UNIT 2 MANAGING THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

1. UNIT 2MANAGING THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

2. LEARNING OUTCOME 4Apply effective customer experience management within a service sector business to maximise customer engagement

3. P7:Demonstrate how customer servicestrategies create and develop the customerexperience in a way that meets the needs of thecustomer and required business standards

4. Customer experience strategy; what is If customer experience (CX) refers to the sum of every interaction a customer has with a business, both pre- and post-sale, the customer experience strategy defines the actionable plans in place to deliver a positive, meaningful experience across those interactions. A successful customer experience strategy should take into account a number of important factors, including, but not limited to: Competitive insight Consumer research Marketplace data Mission & vision

5. Customer experience strategy; what is When defining your customer experience strategy, you want to ensure that you're including all departments, not just the folks in customer-facing roles. By incorporating feedback and insight across the company, you'll find it's easier to align the organization around the intended goal: improving the customer experience and relationship.

6. Customer experience strategy; design Customer experience design is the process of designing products or services with the customer or user experience at the forefront of decision-making. Customer experience design is centered on building and improving products that meet customers' expectations and are easy and intuitive for them to solve their problems.

7. Customer experience strategy; design principles Develop a strong and consistent brand identity Every company has its own unique identity. The best ones are consistent and coherent across all facets: the sights, sounds, textures, and smells of the space all work together to define the character of the business. The brand identity of your business should be just as unique and consistent -- no matter what the product. Choose who you are and design every part of the customer experience to match

8. Customer experience strategy; design principles That identity should flow naturally from the personality and culture of your company, its leaders, and its employees. Don't pretend to be something you're not -- because copying your competitors too heavily is just as likely to harm you as to help you. Instead, authenticity should define the way you present your brand to customers. Once you've found your brand voice, be consistent about it in every aspect of the customer experience. Design the way you communicate across mediums and platforms. The diction and tone of your social media accounts, your advertisements, your blog, your microcopy, the visuals and graphics of your website, web app, mobile app, the way you train sales and service reps to speak to customers -- should all be consistent, coherent, and designed.

9. Customer experience strategy; design principles When your brand identity and voice are consistent, show who you are, and are designed with your target audience in mind, customers have a better experience. If you can make your customers feel at home with your brand, they'll keep coming back for a long time.

10. Customer experience strategy; design principles Enables your customer to act For many popular, in-demand shops, the traditional walk-in or call-ahead methods aren't sufficient and can cause problems for customers. Example: Tour company A with the two-week wait took appointments over the phone. Once, they accidentally double-booked me for a weekday morning hike. When I was packed and prepared, they told me I wouldn't be able to due to capacity issues nor can I reschedule for two more weeks. Tour company B has an app. I can see their calendar and select an open appointment slot for an activity of my choice. It's extremely easy, I can do it any time of the day or night, and it's much less vulnerable to human error.

11. Customer experience strategy; design principles Not only is it easier for me, it's better for the business. With so few barriers to scheduling an appointment, they can count on a full calendar, and none of their employees have to spend their time answering the phone instead of providing a good customer experience. You should be embracing the same kinds of forward-looking tools and processes for your business. Every company has legacy technology and procedures, and they are probably holding you back. Are you holding onto obstacles that make it harder for users to convert? Are your user flows and sales funnels vulnerable to friction or error? Or are you maximizing your customers' ability to choose and to act?

12. Customer experience strategy; design principles When you give customers agency, you enable them to reach the conversion goals you've set for your business on their own terms -- with less time and effort expended by your team. And when they do convert, they'll feel better about their choice and about your brand, because 1) you've provided a frictionless experience, and 2) you made them feel in control. The logic same applies after the sales funnel, during customer service interactions. Research shows that the most valuable, and satisfying, thing customer service can offer is not understanding and apologies, but options. A successful customer service interaction restores a sense of control to the concerned customer by enabling them to choose how to proceed.

13. Customer experience strategy; design principles Rethink and let go of inefficient processes, and embrace a customer experience design approach that puts customers in control of their experience whenever possible.  By creating a customer experience that enables customers to act, you help them achieve their goals quickly and positively while also maximizing opportunities for your business.

