One of the best things to do if you want to be one of the customer experience leaders is listen. This requires that you pay attention to trends, you try new social media channels and most important you effectively listen to your customers. Through actively engaging customers in dynamic conversations (and then quantifying this data) about their needs, over time, you can proactively cause those customer relationships to grow and evolve making your customers brand advocates. What your customers want (the how, what, when and how often), contributes to how your customers view your call center, your company, your brand and your products. While there are many drivers to business today, the leaders in customer experience management are using analytics to improve their decision making. Why? Because, just when you think you have your customers pegged, their needs change, their standards are raised even higher and you must go back and re-evaluate your products and services.
What analytics (Newbies: this is more than surveying we are talking about here) are you using to stay connected to your customers needs? What should you be doing to raise customer satisfaction? Can you afford to ignore your customers? These customers were heard and will surely be customers for life!
“Thanks for adding a free three-day shipping option to your web site for orders over $50. I felt like with all the money I spend with your company it’s the least you could do.”
“The new 3-in-1 printer is everything I need! I’m so glad you made a compact and affordable option for home offices.”
“I really appreciated you providing a direct customer service number with my appliance. I had some issues operating it and it was so nice to get to a call center agent directly and not go through an IVR phone system.”
Analysis is important, but it’s not the be all, end all. To really lead in experience, you have to have a culture that’s built to serve. This video offers great advice for creating that kind of culture – http://www.upyourservice.com/video-theater/how-do-you-build-and-sustain-a-superior-service-culture
Jodie’s post makes an excellent point. Listening to your customers cannot simply be accomplished by conducting a 10 question email survey. The way your customers communicate, and the manner in which products and services are changing faster than ever, requires that companies have a “conversation” with their customers. Customers really do not like to change vendors. It’s a lot of work. But, frequently, they are forced to seek out other suppliers because they feel that their needs are no longer being met. Richard Shapiro, The Center For Client Retention