As you grow your new business, at some point you need to develop a customer experience strategy. The customer experience (CX) is the journey your customers take with you from the time they see an ad or promotion to when they place their order, receive their purchase and then leave feedback. While it sounds simple, there are a lot of gaps you want to avoid so you can reduce negative feedback, increase return on investment (ROI) and keep your customers coming back. Here are a few tips.
Get digital and have a contact center.
Gartner estimated that this year about 81% of businesses would be competing based on the level of CX they offer. Hence, it’s important to look for ways to improve your customers’ journey. Their digital experience includes texting, emails and voice.
Your customers’ experience is all the interactions they have with your business. This includes deliveries, purchases, how they find you online and social media. To help with your digital presence, include unified messaging in your business and work on your promotions and delivery notifications. These are all helpful to customers who shop online and prefer personable experiences.
Another way to maximize the customer experience is with a contact center. Your contact center can help you meet demand, upsell and cross-sell promotions and help with feedback. Consider 24/7/365 assistance and live support to always be there as you increase your global presence online.
Give them more knowledge.
Having a knowledge center on your site is crucial to the CX. With it, your customers can look up answers to routine questions. They might also explore topics they need help with like a manufacturer’s warranty.
Additionally, your knowledge center can serve as a self-help area for customers that don’t want to call with questions. This keeps them knowledgeable about your products and services and they’re not inconvenienced by long hold times.
Automate text messaging and include a human help option.
About 6 in every 10 customers in the U.S. prefer digital self-service assistance. Giving customers an automated texting option can help if they have questions and don’t want to wait for live assistance. This is important as customer experiences include touchpoints (social media, ads, emails), the interactions you have (messaging, calls) and your engagement with them (email sign-ups, sales calls).
Focus on being customer-centric.
Another aspect of your customer experience strategy is focusing on being customer-centric so you can understand your customers. When you know your audience, you can target ads around them and gain insight into their preferences.
Here are a few tips:
- Create a buyer persona or two that outlines your ideal customer. Include age, neighborhood and other demographics.
- Hire the best marketers to help improve your ads, images and social media presence.
- Ensure your mission and vision are geared around your customers. Consider your long- and short-term goals, environmental initiatives and your philanthropic endeavors.
- Map out an individual customer’s journey and work backward from their experience with your product to the technology used to make, promote, sell and deliver it. For example, you might want to use a software program that will autofill your forms (convenient, right?).
Keep improving your customers’ experiences.
It might take time to find the right customer experience strategy. Keep checking your data analysis to gauge how customers respond to the changes you make. By improving your digital presence and including a contact center and knowledge center, you’re helping your customers become more confident when they shop with you. And, that’s part of their journey.
