In our last blog post, the global transition to the experience economy was delineated as a contemporary economic phase kindled by the interaction of a highly empowered demand and and a responsive supply. This transition finds anchor in experience management, the means by which enterprises and governments can track, measure and improve the experiences of their citizens, customers, employees, partners and broader stakeholders.
Experience management takes off from a point of customer data extraction to the point at which customer data is analyzed to yield insights. These insights inform customer-centric decisions which can be implemented and consequently tracked to gauge impact and results. The potential for data-backed action supports the case for customer experience management – the process of creating, delivering and responding to the realities and perceptions of customers at all stages of their relationship with brands, businesses and governments.
Customer experience management often finds justification in the wide spectrum of benefits from an excellent brand-customer interaction, ranging from customer satisfaction, customer happiness, brand loyalty and referrals to increased revenue. As a relatively sidelined aspect of businesses, there is a deficit of guides and tool kits for customer experience management. We are addressing this gap by breaking down three benchmarks of customer experience management. Across industries such as aviation, health, insurance, banking and telecommunications, brands can take these steps to position themselves to meet their customers at their points of peak demand for excellent experiences.
- Listening to customers all the time
Just as knowledge is power, an understanding of customers is key to a company’s effectiveness, relevance and value. Demographic, contextual, transactional customer profiles and feedback obtained at pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase touch points such as digital information portals, physical stores and online or call-based help centres are avenues to listen to customers, know them, stay aware of their needs and respond to them by designing the best experiences to suit their desires.
With customer surveys, companies can collect qualitative and quantitative data at different points of their customers’ journey. They can conduct market research to access needs ahead of solutions building, measure customer satisfaction KPIs after service delivery, and determine their Net Promoter Score to gauge customer retention and loyalty. Underlining all data collection efforts by companies to drive awareness and in-depth understanding of customers, there must be a binding guarantee of data security.
Accounting for functionality, value and security in customer awareness, RightSurvey, our cloud-based enterprise survey solution enables companies to create simple surveys using drag and drop text and visual editors as well as customizable templates, to be distributed to customers via SMS, email, call-center, social media, web or offline. Discover how Orange deployed RightCom XP™ Hot NPS Survey tool, via SMS, across fifteen countries in the Middle East and Africa, obtaining their Net Promoter Score, aggregating customer feedback and improving in-store customer delivery as a result.
- Using new technologies to drive engagement and interaction with customers
Customer experience management solutions reach peak value when they are excellent and contextualized. Going beyond call centres and office help desks, customer experience management has been bolstered by new technologies which merge software, analytics and data management. Solutions which are tailored to meet customers at the right time, in the right context can come in the form of digital signage, which displays relevant information to customers through multi-screens, video walls, menu boards and more. When integrated with recognition software, digital signage software solutions are used to deliver impactful content for customers. Our digital signage solution RightPlayer is an easy-to-use content solution which delivers targeted content triggered by real-time customer data sourced from RightCapture, a facial recognition solution that helps businesses identify their customers and pre-supply solutions they would desire.
Looking ahead, Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning bear unparalleled potential for the personalization and optimization of processes of customer awareness, needs aggregation, conflict resolution and solutions tracking. They offer refined prediction models through which unique customer needs can be met proactively.
- Regarding customers as human first and human after all
The axiom, “the customer is always right” has always been a handy catchphrase to denote customer centricity. Existing as a form of exhortation for front-line employees to treat customers right in different organizations, it has stood the test of time as an inspiration for employee effort towards customer service delivery. However, it has also sparked debates about the value placed on employees, the scope of their responsibility to customers, and the extent to which their needs are secondary to those of the customers. To some, the axiom which places rightness as an all-time exclusive customer tag alienates both employees and other stakeholders involved in delivery to the customer.
Such polarity in customer-centricity is far from ideal and depictive of customer experience management. In fact, the baseline for customer experience management rests on the regard for customers as deserving humans, worthy of ideal experiences and excellent treatment. Down to the customer tag, the fluidity of the customer persona is such that at every point in time, anyone can be a customer. As such, every human is undeniably a customer at one point or the other in their lifetime. Thus, the case for excellence in customer experience is a case for humanity, for value to be added to humans, not simply as an exchange for financial spend, but inherently, as a norm in all forms of human interaction. Companies striving for excellence in customer experience management will need to steep their efforts in a human-centred orientation, as this will position all stakeholder efforts to add value while achieving even more – spreading happiness and upholding excellence.
