{"id":964061,"date":"2020-05-27T10:29:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-27T17:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/customerthink.com\/?p=964061"},"modified":"2020-05-27T10:29:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-27T17:29:00","slug":"the-forces-of-customer-experience-drive-stronger-relationships-through-a-better-understanding-of-customer-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/the-forces-of-customer-experience-drive-stronger-relationships-through-a-better-understanding-of-customer-needs\/","title":{"rendered":"The Forces of Customer Experience: Drive Stronger Relationships through a Better Understanding of Customer Needs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you truly understand the forces that are at play in your customers’ minds? Doing so is a critical step in the design of customer experiences that can foster strong relationships and drive competitive advantage. But at a time of such great upheaval, how can you tell where to focus your efforts and investment in order to drive profitable relationships? This article introduces Ipsos\u2019 new human-centric framework and explains its importance in uncertain marketplaces\u2019<\/em><\/p>\r\n

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The COVID-19 crisis has generated significant changes in customers’ expectations, attitudes, and behaviours, many of which have changed the makeup of customer-business relations for the long term. The impact of the crisis will be sustained as we enter a period of transition, post-lockdown, where businesses have to adjust to a ‘new normal’, with physical outlets reopening while social distancing still applies, and remote channels continuing to see a surge in demand as more customers continue to interact digitally and via the contact centre.<\/p>\r\n

In this new normal, a priority for organisations will be to work out how to reinvent their ability to service customers in a way that is in line with health and safety requirements but also meets changing customer needs; the ultimate goal remaining the same as before: designing experiences that drive stronger relationships, competitive advantage and revenue growth.<\/p>\r\n

A framework for the ‘new normal’<\/h2>\r\n

Tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) such as customer satisfaction or Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a good way to keep a pulse on customer sentiment, but it is not enough. In order to design experiences that truly connect with changing customers’ needs, organisations need to leverage proven frameworks which provide strategic guidance to focus on what truly matters.<\/p>\r\n

Ipsos’ has developed a framework for customer experience<\/a> that helps organisations drive stronger relationships through a better understanding of customers’ functional and relational needs. Our research spans nine sectors and employs behavioural science theory to frame the analysis of more than 9,000 evaluations of customers. We were able to quantify the impact of ‘emotional attachment’ on relationship strength and customer outcomes, and to identify the key ingredients of strong relationships between customers and companies.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Figure 1 – The Forces of CX<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

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Source: Ipsos R&D<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n

Towards a more human-centric CX<\/h2>\r\n

Our data shows that, while there are benefits associated with creating functional satisfaction, huge gains can be achieved in terms of ‘business success metrics’ as relationship strength increases. As demonstrated in the chart below, when a customer is emotionally attached, they are:<\/p>\r\n