14. Customer experience strategy; design principles Build relationships with customers Interacting with your customer isn't a mere business transaction. A greeting is also a social experience, a conversation with a person you've decided to trust with your money. Some people have been going to the same business for months or years. We develop relationships with our service providers through the chit-chat of a purchasing experience. You start to know things about them, and they start to know things about you. That turns into loyalty, because you know you'll have a good experience.

15. Customer experience strategy; design principles Every business has some of this element. Building a relationship with the people you do business with enhances their experience and makes it more valuable for both parties. When you build relationships with customers, it increases trust, and trust is critical -- people have to decide whether to put their credit card or personal information into your website or app. When there's no relationship, there's little basis for that decision. When the customer knows who you are, though, they can feel comfortable performing transactions in your system

16. Customer experience strategy; design principles Relationship-building also enhances the level of service you provide to your customers. The more you get to know them, the better you are able to tailor their experience to meet their specific needs. Whether that means customizing the products they see or the marketing materials they receive, or building new features that fill unmet gaps in their experience, every business can better serve customers by having a relationship with them. Lastly, building relationships with your customers increases loyalty. It's very easy to jump ship for another website or app -- just like it's very easy to go to a different barber. The competition is high and the barriers are low. But once a customer has a relationship with a business they know and trust, they're much less likely to go anywhere else.

17. Customer experience strategy; design principles What relationship-building means for your context will vary based on your business and even on the individual customer. For some businesses, an intimate and ongoing conversation with most customers is not necessary or relevant; for others such interactions are important. Know the level that is appropriate for your own customer experience. The right relationship might just be providing personalized marketing, or supplying useful informational content like blog articles and how-to videos. The bottom line is, your customer experience should be designed as an experience for humans, not just customers.

18. Customer experience strategy; design principles Provide a superior product The product is the reason your customers have come to you, and providing a product that helps them achieve their goals is the lynchpin to good CX design. To make sure your product is meeting customers' needs, collect feedback at all times. Continuously check in with them to see how they're doing and gauge their attitudes and perceptions, in as many ways as possible: surveys, customer conversations, usability testing. Learn what you're doing well, and figure out where you can improve.

19. Customer experience strategy; design principles Designing a customer experience that satisfies means designing a product that delivers and is easy to use. This is where UX meets CX. User experience is the portion of the customer experience related specifically to the customer's interaction with the product. UX design depends heavily on doing your research and collecting feedback to optimize the product for customers' needs. When you design the UX, you're also designing perhaps the most important piece of the customer experience.

20. Customer experience strategy; design principles Leave customers feeling awesome Good customer experience design leaves customers feeling awesome about themselves. It makes your day that much better, and they go about their day with the confidence of a satisfying buy. These little "extras" may not be the main attraction, but they create disproportionate satisfaction. In UX design, people often talk about creating "delight" through design as an end goal. In customer experience design, customer delight is created through unexpected little extras like these.

21. Customer experience strategy; design principles Find your "something extra" that's unexpected and will make your customers feel awesome. That additional amount of effort to delight your customers can turn a likable brand into a lovable one. Not only that, but many of those customers will become brand advocates who will spread word-of-mouth about your business. By designing a delightful customer experience, you make existing customers happy, and open the door to many more new ones. Provide a customer experience that is designed, consistent, and innovative, and both your customers and your business will benefit.

22. Customer experience strategy; best practices There are six key areas of the digital customer experience: Reachability: What channels is your business active on? How are these channels being used? Service convenience: Can customers self-serve? What types of channels are being used to provide service? Purchase convenience: Is there friction in the purchase process? Personalization: How well does your business meet/cater to individual customer needs? Simplicity and ease of use: Are service/informational channels optimized for mobile? Is the customer journey bogged down or straightforward? Channel flexibility: Is context about the customer being used and applied across all channels? Is there a history of behavior, transactions, and conversations across touch points available for each customer?

23. Customer experience strategy; best practices Reachability Business communication plays a big part in shaping your customers' experience. If you're not meeting customers where they are, you're missing out on an opportunity to engage them when they are most interested or in need of help. Succeeding in this area of customer experience means your business must first determine which channels your customers are most active on so you can adapt your approach and serve them there. From there, it's important to familiarize yourself with the channel -- whether it be social, email, live chat, or something similar. Ask yourself: How are our customers communicating on this channel already? And how can we use this information to make our outreach feel more native?

