Sustaining customer experience momentum is not a walk in the park. It requires businesses to keep an eye on the goal post….the customer happiness goal post. Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? The reality, of course, is a different story, when we consider the fact that the goal post keeps moving.
When it comes to customers and their changing expectations, it’s important to remember that with the emerging generation of customers, their last experience is often their most potent point of reference. This makes earning customer approval an exercise that requires businesses to think of each customer interaction as the start of a completely new relationship, as opposed to an ongoing relationship.
Sustaining customer experience momentum is not a walk in the park. It requires businesses to keep an eye on the goal post….the customer happiness goal post.
Every encounter has to be approached with the business having a “new customer” mindset, the thinking here being that every ounce of business energy has to be dedicated to winning the customer over, every time he or she conducts business. Does not matter whether the customer conducts several transactions per day, or once per year, the goal still remains, “win the customer over as if it’s the first time he or she is doing business with us.”
Let me borrow a concept from the business planning playbook, “the goal does not change, only the strategy. What charges this forward movement, is the powerful force of sustained momentum.
So, how can businesses activate and sustain customer experience momentum?
Customer experience momentum is considered to be the continual improvement in the level of excellence, relevance and responsiveness to the evolving needs of the customer. A lofty goal to which all businesses should aspire, wouldn’t you say?
So, how can businesses activate and sustain customer experience momentum?
The first consideration should be the adoption of perpetual relevance as a business driver and its positioning as a dedicated pillar within the strategic plan of a business. Perpetual relevance establishes a course that focuses the business on remaining top of mind with its existing customers and within its sector. A major payoff is that dedication to perpetual relevance, keeps a business alert to the early signals of change with customers and opens a gateway for creating early responses to oncoming change, in a way that delivers competitive advantage.
The first consideration should be the adoption of perpetual relevance as a business driver and its positioning as a dedicated pillar within the strategic plan of a business.
Any business that is serious about perpetual relevance, will naturally be tethered to perpetual transformation. One follows the other. A commitment to remaining relevant, removes the trepidation associated with continuous disruption. As a matter of fact, the business that places itself in this change-friendly quadrant, will not view change as disruptive, but rather evolutionary and a natural requirement for transitioning to its next level of genius.
A necessity for sustaining customer experience momentum, has to be the presence of a resonant relationship between a business and its customers. This is the type of relationship that comes about when a business converts its customer base into a community of brand advocates, who resonate with not only the product value, but the social and other values that are espoused by the business. This is when the business is held in such high esteem, that it is elevated to the venerated status of being “highly admired” by its customers.
A necessity for sustaining customer experience momentum, has to be the presence of a resonant relationship between a business and its customers.
Nowhere is the need for customer experience momentum more justified than in the strategic use of technology to power operational processes. As digital adoption levels continue to scale up, more and more customers will expect businesses from the micro hair and nail salon, to the mighty corporations, to be technology-dense in the options made available for conducting business.
The relationship that exists between a business and its customers should be one that thrives, so that value is added both ways. This may sound like a no-brainer, but you would be surprised to know just how many relationships are on thin ice. Why else is there such an abundance of customer complaints?
As digital adoption levels continue to scale up, more and more customers will expect businesses from the micro hair and nail salon, to the mighty corporations, to be technology-dense in the options made available for conducting business.
I have found that in many cases, superficial, rather than resonant relationships, characterize the connection between businesses and their “valued customers.” One glaring misstep by businesses, is their oblivion to the customers’ expectation that their experience with a products or service, should solve and not add to the labours of life.
I believe that the truly customer-centric businesses of the future, will be those that are wedded to momentum-driving strategies that connect customer solutions to business profitability, in a deliberate way. A commitment to sustained customer experience momentum, is a mandate for all businesses that are serious about maintaining currency with constantly evolving customer demands.
While we live in a world where the “cancel culture” is unavoidable, being cancelled by customers, is wholly avoidable.