In corporate markets that are full of competition and driven by change, businesses are constantly looking for different ways to differentiate themselves and as a result unlock market success. In this pursuit for competitive advantage, leading brands have realized that mere advertising is no-longer the singular route to success, but rather to build brands that relate and resonate. That means creating transformative, meaningful experiences for every person that crosses paths with their business.
Therefore, optimal brand strategies now revolve around customer experience (CX).
Unlocking market success through CX
CX is an integral part of a business’s brand strategy. Understanding the importance of CX is one of the first steps a business has to take if it wants to not just survive but thrive in tough market conditions. Of course, CX is not a new concept and many businesses have adopted optimal CX systems and strategies to cater to the modern-day consumer who are often presented with a multitude of options for the same product or service. Whilst the right strategies can lead to a lot of success, conversely, poor and non-existant CX strategies can end up alienating consumers and costing you valuable business.
Unfortunately, whilst many businesses have made CX integral to the functioning of their business, a lot of companies continue to be caught up in trying to figure out ways of hacking revenue growth, bolstering profitability, securing investment, and maximizing shareholder value, they can end up neglecting their customers – the very people who will ensure a business’s continued success.
Building a CX strategy
Delivering a seamless and engaging experience at every step in the customer journey is easier said than done and often CX strategies fail to yield the desired results. Here are some common CX mistakes that can handicap a business if left unchecked:
CX is not embedded in the company culture
Several companies build CX strategies but fail to create a culture that is rooted in CX principles. Without a customer-centric organizational culture that empowers employees at every level to innovate better ways of making the customer journey efficient, quick, and pleasant all the way through, a brand will never be able to build long-lasting customer loyalty.
- Failure to use data: We live in a data-driven world and chances are, your company is sitting on huge amounts of customer data and not utilizing it. Every data point you collect on your customer gives you some insight into how your customers think, behave, what they need, and what they are looking for. A failure to analyse data to gather these insights leads to an incomplete understanding of the target market and sets up the CX strategies for failure.
- Lack of personalisation: Markets are overrun with similar product offerings and standardized customer experiences. Customers now crave a personalized experience but often, many businesses refuse to provide it in the name of efficiency and cost-effectiveness. This may work in the short term but the lack of a personalised experience will lead to a customer base that does not feel valued and will leave once a better experience comes along.
- Poor UX and Design: More often than not, the first interaction you will have with a customer will be online through your website. If you happen to be an e-commerce or SaaS business all your interaction with your customers will be digital. This makes user experience (UX) and design a critical part of customer experience. However, the UX of countless websites and applications fails to reflect this understanding. Brands that do not invest in UX and design and continue to have overwhelming and complicated user flows eventually end up with high bounce rates, low conversion, and low customer satisfaction.
- Too much automation: While automation across the customer journey ensures efficiency and, in many cases, improves customer satisfaction, many businesses have started to rely too much on it. Automation increases the gap between the brand and the consumer, resulting in customer alienation and higher churn. Human beings are social animals and therefore, crave personal interaction and businesses that do not take out time to connect with their customers end up losing them to the competition.
- Disregarding customer feedback: Brands with low-performing CX strategies often dismiss customer feedback and fail to act on it. They don’t understand that customer feedback, especially negative, is a coveted asset that gives your business that chance to show your customers that you are listening and that you care about them. Not embracing feedback is a major hurdle in the way of building a loyal customer base.
- Asking the wrong questions: The quality of customer feedback depends on the questions that a customer is asked. A lot of feedback forms ask the wrong questions; questions that are vague, long, and at times complicated. Feedback questions are also often not tied back to clear objectives. This renders customer feedback useless in helping businesses identify critical weaknesses in their CX and in providing actionable insights.
- A narrow feedback collection net: Collecting feedback from a select few customer touch-points is a sign of a poor CX strategy. Customer experiences differ for each acquisition and service channel and therefore, failure to collect data from as many places as possible including review sites leads to providing customer experiences that only cater to a select group and alienate others.
- Untrained talent: Common in companies with centralized governance, frontline employees don’t have the power or the skills to resolve customer issues. Additionally, they have inadequate training in the company’s CX strategy. This leads to a failure in resolving customer issues on the spot and as quickly as possible, which can drive the customer away for good.
CX the re:look way
There are many consulting companies in the market that assist businesses in crafting the right CX strategy but none do it the re:look way. At re:look, we lead with the understanding that our lives are highly connected and our marketplace experiences have a huge impact on our individual, as well as collective, well-being. Therefore, our consulting services are designed to help you build customer journeys and reshape your CX to maximize impact and create extraordinary value for every consumer.
To learn how to close your CX gap, schedule an appointment with one of our expert consultants today.