24. Customer experience strategy; design principles Reachability can serve as a helpful competitive advantage if you execute it properly, so it's important that your business has a handle on your customers' preferred channels, and are providing reliable, consistent service through them

25. Customer experience strategy; best practices Service Convenience As customers become more empowered to discover solutions and information on their own via the internet and social media, the demand for increased service convenience grows. For businesses to remain in good standing with customers, they must prioritize start-to-finish online support. Think about it: If a customer has a question on the weekend, do they have to wait until Monday to reach out? Or do you have a 24/7 live chat feature enabled to meet their Saturday needs? Something as simple as having a polished, up-to-date knowledge base on your website is a best practice that provides customers with the ability to help themselves without having to reach out for help.

26. Customer experience strategy; best practices Purchase Convenience Nordstrom -- a luxury department store known for its impeccable service -- recently launched a new customer experience tool aimed at improving purchasing convenience. "The premise, which is built around making it easier for customers to shop in the way that they want to, enables app users to select items they like, then book to have them set in a fitting room for them in the store of their choice, ready to try on in person," explains fashion and business writer, Rachel Arthur.

27. Customer experience strategy; best practices This new system solves for convenience by allowing customers to try on clothes when and where it's convenient for them. It also gets people in the store, exposing them to thousands of other products they might be interested in purchasing. But this is just one example of how your brand can leverage and invest in purchasing convenience as part of a customer experience strategy. Something as simple as having accurate pricing and packaging information on your website can effectively eliminate purchasing friction.

28. Customer experience strategy; best practices Personalization Another thing Nordstrom is using its new customer experience tool for? Data. By learning about location and style preferences through the Nordstrom Reserve Online & Try On In-Store program, the retailer is able to incorporate personalization in a scalable way. In an effort to provide the best possible customer experience, businesses should collect information throughout the customer relationship that can be used to provide relevant suggestions or more informed support in the future.

29. Customer experience strategy; best practices In the eyes of the customer, personalization (when done right) can serve as a sign of respect for their loyalty and business. It also signals that your business is interested in strengthening the relationship by continuously working to provide better service, suggestions, support, etc. While there are many avenues for collecting and leveraging customer data, something as simple as a shared inbox for your customer success or service department serves as a great first step. By creating a transparent, universal space where folks can turn up passed customer conversations or requests, you're laying the foundation for more contextual communication and outreach.

30. Customer experience strategy; best practices Simplicity & Ease of Use Ever land on a website that was a disaster to navigate on mobile? We're willing to be you didn't stick around for very long. Back in 2015, mobile internet use passed out desktop use for the very first time. Since then, mobile usage continues to grow, making mobile optimization a high priority for businesses looking to provide a simple and seamless experience for customers and potential buyers. In an effort to amp up your businesses' ease of use, you'll want to focus on simplifying website navigation for all browsing types. After all, you can't expect customers to wait until they get to a desktop to uncover the information they need, right?

31. Customer experience strategy; best practices A great example to reference here is Amazon. Amazon embodies simplicity and ease of use in their checkout process by enabling Amazon Prime members to buy an item with just one click. What's more, it also offers a quick and easy way to uncover product info and answers to common purchasing questions within the same screen

32. Customer experience strategy; best practices Simplicity & Ease of Use When thinking about your approach to channel flexibility, keep the term omni-channel in mind. If you're unfamiliar with the term, onmi-channel is defined as an approach that provides customers with an integrated, seamless experience -- even when moving from desktop to mobile or social media channel to live support. In an omni-channel world, the customer experience should be the same across platforms and channels -- and it should contain proper context when applicable.

33. Customer experience strategy; best practices "For true omni-channel success, there must be a 360-degree view of customer interactions across all channels (digital and traditional) to monitor channel preference, usage, and customer journeys from the customer perspective," explain the folks at TeleTech, a customer experience management solution. If you're looking to streamline channel flexibility as a key part of your customer experience strategy, get your team together to talk about what you want the customer experience to look, feel, and sound like across channels. From there, you'll have the common ground you need to begin employing a more fluid, contextual overall experience.

