Customer Experience: Minimize Wasteful Spending, Maximizing Insightful knowledge
Customer Experience: Minimize Wasteful Spending, Maximizing Insightful knowledge
In currently prevailing global economic conditions, service related companies, i.e. banks, telecom & healthcare providers, airlines, retailers, feel more than ever how imperative it is to identify ways of improving the service offered to customers! What could be proven as even more critical in the effort of engaging customers with brands, is to make certain improvements which will be noticed by their clientele. Such effective improvements should be regarded as a necessity. This should, ideally, in turn, increase customer engagement levels leading clients to feel confident enough to talk (or even promote) of brands to their friends / relatives / colleagues / etc.
This document describes a framework of what a Customer Experience program should be perceived as, as opposed to the classic customer satisfaction measurement usually carried out, on the premise that customer satisfaction is not enough to determine the likelihood of (or predict) customer retention or business expansion. In terms of healthcare in specific, patient satisfaction can never be perceived as the same as patient experience. Although patient satisfaction could be high as patient leaves a hospital fully recovered, the overall experience could be seen differently by the patient as the treatment or behavior might have been not at the expected standards.
The relationship between satisfaction and behavior is nonlinear, meaning that repeat purchase cannot be assured purely by ones level of satisfaction to a brand or product. Satisfaction is primarily a measure of the degree to which a product or service meets customers’ minimum requirements and that is why satisfaction scores are usually high (top 2 box scores over 80%+). Basically high satisfaction is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for customer behavior – for example, it is quite common that customers who are likely to recommend a company (to others) are usually satisfied with the company in question, however it is not necessary those who are “satisfied” with a brand, will, at the same time, recommend it to others.
Directors in charge, usually focus more on numbers rather than on valuable quality insights of data gathered. However, the latter that constitutes the key material to be utilized to produce effective policies that would increase customer engagement with brands, and any executive failing to underpin this, would simply fall far from meeting the real target! Improving score-sheets with unnoticeable, by the end-customers, efforts, would, in most times, not engage / commit customers with brands further. At the same time, such efforts would, on one hand be considered meaningless, whilst at the same time, won’t be free of charge!! The enrollment of customers in the efforts to increase the client base and engaging them with their brands should be amongst the real objectives/goals!
The ideal scenario is not only to maintain own brand’s current customer database, but also to enlighten the key competitors receptive customers’ unmet needs / expectations, in a way so as to successfully maneuver them when considering shifting / switching from their current brand, and start using the one someone intend to make them use.
Safeguarding that the above goal is met could be described as “phenomenon” of a customer centric program to be developed by any director in charge!
Professional’s immediate challenge is to work with highly collaborative approaches and engage themselves in ongoing dialogues so as to provide Consultants with a deeper understanding of their business requirements. While in this effort, they should take into consideration the following:
- Allow respondents to provide their own insights that would enable them to take the immediate corrective actions to remedy weaknesses and problematic areas of their brands
- Be receptive / willing enough to engage themselves in long term Segmentation processes: For effective analysis of data, Customers (and inevitably non-customers) Segmentation process is a MUST – This will allow the mirroring of specific needs within specific people. Subsequent efficient Communication with specific target groups of people will lead to much appreciated success stories!
Directors in charge of any customer experience need to work with consultants and have the courage to raise business issues / problems / questions, along with the instinct to look for ways to self-fund customer experience improvements. Sophisticated companies that figure out what matters most to customers, eliminate the investments that don’t matter, and finance the ones that do, will thrive. A policy that surely simplifies life in the long run!