free to contact us .

Also, don't forget to subscribe to Focus on Experience monthly newsletter to stay up to date in the field of experience!?