Customer Experience is one of the most fundamental aspect of any business operation. As the customer is the primary business driver and the running of the entire business is dependent on it. A good or bad customer experience can make or break a business. It is tantamount that the customer has a pleasant experience throughout the purchasing journey. A company can provide the highest quality product or service delivery but if the customer has a bad or unpleasant experience, it can lead to bad word of mouth or a degradation of the company’s reputation, resulting in the decline of sales and revenue. Not only customer experience, but the company should have an overall stellar reputation without controversy, to maintain steady sales and have the highest standards of image and prestige in the mind of the customer.
Every aspect of product or service delivery, from the website or app user interface, placement of order, fulfilment process, the delivery and lead time, all is included in customer experience. The people who are most important are the sales representatives, who are the primary interaction points of the business with the customers. If Any sales representative even slightly misbehaves with a potential customer, it can result in loss of reputation, especially in this day and age of social media and internet review sites. That is why customer experience, before, during and after acquiring the product and service is a fundamental driver of business success.
What are some of the best practices to improve customer experience?
If the customer expects a high quality or a premium product, he/she will expect all aspects of the product life cycle to be seamless and of top quality, even during product use. Hardware products such as phones, laptops and even cars fall into this category. If the customer expects a premium product, then the company better make sure that the service delivery is also top quality.
Personalize the customer experience:
Try to make each and every interaction with customer, regardless of social class, cast, or creed, special and memorable. Make the customer feel that they are the most important person in the world at the moment. Even if the customer is not going to buy and is just seeking information, the representative should answer honestly, patiently, and give him/her due time as this increases positive word of mouth and ads to the company’s reputation.
Constantly monitor and evolve.
Constantly seek feedback of the customer and the monitor trends in the industry, to make the customer experience more seamless and pleasant. For this AI chatbots would be discouraged in favor individual sales representatives.
Role of AI
With rapidly increasing role of artificial intelligence, almost every business has now an AI chatbot to deal with its customers. But AI almost diminishes the customer and company interaction and depersonalizes the whole experience. Companies should adopt the latest AI tech, but should be careful as to not to completely dehumanize the whole process.
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Conclusion
In conclusion, a company or organization should prioritize customer experience as highly as the product itself, as the customer experience can attribute towards growth, customer retention, and adding to the brand image. The customer is the primary driver of business growth and his/her satisfaction should be of prime importance, as customer experience can make or break a business.