Whenever a customer or client interacts with your organization and brand, they form opinions about it. You need to make sure their CX (customer experience or client experience) is a good one, nurturing a relationship that will grow into loyalty and maybe even make them brand ambassadors for you.
Take these steps to develop positive emotions, reduce the effort needed to interact with your brand, and have satisfactory, successful engagement at every stage and level of their dealings with you.
1. Have a CX Vision
Make a comprehensive customer experience strategy a priority, and be sure it covers every level and every contact they’ll have with your organization. Decide what you want your customers to feel before, during and after their interactions with you, and make sure everyone in your team is on board.
2. Learn Who They Are
Do research to find out who your clients are. This includes demographics such as age, sex and location, but also interests and visitor or buying patterns. Align yourself with things they find important. If some are non-native English speakers, offer multilingual options for interactions.
3. Make It Easy
Make things fast and flexible for customers by optimizing interfaces and allow them choices. Increase self-service options whenever possible with things like touchscreens and interactive wayfinding. Display information in a straightforward, clear and concise way.
4. Engage Emotions
Facts are great but also try to reach people on an emotional level in your branding. How people feel about your organization is really what customer experience is all about in the long run. And don’t be afraid to be funny. Use digital signs to reinforce your messaging when they’re on site.
5. Let Metrics Guide You
Gather and analyze data before, during and after each interaction. The more you know, the better you can serve your customers, and the faster you can respond to developments or trends.
6. Be Supportive
A clean, efficient support system is vital for any organization that deals with the public. Issues will certainly arise, but it’s how you deal with them that matters. People should walk away from a support interaction feeling like they were heard and understood, and that the solutions offered are appropriate to them and their situation.
7. Incentivize with a Loyalty Program
These have been around for decades but they’re still extremely effective. People feel like they’re part of an exclusive club, and will form a more lasting bond with your brand. It’s also a form of gamification as people try to get that 10th latte so they can get a free one. Make the process of joining easy with as few steps as possible, and communicate benefits regularly.
8. Increase Efficiencies with AI
AI and machine-learning apps allow for a more personalized and consistent customer experience, which will always be perceived in a positive light. The experience needs to be seamless across all channels, and AI is perfect for this since it quickly recognizes patterns, and can adapt on the fly to each customer in realtime.
9. Don’t Forget the Digital World
Monitor not only your own digital offerings but how others respond to your brand on the web and social media. Pay special attention to customer reviews and make sure you address any negative ones as fast as possible. Thanking people for positive feedback also goes a long way.
And keep abreast of developments in emerging technologies like, VUI, AR and VR. Consider when it might be the right time for you to experiment with them.
10. Create a Feedback Loop
Solicit feedback regularly, evaluate it, act on it, and repeat the whole cycle. A relationship is dynamic not static, and you should constantly be trying to improve your relationship with each customer in a way they recognize and respond to. Follow up on any problems quickly, comprehensively and efficiently.
