Integrated Customer Experience

People all over the world have higher levels of stress and a general sense of uncertainty after the pandemic. Just as?Forrester?predicted for 2022,?customers?tend to choose brands that deliver comfort and positive emotions.?

Brands that have purpose and that are #DoingSomethingGreat will generally win a higher wallet share from customers?than Brands that are not.

We think this is because humans tend to seek stability and comfort and want to feel safe and secure. Therefore businesses should satisfy the?needs of their customers?and make them feel secure in the relationship, and look after society and/or the environment at the same time. If we all contributed "to give or create small change, it will make a big difference".

The demand for excellent customer experience is increasing as new technologies emerge and markets become more competitive. If a business wants to stand out, It should have a personalised, data-driven, and customer-focused approach. We help organisations become more customer-centric and differentiate their customer value proposition through innovation with a digital-first mindset.?

Customers have many choices, and therefore they are more demanding. Especially the younger generation that has an "instant gratification "mentality because they were born in a connected world where information is readily available at their fingertips.?

They want a personalised experience that makes sense as we all want to be recognised for our individual needs. They like contextual and relevant brands and use artificial intelligence and machine learning to make recommendations to them and anticipate their needs.

Building a customer-centric organisation is not just about technology but more about values and culture. I always say, "Being in customer service is like making love to a gorilla. You don't stop when you're satisfied; you stop when the gorilla is"??

Your employee experience is a critical success factor. Happy employees ensure that you have happy customers; therefore, companies need to focus on the employee value proposition, which will result in a better customer experience.

Consumers expect a frictionless customer experience whenever they interact with a brand.

As much as we were the pioneers of online shopping with?www.digitalmall.com??in the late 90’s, I always used to say that some things like shoes, I did not see people buying online as you would want to try them on and ensure they are comfortable. However, when Zappos launched their money-back guarantee and free swap-out policy for their well-priced shoes and personalised service, I started changing my mind, and they soon became a big business. Amazon.com bought them for their awesome customer-focused strategy.

“Over the years, the number one driver of our growth at Zappos has been repeat customers and word of mouth. Our philosophy has been to take most of the money we would have spent on paid advertising and invest it into customer service and the customer experience instead, letting our customers do the marketing for us through word of mouth.”

– Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos

According to a recent report by?Gallup, 66% of customers will cease doing business with a company that provides poor service. Furthermore, the report states it takes just 20 seconds for a potential customer to decide if they want to stay or leave your website. You lose 25% of the attention span every click, so if the customer journey is too complex, you may lose customers and have very low conversion ratios.

These statistics show how important it is for brands to create simple, convenient, memorable customer experiences. The need for an exceptional customer experience is significantly more relevant than ever before, as the lines are blurring between sales, marketing and service.

The worst thing you can do is market to a customer while they have an outstanding complaint about a bad customer experience – it will damage the brand even more. The best time to sell to a customer is after you resolve the complaint because you have regained their trust, and they can see you are willing to make an effort to give them exceptional service.

What is a Great Customer Experience?

A great customer experience is one where customers feel valued, respected, and heard, and where they get all the information they need from the company easily and at the right time via the channel of their choice, and the experience is consistent across all channels.

It is about how your customers feel when interacting with your brand. It is about creating an experience that makes them feel unique and special and, most importantly, addresses their needs in the best way possible.

Technology enables you to create a great customer experience.

Brands will build on their successes (and learn from the failures), leveraging technology-driven solutions to the challenges of building deeper connections and relationships with their customers.

Artificial intelligence (AI)?and?internet of things (IoT)?platforms have been enthusiastically adopted in marketing, product design, and customer services, primarily because they enable businesses to improve their experiences when engaging with brands or using their products or services.

According to Forbes, "The term "metaverse" has emerged as a key trend. They describe persistent, online environments where we can connect, communicate and collaborate increasingly immersively. This allows brands to deliver new and interesting customer experiences over virtual platforms is likely to be a key reason the concept will be attractive to businesses, particularly as integration with?virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR)?will be a core feature of the metaverse. In 2022, businesses will look to these experiences to create new opportunities for us to interact and engage from our homes – such as?Ikea's Everyday Experiments.

Gartner shows that trying to undercut competitors' prices is not as viable as providing a superior customer experience. It is swiftly becoming the?priority?for brands attempting to differentiate themselves from their competition.

Brands should be laser-focused on customer experience right now, partly because they know people will pay more for great experiences. Another major factor is that they understand that experience includes building trust. When we trust businesses, we are much more likely to be willing to share our data with them.

We gave a personalised gift to all of our customers in 1999, which was a book by Seth Godin that was published that year called?“ Permission marketing - Turning Strangers into Friends, and Friends into Customers”. If you have not read it yet, get it on?Audible?or?Kindle?as it is still very relevant today and?we have been advocating this philosophy in building long-term relationships with customers ever since.

The importance of a great user experience or UX can be seen in the fact that 86% of customers say they will not return to a website or mobile app after a bad experience.

Bad experiences can range from your website or app taking too long to load or being confusing and difficult to navigate. There are many ways to improve the UX of your product and make it more appealing to customers. One of the most important is making it easily accessible and straightforward. When you do this, you can appeal to a broader audience and make more sales.

In partnership with?Netcore Marketing Cloud, we offer contextual?“Digital Nudges” that guide the customer journey and lead to higher conversions.

#DoingSomethingGreat is about giving customers a great experience with your brand!