5 ways to make customer experience your brand

Leverage the following tips to immediately improve your CX and ensure customers are always at the centre of your business strategy.

When you think how consumers interact with companies today, it’s almost impossible not to consider the level of accuracy that digital has allowed companies to deliver because of what they already know about customers. In the era of likes, tracked behaviors, targeted ads and personalised service, modern companies have fine-tuned engagement into a science that, when done right, can deliver tremendous returns.

But what happens when that perfect service interaction is disrupted by inconsistencies by other lines of business like your marketing and advertising teams? More importantly, how do your customers feel when they’re on the receiving end of these experiences and interactions?

Most digital professionals would agree that no one wants to deliver a bad customer experience. But even with so much effort being pushed into service, commerce and marketing applications, things can still go wrong.

Based on our experience working with thousands of organisations worldwide, it’s clear that even companies that are already delivering a reasonably good customer experience are looking for new ways to transform their service and marketing experience into one that’s more memorable to customers, builds loyalty and drives revenue.

Unfortunately, not all companies are there yet. Most suffer from a common disconnect between lines of business that frustrate customers to the point where they turn elsewhere for the same product or service. On an hourly basis, consumers are being tracked, monitored and targeted by advertisements, advertorials, videos and other content — making it clear to them just how much companies know about them. The media has also shed enormous light on how much targeting and segmentation is taking place across everything from appliance purchases to voting. But when these same consumers move from the ‘service step’ to a different touch point, they realise that information is siloed and uncoordinated.

Take for example a customer that calls into a service department about a problem with a ‘connected’ IoT product they recently purchased. The customer takes the time out of their busy schedule to explain the problem to the service department. The service department can access additional information about the product because the product is connected and is able the ascertain that a service call will be necessary. Frustrated, the customer selects an appointment time and date and hopes that, once there, the technician will resolve the problem. In the days prior to the appointment the customer continues to receive marketing messages about the product, and other complimentary products as if nothing was wrong. In an age of micro-moment targeting, why wouldn’t the customer receive a communication acknowledging the situation, assuring the customer that they will resolve their problem? It’s what customers expect today.

Is that your current situation? If so, consider how you can make experience part of your overall brand strategy, more specifically marketing and commerce powered service, in order to deliver on the customer experience that people both expect and deserve:

1. Connect everything: Customers don’t care about your technology systems or how they work. They just expect that when they call a company the information they’ve provided online, in person, via chat or on another telephone call will be available to further refine their experience with your company. Demonstrating understanding in one area, such as marketing, without connecting that understanding to commerce or service, will only lead to customer frustration.

2. Set standards: In an age of micro-moment personalisation, you should have rules in place to ensure that customers with ongoing service issues receive communications that acknowledge their current situation.

3. Have the right conversations: There is nothing more frustrating than calling into a company for help only to have to repeat yourself over and over again, and to be on the receiving end of communications that clearly demonstrate the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

4. Make CX part of everyone’s job: Too often, organisations get fixated on the service department as being the front line when it comes to the customer experience. But in the age of digital, each customer touch point — including marketing, loyalty, commerce and the respective lines of business — should coordinate their piece of the customer experience to ensure maximum customer satisfaction.

5. Search for and fix the areas where customers are most frustrated: Early, quick wins are important to keep the momentum going.

Learn how Oracle can help you make customer experience your brand.

Originally published here.