It’s my guess that some businesses will start the new year without a customer experience design strategy for keeping their customers happy. There will be goals, targets, actions and intentions, but not an overarching strategy for customer happiness.
Because of the existence of complaints, ball dropping, promises not being kept, friction-filled exchanges with customers and the lows and highs of customer opinions in the comments section of their social media pages, many businesses will be “discussing” their less than stellar customer engagement levels,
Some businesses that have been overcome by fatigue with low returns on customer service training, will be contemplating “something more impactful” than stand-alone training to get themselves out of the service failure quicksand. A few will be discussing seriously, the need for something radical and revolutionary to be undertaken to change their existing culture, to one that is customer-centric.
While essentially, there will be no shortage of a flurry of discussion around the ways and means of improving customer service, there will be one missing ingredient in many of these strategy discussions……strategy.
Whenever a business discusses strategy, the focus should be on carving out a defining intention that will yield a significant advantage for the business. Multiple goals, objectives, targets and actions are then distilled from the strategy, turning the entire exercise into a cohesive framework.
Whenever a business discusses strategy, the focus should be on carving out a defining intention that will yield a significant advantage for the business.
Very often, I encounter businesses that never consider adding an overarching strategy to the suite of activities that chart the way forward to service excellence, customer experience, customer success and customer happiness. They skip this strategy step and go straight to goals and actions, without connecting a strategic beginning to a measurable endgame of customer success and happiness. Hence the reason why some businesses achieve mixed results in their service delivery and service excellence becomes an elusive landing point.
In today’s world of customer experience design curation, using customer chemistry as an experience differentiation strategy, is useful in building out a continuous revenue pipeline.
So, what exactly is customer chemistry? It’s the outcome of the resonance between a business, its value profile and its customer community. It’s when the business and its customers find common ground, or “resonate” on what matters to both parties. It’s one of the sweet spots that, together with business efficiency and operational excellence, contribute to reducing customer churn and expanding the revenue pipeline.
Chemistry is the outcome of the resonance between a business, its value profile and its customer community. It’s when the business and its customers find common ground, or “resonate” on what matters to both parties.
While resonance can happen at any intersection point between a business and its customers, a good start for in-person and virtual visits, is the physical or virtual front door. Many businesses exude static energy at their entry points, when dynamic energy that creates excitement, should be the norm.
In many cases of in-person, retail shopping, the point of entry landscape is composed of a stack of shopping baskets, rows of merchandise, payment counters and oh, of course, the omnipresent security officer. Customers walk in and there is no greeter, no welcome signage, nothing to capture and uplift the customer’s energy as soon as he or she enters the space. This is a prime example of static energy and a transactional space that is dedicated to a buy and sell scenario.
Converting “all” employees into dynamic brand ambassadors can make a world of difference to amplifying chemistry. Imagine a scenario where employees who know a bit about all aspects of a business, are responding intelligently, as well as providing solutions, on-spot, when interacting with customers. Engagement levels will go through the roof.
Chemistry happens when businesses advocate on behalf of their customers. Businesses can shine spotlights on the social issues that are dear to customer segments and even join in lobbying actions to accelerate change. It has been heartening to see many businesses becoming advocates for diversity, inclusion, environment, gender equality and other areas requiring change efforts.
Chemistry happens when businesses advocate on behalf of their customers.
Customers resonate and chemistry deepens when a business is responsive to buyer trends. Keeping an eye on the movement of merchandise is not only good for inventory management, it’s good for detecting what matters to customer segments. If gardening tools are proving to be a product line that is showing steady growth, a good idea would be to go beyond the bottom-line figures and figure out a way to create a community out of that customer segment.
The payoff for a business that masters the art of customer chemistry, is formidable brand energy and a legion of loyal customers, who have an emotional attachment to the business.
Building customer chemistry influences future decisions about a business brand. Why? Because emotions linger long after interactions end.
The payoff for a business that masters the art of customer chemistry, is formidable brand energy and a legion of loyal customers, who have an emotional attachment to the business.