The Four Things Companies Are Still Getting Wrong About Customer Experience

The digital age has shaped customers to expect applications to be relevant to them, always available, instantly responsive, and accessible when and where they need them.

This “always on, always there, always relevant to each customer” way of thinking has redefined how enterprises do business. The best enterprises and brands are not only focusing on delivering hyper-personalized customer experiences at every touchpoint, they are taking the lead in reconfiguring their organizations to operate around “customer experience.”

But with all the focus on customer experience being the new competitive differentiator, there are still areas where companies are missing the mark. These blinds spots can have a damaging impact on the customer experience even if brands are doing everything else right:

1) Customer data is siloed

Marketing, customer service, R&D, corporate communications, IT, and sales are still far too often siloed, as far as their data is concerned. Each owns data around the customer, but that data is not centralized with one view of the customer, and that data is not shared between departments. The customer belongs to the brand, but the relationship with the customer is owned by too many disparate functions.

Customer data needs to be centralized and shareable to create a 360-degree view. Everyone that touches the customer experience has ownership in the relationship. Like a multidisciplinary healthcare team that provides care for a patient, the customer should feel that they are interacting with a single, integrated, seamless whole, not with separate, non-communicating functions.

2) CSAT is the primary measure of loyalty CSAT surveys provide critical data on customer satisfaction and an important metric to gauge how well the brand is doing on customer experience. But, CSAT scores alone do not equate to loyalty and retention.

Today’s customers are loyal to their experiences, not to their brands. They stay with a brand as long as they continue to have the experiences they desire. ThinkJar reports that 67% of customers cite bad experiences as a reason for churn. However, the absence of negative feedback is not a sign of satisfaction. ThinkJar also reported that only one of 26 unhappy customers will complain — the rest simply leave. Which means brands must focus on the unseen, unspoken drivers of loyalty and retention and not rely solely on surveys for an accurate measure.

3) Not every employee is empowered to be a customer experience champion (and they should be)

For an enterprise to truly become customer-centric, everyone must personally own the customer experience in the work they do each day. Companies must be able to clearly articulate what defines their standards for customer experience and share it widely from the boardroom on down to IT, sales associates, and influencers. Customer experience education, training, and accountability are essential for everyone if the customer is to have exceptional levels of customer experience replicated each time they interact with the brand. Remember, replication and consistency are what drive retention.

4) Data is not used for real-time insights

The ability to deliver hyper-personalization depends on your ability to read, interact with, and respond to customer behavior in real time. If your data platform can’t provide a scalable, flexible foundation on which to build amazing customer experience applications, then your enterprise will not be able to generate customer experiences that keep pace with the demands of the Right-Now Customer.

A customer experience-focused data management platform enables real-time personalization that delivers an amazing, tailored customer experience anywhere, on any device, seamlessly across touchpoints. It should scale to handle high volumes and be capable of creating a hyper-personalized, responsive, consistent experience that drives retention and loyalty.

Drive consistent customer experience with real-time data management

To avoid disruption in the customer experience arena, enterprises must be able to create replicable experiences that are highly personalized to each customer in the moment it matters most to that customer. A consistent customer experience is what builds trust between brands and the customer, and what ultimately drives retention. Data management platforms that deliver in real time are key to building a customer-centric organization in today’s digital age. Becoming a Customer-Centric Organization (eBook)