In the age where companies compete heavily for customers based on customer experience alone, it shouldn’t be surprising that we keep talking about ways to improve customer experience. Customers are getting increasingly more likely to switch brands even after just one poor experience with the brand.
Because of this, your company needs to be on the same CX page no matter the department. Regardless if they call customer support or message via Facebook Messenger, they should be treated the same and receive the same outcome.
Whether you have a customer experience strategy that you would like to improve, or you are in the planning stages of creating one, here are some of our favorite ways to improve customer experience.
Related Post: Customer Experience vs. Customer Service
1. Personalization
Personalizing customer experience is more than merely using a customer’s name in an email. Personalized CX encompasses touchpoints throughout the customer journey. This can involve tagging and segmentation once a lead has downloaded a piece of content to recommending similar products someone might like based on previous purchases.
Long gone are the days when customers are okay with being sent standard, blanket emails that don’t even relate to them or their needs. According to a recent study, 42% of Americans (more than two out of five) say they are willing to switch brands if a company doesn’t provide a personalized experience.
Ideas to improve personalization in your CX strategy:
Tag/segment email list members based on actions to send the most relevant information
Improve shopping experience by recommending products relevant to previous purchases or products viewed
Personalize shopping experience across multiple channels, such as ads and product recommendations on social media or display ads
Related Post: 5 Ways to Give Your Customer Support a Human Touch
2. Stay consistent company-wide
A member on our team recently experienced inconsistency in a company’s customer service that left her confused about what to expect from the company when they have problems in the future. A customer’s experience with your brand should not vary depending on whether they call your customer service number or message your page on Facebook.
From your social media team to the CEO, your CX mission should be well-known, understood and demonstrated by everyone. Consistency throughout your company keeps everyone on the same page as well as helps your customers know what to expect from your team when they reach out for assistance.
Related Post: Top 10 Customer Support Best Practices
3. Know your customer
You’ll never be able to create a customer experience strategy that your customers want if you don’t know the demographic you are catering to. When working to improve your CX, knowing your customer will allow you meet them where they’re at, in a method they prefer.
With countless methods of communication, from phone to numerous social platforms, it’s best to implement the medium of communication that most of your customer use already.
Are you working with a demographic that would rather use phone to call customer support?
Or does your customer-base want to contact you through digital avenues?
Starting with questions like these will help you formulate a better CX campaign that your customers will appreciate.
4. Ask for feedback (and actually utilize it)
It’s always great when you hear back from a happy customer and know what you should do more of to make your customers happy.
But what about the unsatisfied review? No one likes to hear or read a complaint about them, but it’s this information that (if used correctly) can improve your customer experience tremendously.
You’d be amazed at how impressed you would make that unsatisfied customer if you resolved their issue, and then reached back out to inform them on the changes you made because of them. Simply knowing that a company is continually working to improve customer experience (and not just asking for feedback without intent to act upon it) goes a long way for customers.
5. Outsource parts of your CX to an expert partner
Trying to be an expert in all aspects related to your business could potentially leave you neglecting your core competency. An option to ensure you have quality and successful strategies in place for both your core business and CX is to work with a customer experience partner. Choosing to outsource part (such as chat or email support) or all (to offer multi-channel CX) can be just what your business needs to ensure satisfied customer all-around.
If you’re wondering what the benefits of outsourcing customer experience are, you can read this blog post that outlines the 3 key business benefits
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When more and more customers are willing to switch to a different brand due to poor customer experience, it's more important than ever to ensure high-quality support.
This guide not only goes over CX best practices but also gives you direction on how to implement them!