In today’s ever-changing context, it’s especially important for organisations to understand their customers’ expectations and views on certain issues, in order to better meet their needs.
A well-functioning Customer Experience (CX) team can help you do just that, because it is able to quickly gather the information your organisation needs and provide insights. These insights will help you communicate swiftly and accurately with stakeholders and customers, and manage their expectations well. But even if you do not have a CX team, there are things you can do to emerge stronger from this crisis.
Below, we discuss 3 ½ actions you can take to instantly improve customer experience and reap the rewards.
3 ½ actions you should take in times of crisis
1. Communicate proactively
Start by understanding your customers’ goals. What are they going through right now? What kind of information do they need? What do they expect? For corporate customers, find out which stakeholders they have to manage and what information they need to do this well.
Engaging in dialogue with your customers and getting clear answers to these questions will tell you how to communicate proactively. Update your existing web pages to communicate about the crisis, change your website’s FAQ section or simply redirect customers to a specific landing page with the most important information.
By communicating proactively, you signal to your customers that you know what you’re doing. Put more effort into this than you normally would, and make sure to continuously keep this information up to date and relevant.
2. Be more accessible
While you may be busier than ever before, it’s important for customers to be able to reach you easily through their preferred channel. More than ever, that channel is likely to be a mobile one; in a new study by the Pew Research Center, over half of all respondents indicated they preferred using a mobile device to find information in the current crisis.
Monitor your customers’ behaviour and make sure the channels they want to use meet their expectations.
3. Understand the new customer journey
This crisis affects each organisation differently. The same goes for customers: they also experience the crisis in their own individual way. This has a major impact on the different customer journeys in your organisation, as well as on various operational and financial metrics.
Use your feedback tools to identify obstacles in customer journeys, so you can remove these and help your customers achieve their goals.
3 ½. Keep listening to your customers
We all have more than enough on our plate because of the crisis. Often, the sheer number of Zoom, Skype or Webex meetings can make it feel like we’re working non-stop each and every day. It’s very tempting to see listening to our customers’ needs as a quick chore we must do on top of everything else – but nothing could be further from the truth.
Now more than ever, it’s crucial to understand your customers. Knowing what matters to them is the key to helping your business survive. Surveys (albeit with a few tweaks) remain an important tool for capturing customer feedback. The same goes for journey and web analytics and other sources of data. And don’t forget to ask your employees too: they also possess a wealth of information you could make excellent use of right now.
Return on Experience (RoX) with a memorable customer experience
Today, a memorable customer experience is more important than ever. We all recognise such an experience when we come across it. By delivering a memorable customer experience you attract more new customers, offer an improved service, have better customer retention and generate a higher lifetime value.
A memorable customer experience:
- is consistent throughout a customer’s entire lifecycle
- reflects your brand promise
- is valuable to both the customer and your organisation
- is effortless and tailored to each individual situation
- is unique yet always credible
Want to learn how to create a memorable customer experience? Or need help developing your customer journeys? Then don’t hesitate to contact us – we’re here for you, even in these difficult times.