In recent times, many leaders are back at the drawing board to formulate customer-centric strategies that produce the most exceptional experiences which businesses crave to provide their customers in 2021.
Here are some of the best and most common techniques industry-leading organizations employ for their CX strategies.
1. Ask the right questions
Businesses leading the CX game are very clear about who they are, what they do as a company, and whether their CX strategies relate to their overall market goals.
To establish a clear plan for their customer experience, companies need to ask themselves questions such as:
- What plan do we have for our brand, business, and customer experience?
- What impact does that plan have on achieving our company goals?
- What is the best way to achieve equilibrium between “human touch” and technology?
- Will that plan play out with different clients in the future?
- Would that plan improve as the customer’s path progresses?
The CX programs for most of these businesses aim at providing market satisfaction and a return on investment (ROI). Companies can achieve this by combining their CX strategy to the growth of core elements such as customer engagement, pipeline generation, number of exchanges/transactions, and spending behaviors in a specific time frame.
2. Use data to segment your audience
Australia-based bank, Westpac, came up with an initiative called “No Me” that involved analyzing customer records which revealed similarities between specific customer groups. For instance, one particular group adopted three of their products in the same order for similar needs throughout their lives. However, the second group already had the first two products and was most certainly going to adopt the third product when the time came.
By making changes to their existing plan instead of creating a new plan, Westpac sold the third commodity as the “next best choice” to the second group of customers, yielding more than a 40 percent conversion rate. They increased both spending and purchases from a specific customer segment by using digital market research to help segment customers and distinctively demonstrate the ROI of their initiative.
Today, businesses can capitalize on relevant customer data with an investment in a digital transformation that can help glean better insights into customer behavior and interests. A survey conducted by Gartner in 2020 showed that 91 percent of businesses in the APAC region said that CX was one of, if not the primary target, for their digital marketing change activities. By the year 2021, over half the APAC companies (53 percent) expect to increase their CX tech spending for this very reason.
3. Master the fundamentals of customer service
The fundamentals of customer service may not always be what you think. For a customer, the fundamentals would entail having a convenient, fast, and effective means of doing business. Instead, companies bombard their customers, attempting to entertain them, which causes tremendous confusion.
The problem with this approach is that most CX strategies forget that customers are human beings who tend to avoid risk, failure, or disappointment.
Hence, they would be hesitant to try fancy new initiatives. By ignoring the fundamentals, companies end up with a CX strategy that closes opportunities instead of opening new avenues to establish reliable and trustworthy customer relationships.
For instance, Westpac was able to refocus on the human element of their strategies by getting their basics right. They optimized their website user interface by providing a simpler and more intuitive personal finance management system, making fund transfers faster and effortless.
4. Approach it from the lens of the customer
Don’t just focus on customer survey responses to identify your customer’s perspective. Using tools for analytics, engaging with customers, drawing on their prior interactions, and spending time with them can pave the way for businesses to go beyond just basing it on their data. Giving a detailed and visceral understanding of what matters to the customer for effective, informed decisions.
Westpac proved this point by using analytical tools and customer history data to understand the customer better. The brand created a banking app called “Cash Tank” which was made available to users on Google Glass, smartphones, smartwatches, and vehicle interfaces. By enabling easy financial management, Westpac helped their customers make more reliable and effective banking decisions.
Conclusion
Customer experience has never been more relevant, and we believe that this rapid technological adoption will continue in 2021. Leaders today can inspire customer service teams and accelerate customer-centric growth by keeping these policies, systems, and technologies in place.
