It's 2015 and the stakes are high. Gartner believes that by 2016, companies will compete primarily on the customer experiences they deliver and success, this week’s authors claim, is in the details. Tools like customer journey mapping, VoC programs and personalization through customer data analysis can make all the difference in your customer experience efforts, but you have to do them right. Leading customer-experience efforts is an opportunity for CMOs to gain more influence within their companies, according to Gartner, but they need be proactive and "Now is the time."
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5 Trends that Will Redefine Customer Insights [1to1media.com]
In a new research report, Temkin Group identifies five trends that will change how companies handle VoC programs. Today’s VoC programs are flawed, according to Bruce Temkin. Bloated surveys, isolated datasets, generic insights and outdated technology are some of the causes of less than optimal use of VoC programs.
Customer insights are a critical input to customer experience (and overall business) success. That's why organizations will increasingly rejuvenate their outdated VoC programs. Some of the expected trends to reshape customer insights are deep empathy, continuous insights, customer journeys and enterprise intelligence.
How Micro-Interactions Make & Break the Customer Experience [katana.co]
Jeannie Walters, the renowned customer experience expert, suggests ways that attention to details, or micro-moments, can do wonders for your customer experience.
First, she says, get to know your customer through journey mapping. Map out the answers to all the ‘what ifs’ your customers might face in their interactions with your brand. Include personas, a timeline, possible emotions felt, and the touch points to all of the interactions. From there, conduct consumer research through surveys, interviews, and by reviewing customer support logs.
Second, she writes, make the company the customer. Bring execs to the frontline on a regular basis and have them interact with your product the way a customer would.
Third, she suggests, look for small moments and make them exceptional. For instance, create 404 (error) pages with creative images and jokes, like this one from Lego shown in the image below. Or follow Alaska Airlines’ example - they promise to have your baggage on the carousel within 20 minutes after you land.
Customer Loyalty is earned through Customization and Personalization [tmcnet.com]
What’s the trick to consistently get people to purchase the products and services you provide?
Understanding what motivates them, writes author Tracey E. Schelmetic. And once you take the trouble to understand your customers, what’s really important is what you do with that understanding.
Keeping them in agents’ heads won’t do, as agents are often too busy to pass this information on. Data analytics can help: they can be used to comb through call recordings and gather intelligence about customers that might not be obvious to “the naked ear.”
Another often overlooked way of getting to know your customers better is through third-party remote call monitoring services. Services providers can remotely access companies’ recording systems and analyze customer interactions, delivering the results in analysis format and in real time. While your agents may not be trained to analyze calls for the purpose of deeper personalization and customization, remote call monitoring services providers are.
3 Tips for Becoming the Company Every Customer Loves in 2015 [1to1media.com]
With each passing year, customer expectations become increasingly daunting. The author, Anna Papachristos, suggests three best practices for companies that seek to deliver excellent customer experience.
First, maintain transparency in both good times and bad. If your company builds a foundation of trust, customers will stick with you, even if something goes temporarily wrong. But when things go wrong, better to be honest about it than to sugarcoat it.
Second, provide easy experiences to support loyalty growth. One way to do this is to offer them experiences that limit or reduce stress.
Third, cultivate brand value by maintaining high standards of product and service quality. Consumers who encounter less than stellar goods will likely think the company disrespects its customers.
CMOs Pressed to Lead Customer Experience Efforts, But Their Progress Is Lacking [adage.com]
Gartner believes that by 2016, companies will compete primarily on the customer experiences they deliver.
In a recent study, Gartner found that 25% of CMOs say leading customer experience is the expectation that CEOs have of them and which has increased the most over the last year.
At the same time, CMOs are not finding their new mandate easy. "It's a new expectation and it's a difficult expectation," said Laura McLellan, VP-marketing strategies at Gartner and author of the report. Ms. McLellan said the opportunity to lead customer-experience efforts is an opportunity for CMOs to gain more influence within their companies, but they risk leaving that influence on the table if they don't take the reins soon. "Now is the time," she says.
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