In today’s connected world, customers have more choices than
ever before. So, they have fewer reasons than to do business with brands that
don’t provide exceptional experiences. After all, customer experience is the total
of all interactions that customers have with a brand, and their perception is
the end result.
Interactions offer opportunities for companies to learn more
about the customer’s needs and to strengthen the relationship. In fact, customer
experience is one of the few remaining sources of competitive advantage. If you
want a competitive advantage, follow these eight steps to great customer
experience from a new book, “Attack
of the Customers,” by Greg Gianforte, founder of RightNow Technologies,
Inc. and Paul Gillin.
1. Establish a Knowledge
Foundation
The first step in delivering an exceptional customer
experience is establishing a knowledge foundation that should contain knowledge
about your products and company and your customers. Employees can rely on the
knowledge foundation to enhance customer interactions, while customers can use
it for self-service. Gianforte suggest that once it’s running, determine where
the knowledge gaps are by capturing customer questions and business responses.
Then, organize the information in the knowledge base for easy access and
provide a way for customers to use it to answer their questions.
2. Empower Customers
with Self-Service
Provide customers access to the knowledge foundation created
in step one so they can find the information they need whenever they want it. According
to Gianforte, self-service options benefit both customers and your company - providing
speed, round-the-clock service, and effectiveness, load-balancing and
first-contact resolution.
3. Empower Frontline Staff
When creating a great customer experience, you also have to
empower front line staff who interact with customers to exceed expectations. By
giving frontline employees the means to go beyond the basics of customer
support, you can create raving fans. You can start by making sure that
frontline employees have all the information they need about customer’s
previous interactions so that employees can personalize the conversation.
4. Offer Multichannel
Support
Multi-channel options aren’t a choice for organizations,
they’re a requirement for business, according to Gianforte. To deliver
consistently excellent customer experiences while offering customers a choice
of channels, all customer interactions must be unified. Everyone interacting
with customers should be able to see all relevant previous exchanges,
regardless of the channels. A knowledge foundation not only helps enable this, it also makes
reporting a lot easier. If customers have trouble finding what they need via
one channel, they should be able to quickly switch to another, otherwise they
may become disinclined to use self-service again.
5. Listen to Your Customers
Delivering an excellent customer experience is impossible if
you don’t have a systematic way to listen. Effective listening sharpens focus
and enables you to correct problems before they escalate. Start by have a
person who understands social networks listen for your products trademarks, as
well as those of your competitors, market categories, and related issues of
interest. In addition, instead of waiting months for the results of a formal
customer survey, ask customers for feedback at the time of interaction.
6. Design Seamless
Experiences
In many organizations, multiple teams interact with
customers, yet they don’t work with one another. To break down walls, consider
your organization from the customer’s perspective. Evaluate cross-departmental
processes and how they might be automated with software to provide a seamless
customer experience. According to Gianforte , Build rich customer profiles that
show front line employees all the customer attributes they need; use customer
information to drive specialized attention; make workflow rules flexible and
give managers the ability to implement workflow rules without technical staff;
move support online; give nontechnical staff tools that allow them to post Web
content; and automate certain customer communications.
7. Engage Proactively
with Customers
“Many companies take the ‘emergency room’ approach to
dealing with customers. They wait until the ‘patient’ is brought in on a
stretcher and then practice triage,” explained Gianforte. Little consideration
is given to what caused the problem. Instead, organizations should be focused
on addressing the factors that erode customer satisfaction. By understanding
your customers and their history, you can move your customer experience from
the emergency room to the fitness center.
8. Measure and Improve
Continually
Keep in mind that success is a process, not an event, said Gianforte.
Even if you do the first seven steps perfectly, you need to continually measure
your performance and foster a culture that drives improvement. One way to do
this is by paying attention to competitors that are recognized for service. It’s
also helpful to network with peers, via conferences, or sponsored events. Keep
measuring performance, via metrics like customer satisfaction, and conversion
rates.
The above steps provide a starting place for organizations
to transform customer experience. While it makes most sense to implement them
in the order described, you can apply them differently depending on your
situation. Gianforte notes that what is
most important is that they help you make customer experience the top priority.
No comments:
Post a Comment