Many of the customer behavioral trends that are currently being observed in the industry are expected to stay for years to come. Furthermore, the way customers interact with businesses has evolved, and organizations must rethink their customer experience strategy to go beyond what was the norm pre-COVID. While the focus of customer experience has always been on building relationships, it is even more critical in these exceptional times.
The past 18 months turned everything on its head, especially when it comes to customer experience, the desire of businesses to strengthen their ties with customers.
The global COVID crisis pushed many businesses to re-asses what is working and what can be modified to improve the customer experience, and as a result, a few critical areas have shifted and ultimately the overall customer experience has improved.
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Streamlining Applications
Many companies had (and still have) 10-15 enterprise-grade applications to manage various departments, ranging from customer-facing teams to marketing to finance and human resources. This disjointed approach results in siloed teams, siloed activities, and reduced transparency into the customer journey, as well as lower customer happiness and retention levels.
The pandemic brought to light inefficiencies and opportunities to streamline communications and customer data so that businesses and teams can collaborate and receive a clearer, more complete picture of the customer experience.
Now that organizations are implementing remote and hybrid work models, it’s a good moment to deploy quality (rather than quantity) applications to save money and, more significantly, to offer a more unified experience both internal and external.
Providing Excellent Customer Experience
Making strong consumer connections and developing long-term relationships takes a village. Customer service must be the responsibility of the entire company, not just the customer support team, to make this approach a reality.
A company must be customer-centric across all departments and teams in order to live up to its claim of being customer-centric. Businesses should ask themselves the a few important questions in order to do it most effectively: What is their definition of an ideal customer experience? Is there a unified definition? Is customer service training given to all team members or just the support team?
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By assessing these components of the customer journey, businesses can guarantee that everyone is on the same page and, as a result, they can provide a unified experience that prioritizes the customer and their demands. When asking customers for information about their preferences and specific needs, for example, a customer-centric approach would entail ensuring that all teams have access to this data and that it is used to serve that customer’s unique needs without requiring the customer to provide the same information every time.
Getting Back to Basics
In an era where buyers have many options, customer service is the one meaningful distinction for businesses. Businesses were forced to understand that they needed to adjust how they did things going forward as a result of the pandemic.
If the global crisis has led to anything positive, it’s that businesses are increasingly focusing on providing a personalized experience for each consumer. They must capitalize on this momentum and remember that customer service is always evolving– this is what leads to loyal, lifelong customers.
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