34. Customer experience strategy; long-term play Rome wasn't built in a day -- and you shouldn't expect your customer experience strategy to be either. Our advice? Work on defining and streamlining the six key areas above, but do so under the notion that things are subject to change. As you learn about what it means to communicate with customers on their terms, and collect data along the way, you'll find it's easier to make informed decisions about your overall customer experience strategy.

35. Customer experience strategy; vision Almost every successful company recognizes that it is in the customer-experience business. Organizations committed to this principle are as diverse as the online retail giant Amazon; The Walt Disney Company, from its earliest days operating in a small California studio; and the US Air Force, which uses an exotic B2B-like interface to provide close air support for ground troops under fire. Conversely, companies that are not attuned to a customer-driven marketplace are remarkably easy to spot. Consider the traditional US taxi industry, which is facing significant new competition from the likes of Lyft and Uber. Customer-service standouts clearly understand that this is central to their success as businesses.

36. Customer experience strategy; vision Knowing that your organization is primarily in the customer-service business is not, however, enough to achieve organizational change. To build internal momentum for initiatives to develop a unique customer experience, a company must understand how that helps it perform distinctively in the market. The conviction and shared aspiration that stem from understanding the customer experience an organization wants to deliver can not only inspire, align, and guide it but also bring innovation, energy, and a human face to what would otherwise just be strategy. The story of one US airport’s efforts to define a distinctive customer experience illustrates how such a transformation can take shape.

37. Customer experience strategy; vision The customer experience an organization wants to provide can vary widely. For some companies, this transformed experience represents a step change. For others, the aspiration may, at least in the short term, require only more modest changes. Either way, the aspiration will translate into an overall mission and, ultimately, into guiding principles for frontline behavior. One caveat: it is easy to err by aiming too low. In our experience, looking at historical performance and at whatever helped satisfy customers in the past can often make marginal tweaks seem good enough. Understanding the fundamental wants and needs of customers must be a step in determining what a great experience for them should look like.

38. example  Five years ago, a taxi company might have thought that decreasing the wait time when a customer ordered a cab would be sufficient. But some companies saw a competitive opportunity in addressing the wishes of customers trying to deal with a transportation challenge by getting more control, comfort, and safety, as well as lower costs. Understanding and addressing customer needs more effectively is a key reason successful start-ups disrupt industries in today’s more customer-centric marketplace.

39. Customer experience strategy; vision We find that several key questions commonly underpin successful stories and strategies: What is a company’s appetite for change in the near term? Is the goal to change the customer experience fundamentally or simply to improve it at the margins? What is the gap between the needs and wants of customers and what they actually experience? How can the company gain a customer-experience advantage against competitors? At which point in the experience should the company concentrate to have a real impact? How do the overall capabilities of the staff support the customer experience the company wants to provide?

40. Customer experience strategy; vision It is vital to define an aspiration centered on what matters to customers—and on how it affects your business. There may be no customer-experience location more demanding than major airports, and executives at one recently discovered how powerful and counterintuitive the responses to these questions can be. The executives formed a broad change team and spent several months determining what the airport should aim to deliver. Their aspiration at once captured the simplicity of the goal and the daunting complexity of the task: to provide the most enjoyable and efficient way possible for travelers to get from one destination to another.

41. Customer experience strategy; vision The effort to deliver that experience started with a multilayer diagnostic. It involved complex analyses, passenger tracking (via Wi-Fi) that yielded more than a million data points in the first few weeks, and employee focus groups that concentrated on the issues that matter to employees and customers. Traditional shop-floor observations were included as well. Combining these inputs, the airport’s team developed a profile of what makes customers satisfied (or dissatisfied) with airports, as well as actionable insights that led directly to the design of a new customer-experience program

43. Customer experience strategy; vision Gathering and segmenting data are classic starting points in understanding customers. But data are not enough. Successful customer-experience efforts apply a human filter to the collected data to ask overarching questions. Exactly who are my customers as individuals? What motivates them? What do they want to achieve? What are the fundamental causes of satisfaction? Obviously, tackling these questions requires a concerted analytical effort, which helps an organization design and implement a more sophisticated program and, critically, persuade employees to embrace its goals.