Four tips to maximize the customer experience

Are you concerned about your customers and what makes them happy? You should be.

Customers buy your products and services — they bring you cash. Customers spread the word about you to others. Happy customers spread good words. Unhappy customers spread bad words. The conclusion: smart businesses keep their customers happy. Here’s how.

Maximize the Customer Experience

According to wikipedia.org, a customer experience (CX) is the sum of all experiences a customer has with a supplier of goods and/or services over the duration of their relationship with that supplier. The experience encompasses awareness, discovery, attraction, interaction, purchase, use, cultivation, and advocacy.

In their revolutionary book, Return on Customer, Don Peppers and Martha Rogers conclude that the customer experience is the single most important aspect in achieving success for companies across all industries.

What Impacts Customer Experience?

According to the best-selling book, Brain Rules by Dr. John Medina, when you stimulate more of the senses, you have the ability to impact the customer and increase understanding, recall, retention and loyalty 10 times over just using one sense. Vision trumps all senses — it’s the most impactful sense. For example, including voice as well as visuals in communications can greatly improve the customer experience.

Mobile Customer Experience is Important

The world has gone mobile. More and more customers are connecting to businesses via smart mobile devices.

A recent Nielson study states that more than three out of five mobile subscribers in the U.S. owned a smartphone during the most recent three-month period (March-May 2013), up more than 10 percent since smartphones became the mobile majority in early 2012. Are you leveraging the multimedia power of smart devices in your customer experiences? Your business should provide mobile customer support in self-service and live assistance channels.

What is the Preferred Channel for Customer Experience?

The American Express 2012 Consumer Barometer Report suggests that a consumer’s preferred channel for customer service varies by type of inquiry. For complex and difficult inquiries, the preferred mode is speaking with a ‘real’ person on the phone. For simple inquiries, self-service is preferred via a company website, email, or automated voice response system. For example, ChoiceView from Radish Systems improves both ‘real’ person and self-service assistance by offering ‘voice with visuals.’

Four Tips to Maximize Your Customer’s Experience

STIMULATE more of the senses in your interactions with customers. Use voice with visual communications.

LEVERAGE the power of smart mobile devices. Implement a mobile strategy for customer support.

REALIZE that a consumer’s preferred channel for customer service varies by type of inquiry. For complex and difficult inquiries, the preferred mode is speaking with a ‘real’ person on the phone. For simple inquiries, self-service is preferred via a company website, email, or automated voice response system.

EXPLORE the use of a solution such as ChoiceView™ from Radish Systems which improves both ‘real’ person and self-service assistance by offering ‘voice with visual’ communications. Make smartphone calls to your business easy and visual. Ease the pain of frustrating automated phone systems and live assistance by seamlessly sharing visual content during voice calls between mobile users and your business

Conclusion

Make your customers happy by improving their experience with you, and they will make you happy by buying more and spreading the good word about you.