Building Amazing Customer Experience

Making customer-experience (CX) and user-experience (UX) memorable and unique is the only sustainable advantage we can probably have in this cut-throat competitive, VUCA and Disruptive-world.

In today's business-world - customer-loyalty has become very fragile and temporary – all because the customers of today's are being pampered through versatile, innovating and practical ways of conveniences and superior experiences and choices.

A superbly planned and effectively-executed Customer-Experience (CX) and User-experience (UX) can optimize customer-lifetime-value (CLV) - increase customer satisfaction and may increase your profitability and your revenues to greater levels.

That is why Understanding the role of customization and personalization in creating unparalleled Customer-Experience (CX) and User-experience (UX) - acquires paramount importance.

To understand this even better – we first need to understand the Transition of Marketing from Mass-Marketing To 1-To-1 Marketing

Mass-Marketing

• 1.In Mass marketing product or service is marketed to an entire market-segment assuming all of them have same needs, wants, problems.
• 2.Mass marketing happens through mass continuous and expensive advertisements campaigns to sell
• 3.Although this could effective in say low cost items like say Maggi-noodles – through the concept that the more people see your marketing-message – the more it will reach to those who are interested.
• 4.While does not work as per the assumptions and expectations of the marketers as well as the advertisement agencies – as has more misses than hits

1-To-1 Marketing

• This evolved through the evolution of the Internet and especially the transformation created by the social media ALONG with the new technology – has given the 1-To-1 Marketing - an omnipotent power only limited by the creativity and innovation and imagination of the designers

The ultimate in UX and CX comes to simple basics – which making all the interactions between a customer and an organization [including awareness, connecting-with, discovery, cultivation, purchase, service, and advocacy]

How to Create Great Customer Service Strategy for Amazing CX and UX

• 1.Understanding the most fundamental - All of your users are HUMANs – and all humans are emotional – therefore any dazzling experience has to have all the elements of emotional-connect and their complete-engagement with your organization
• 2.Research also shows that although almost all the organizations believe they are providing great customer service - but only 8-10% customers agree with this – which should actually make the leadership take notice big way. But you how the Ivory-tower works
• 3.Many organizations still try to read the minds of their customers sitting on the drawing board - How can you know customers' needs without asking - How can you find what your brand stands for in the mind of your customers without asking
• 4.Every stage and every touch-point experience impact customer loyalty
• 5.Measure the quality of interaction in the following
• A.Touchpoints – Your advertisements, your social-media presence and activities, ease of doing business through your website, the mailers you send, your organizations name getting associated with what
• B.Interactions – all verbal, WhatsApp and email messages with your employees/agents/representatives, all the responses of your service team, promptness of your team's responses, quality of conflict-resolutions, problem-solving, service-recovery
• C.Engagement – participating in the webinars/seminars etc. organized by your organization, signing-up for any types of freemiums, free tasting/testing of your product and services, agreeing to mee with your representatives, buying the product, writing reviews, giving feedbacks
• 6.Work out where Bad Customer experience comes from – through analyzing
• A.Long wait times
• B.Employees who do not understand customer needs
• C.Unresolved issues/questions
• D.Too much automation/not enough of a human touch
• E.Service that is not personalized
• F.Rude/angry employees
• G.For more ideas, just think about the last time you were frustrated as a customer—it's quite likely that one (or more) of the above was the cause
• H.Also understand that what counts as poor customer experiences in your business will be unique—and you'll only learn about it by opening the door to customer feedback, then working to minimize the impact of factors that cause
• 7.Use the tools like Machine-Learning, Artificial-Intelligence, Big-data-analysis & analytics, Predictive-Sciences, Augmented-reality, Virtual-reality, 3D-printing, A/B-Testing, the power of projection mapping to create an immersive experience to create and Unleash an experience your customer would want more and more of
• 8.Solve boring problems
• 9.Identify your niche and the best-fit Customers for that specific niche of yours
• 10. Before even thinking of creating a customer service strategy – first Know Your Customer's Ideal Experience
• 11. Enhance Customer Experience by ensuring customer interactions possible through any of the available channels used by all the customers – to eliminate disjointed systems and interaction silos between various departments
• 12. Along with Customer Relationship Management Strategy CREATE Customer Engagement and Customer Experience Management Strategies also
• 13. Make it possible for your Customers to Help Themselves with Self Service [instead for them to wait in the queues OR wait for your agent to respond to them] – through very easy [even for the technically-challenged as well as illiterate] pictorial or voice along with written step by step help-guides
• 14. Ensure that you are the disruption* maker – by innovating and raising the bar in the customer service
• 15. Make your call center a model for excellence
• 16. Reward Your Engaging Customers - Invite your VIP customers to events
• 17. Reward your employees – when you get fantastic reviews from customers
• 18. Find newer ways to thank your customers
• 19. Ask yourself - What technology, people or processes are needed to fulfill objectives through Customer Experience strategy + What gaps exist between customer expectation and experience + How good are internal processes at supporting customers + Which tools can be used to improve customer experience
• 20. Ask who your competitors are – find out what of their strategies make customers go to them AND what makes their customer wish that should leave them
• 21. Work backward from the experience you want to deliver - Showcase your USP. For Amazon, for example, it's early delivery
• 22. Focus on the practical issues, even the very smallest
• 23. Hire team players based on their Interpersonal skills, the ability to interact and connect with people, and maintain calm in a crisis.
• 24. Create a set of principles to follow, so customer interactions are consistently smooth.
• 25. Create a consistent brand experience across channels - your website, apps, email, and social media channels
• 26. Use post-interaction and real-time feedback surveys. Follow up with customers over the phone for more details - Pay attention to what is being said about you on social media
• 27. Build systems for quick & effective resolutions
• 28. Understand your customer experience metrics
• 29. Focus on quantitative insights – like NPS - Net Promoter Score, CSAT - Customer Satisfaction Score, CES - Customer Effort Score and Time to resolution (TTR)
• 30. Create a clear customer experience vision
• 31. Use a quality framework for development of your team
• 32. Act upon regular employee feedback
• 33. Acquiring Customer Loyalty Through Gamification And Rewards
• 34. For reaping the advantage of Word-Of-Mouth – send Appreciation Emails, give Gift Cards or Vouchers, offer Loyalty Points
• 35. Provide enhanced security to your customers using blockchain
• 36. Once you find these answers to all above points – create strategies to make your customer feel awed and wowed

