The customer experience has been top of mind this week. I have engaged in a lot of discussion and GrowthANSWERS did a live learning event on the subject. For as long as mankind has charged for goods and services, I suppose we have worried – or should have worried – about our customer’s experience. Three observations:
- In a slow economy, focusing on the customer experience is more important than ever.
- In the social media age, never has there been an easier time for customers to publicly complain about a poor customer experience.
- And never has there been more opportunity for business to quickly understand – address – and solve a customer’s poor experience.
The word is overused, but it’s past time to be innovative in your thinking about your customer’s experience. Consumers continuously make innovative buying decisions – and smart companies observe consumers’ innovative usage of products to make them better.
You must FOCUS on your entire customer experience – and do it better than the competition. This applies to EVERY step in the relationship. From initial contact through the sales process, from purchase to execution. Every decision you make must keep the customer in mind. Doing this, and doing it right, will be a differentiator in your market.
Social media changes everything. Assume a poor customer experience will be reported on in real time. I did. This is a great thing because it will keep us on our toes and alert. Consumers will Twitter about bad experiences IN REAL TIME!
But social media allows you to respond to those bad customer experiences too. You can serve better – and faster. Take advantage. But assume your competition is learning as you read this.
Yes, the customer experience is now 24/7. Acknowledge and celebrate this - and you will succeed. Ignore – and you will fail.
UPDATED: From Twitter, a great point was made by Rich Becker. He said that customer experience has ALWAYS been 24/7. But without social media we just didn’t see it. How true. Another profound reason why social media is changing the rules. In a good way!
Share some innovative things you have done to improve your overall customer experience.
