As a leader you have been able to measure how much the
current health crisis has put organizations and turnover under pressure. It
also revealed new purchasing behaviors, strong and different expectations,
which quickly became new habits.
The first beneficiaries are those who had already bet and
invested in the customer experience. Indeed, the stake for companies is now
expressed in terms of customer experience. At a time when we have becomes
accustomed to 'Googling' our research and sharing our experiences, the opinions
available on the internet serve as recommendations.
For some, this has been a godsend for improving customer
retention rates and winning new ones. So you too have decided to use the lever
of satisfaction.
Here are the six thing you need to know about the customer
experience in 2021 before you engage your teams.
Customer experience is not customer relationship
I don't know of a business leader who isn't concerned about
customer satisfaction. However, the reality of the facts is very variable. It
depends a lot on the meaning of the term '' satisfaction '' that everyone has.
So let's start by clarifying what these three expressions cover.
The customer relationship
The customer relationship (or RC) is "all the exchanges
between a company or a brand and its audience, on all the channels and by all
the modes of communication that exist." (source: easiware). This
relationship is channeled and orchestrated by the company, failing to be
(totally) on its initiative. While the customer relationship is aimed at
customers, it remains focused on the objectives and processes of the
organization.
Customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is one of the objectives of the
company (a priori). It is above all the consequence of what a customer has
experienced throughout his `` history '' with the company or the brand - which
of course includes the use of the product or service acquired.
Satisfaction therefore has a subjective dimension: it is
closely linked to the perception that this customer has of his experience in
fine.
Customer experience
The customer experience means " all the emotions and
feelings experienced by a client before, during and after the purchase of a
product or service. ” (Source: Marketing definitions).
It is therefore the results of all the interactions that a
customer has had with the brand or the company, directly or indirectly (see
opinions of other customers) and this at each stage of the purchase journey:
before, during and after the sale ..
If the experience can partly refer to the customer
relationship, it differs in that it addresses a broader framework - before the
purchase in particular - and targets emotions.
In addition, a customer's experience is partly beyond the
control of the company or brand, insofar as it is based on subjective elements
- for example what this customer may have read on the web (cf. blogs, reviews,
etc…).
Last difference - and not the least - with the customer
relationship: the customer experience is based on processes focused on
consumers and users.
These are placed in the center. It's a paradigm shift. We
speak of customer-centric in original version.
In other words, the challenge for a company or an
organization - especially if it is aimed at individuals - is now to create a
pleasant experience that customers will enjoy renewing and sharing.
The customer experience is not (only) the business of the marketing
department
“See that with marketing!
I hear quite frequently, “See that with marketing. Well
that's a mistake.
The marketing department is not in charge of reception or
sales; nor is he responsible for customer service or after-sales service. And
he is not the one who makes the decisions that bind the company or the brand.
Customer experience (or user experience) is everyone's
business in the organization. Consequently, it is a matter for the General
Management or the CODIR.
Not all customers are the same
A first bias consists in thinking that our customers are
like us: same expectations, same logic, same springs. It's wrong.
A second lies in the belief that all customers are the same
in terms of purchasing behavior - a belief that leads to their being summarized
under the generic name “THE customer”. This is also wrong.
The last bias is to believe that no one knows our customers
better than we do. This is still false - unless you have carried out a detailed
analysis of the clientele, and have identified the different categories of
people who make it up, as well as the purchasing behaviors that are specific to
them.
One of the key factors of success lies precisely in our
ability to distinguish customers according to their expectations, their needs
and their fears and problems .
And of course to take into account these characteristics in
the construction of a fluid and positive experience without friction (we speak
of frictionless selling in original version).
The customer experience doesn't start with the purchase
The belief that a customer's experience begins with the act
of buying is wrong. As the definition proposed above indicates, the customer
experience begins with the first contact with the company or brand.
However, this first contact today is above all digital.
Whether it is from our smartphone or our computer, our searches start on
Google, in 95% of cases (and therefore with rare exceptions). Therefore, being
present on the internet has become a prerequisite; to be chosen, you must first
be visible .
In addition, the consumer has become more demanding. He
consults several sites before making his choice. Therefore, the ergonomics of
the site is of paramount importance: it must make consumers want to go further.
In particular, he must be able to immediately identify what the company or the
brand can do for him . It is in particular on this first impression that he
will form an opinion, and decide to continue or to skip.
However, word of mouth is not dead. It has even been
strengthened and remains linked to the customer experience. At the end of the
experience, we find the Grail: the recommendation that it be online ( e-reputation)
or offline.
So, what colleague or friend has not already shared their
opinion with us? “ I recommend this restaurant, it's delicious. "Or"
Don't go, the service is deplorable. "
The lived experience influences the customer (or user) long
after they have consumed the good or service. Loyalty therefore begins with a
successful experience.
Not all customers have the same buying journey
The customer's experience is the result of all the
interactions he can have with the brand or the company - cf. supra. These can
be limited or multiple depending on the nature of the journey (s) taken by a
customer. We are talking about omnichannel.
A person can follow different routes in a service station,
depending on the motivations of his visit. Each route is made up of stages and
points of contact.
For example, the `` FUEL '' route is made up of four to five
stages - I arrive / (I wait) / I give my keys / I pay / I leave the station -
and has two points of contact: the attendant the pump and the cashier. The
customer's opinion will ultimately depend on the quality of this short
experience.
In this simple example, interactions are limited. If the
same customer adds washing his vehicle to the purchase of fuel, the journey
becomes different, the stages and / or the points of contact more numerous.
Hence the imperative need for the brand to map and detail the different routes
in order to identify the points of friction (where it `` gets stuck '') - a
prerequisite for any action aimed at improving the customer experience.
Note also the influence of internal company processes on
interactions with customers. As such, heavy or complex processes will put a
strain on the quality of the lived experience. Hence the interest in favoring
simple and readable processes, particularly with regard to customer relations.
For example, as with the KISS principle, the acronym stands
for “keep it simple stupid”. Be careful, keeping it simple is sometimes ...
complicated.
Always check your assumptions
Focusing on the customer experience naturally leads to
formulating hypotheses (at least replacing our certainties with hypotheses), in
the first place to answer three essential questions: "Who are our
customers?" "What makes them different?" (objectives,
expectations, motivations), and “What are their (purchasing) journeys?”
It is a work that we can carry out alone, with the marketing
people, or with all the collaborators who are in contact with customers or
users, as when defining the personas or the ideal customer (called in the
jargon marketing “ideal Customer Profile or ICP).
Mobilizing and sharing collective knowledge makes it
possible to quickly provide answers, and to identify the directions in which to
dig.
However, the latter remain the domain of hypotheses. The
mistake at this stage would be not to check them, ie not to confront them with
reality. However, the latter is at hand. Here are two simple and complementary
ways to understand it.
The first is to find customer data available internally.
There are multiple sources: information system, CRM , sales department,
customer service, complaints department, after-sales service ... The data thus
collected will make it possible to confirm certain hypotheses and rule out
others.
The second is to go out to meet and come into contact with
customers or users. How did they identify us? Why (for WHAT) did they choose
us? What is important to them? The answers formulated by 'real' consumers will
reveal to us the plurality of motivations, expectations and fears. All this
valuable information is necessary to draw up the typical profiles of our
clients in a relevant way.
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