CX/UX research methods

• 1.Research sitting on your table through internet, phone and libraries to gather knowledge on what has already happened and done in the past
• 2.Third-party Expert evaluation through actual real-time use to discover potential usability issues that could adversely affect user experience AND also to modify/improvise to make it even more convenient
• 3.Finding competitors - These would be your Direct competitors [ who are competing with you in the same market and client segment, and providing solutions to almost same problems, may have the same functionality OR they could be Indirect competitors [ those who might compete you on a part of the problem that you are solving – albeit more effectively ]
• 4.Competitors analysis to identify what are their USPs, weaknesses as well as strategies – create counter strategies to make your customer experience what he/she has not done with any other competitors.
• 5.The real potential user interviews [also called In-depth interview -IDI] – to Identify, verify and modify your perception of their behaviors, attitudes and needs
• 6.Analyzing user behavior to identify what actions people actually perform rather that what they claim they would do
• 7.Making the actual end-user – use your product/services - much before you launch these in the market for commercial purpose => to prevent major loses if the idea does not work
• 8.To know who your real clients are and how to connect with them and what appeals to them and what are their unmet needs
• 9.To identify, understand and verify your own position and your niche in the market – so that you can create the right strategic planning
• 10. To understand what marketing channels, what business models, what revenue models are best suitable for you
• 11. What are your users doing today instead of using your product?
• 12. Are there any ideas already on the market that you would like to implement in an exact way

The difference between Personalization and Customization – all the following taken from internet

Personalization is done by the system being used. Developers set up the system to identify users and deliver to them the content, experience, or functionality that matches their role. Personalization can be done down at the individual level (e.g., Amazon's suggestions based on past browsing and purchase history), or at group or audience level (e.g., an intranet displaying information specific to those in a certain location or a certain role, such as a job function).

Customization is done by the user. A system may enable users to customize or make changes to the experience to meet their specific needs by configuring layout, content, or system functionality. Customization may involve moving items around an interface to reflect the users' priorities, selecting topics of interest, or altering colors or other factors related to the visual design of an interface, for example.