The Cost of Failing the Customer Experience test.
Vital Germaine
The Customer Experience doesn’t have to be toxic or terrible to fail and negatively impact consumer loyalty. It’s sometimes as simple as one or two minor pain points leaving a slightly unpleasant taste. Most companies create a “decent” CX. They deliver what is expected and get away with it (for the most part).
80% of customers say that experience is just as important as a product or service.
Companies that are happy with “just ok” eventually lose their client base. By the time the executive team realizes the loss or downturn it’s too late and a costly fix. The company needs to heavily invest in employee training and begin the urgent process of change: re-evaluating company policy, culture and leadership. Many even go through a painstaking and costly rebrand as a result of negligence.
Why not be on top of your game from minute one?
This seems like a redundant and obvious question. YET!!! On paper, the logical answer is a simple, yes, why not be on top of your game. The challenge to do so lies in two main factors.
Lack of awareness: if paying attention to the small stuff that impacts your customer isn’t at the forefront of your mission and culture, you will pay the price long term. Too many get lost in the promise of short term vision and quick profits. If you don’t realize how valuable and defining each and every customer touch-point is, then you’re running a ship blindly heading for an iceberg. You will sink if not crash. Be acutely aware of what your customer is seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and feeling.
Lack of investment: if making the Customer Experience a part of your vision and mission isn’t even a part of the conversation, it might be time to reconsider why you’re in business in today’s economy. If you’ve built a solid platform to succeed and drive brand loyalty through awareness, congrats! The problem is, you’ve only achieved step 1 - awareness. Without action, planning or strategy, what’s the point of talking about mission statements, Customer Experience (CX), sustainability and scaling at meetings if you don’t understand the psychology of the modern consumer. Leadership must invest in better understanding their customer’s needs and expectations (while we’re at it, understand your employees too); and I don’t mean just checking off the boxes of a standard needs analysis procedure. Go deeper into the psyche of your clients… care more about them and how they interact with your business on every single level. THEN one-up yourself. Aim a step higher than the expected. Do that little extra all day everyday. Read about our ABC’s of Customer Service
The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.
- Jimmy Johnson (former Miami Dolphins head coach)
Start that journey by clearly communicating the objective to team members… Let’s elevate the Customer Experience and become memorable and inspire loyalty. Communication includes:
Reminders: training and coaching
Inspiration - lead to inspire
Collaboration - invite idea sharing, trust and challenge
Acknowledgement - recognize and praise
Re-evaluate all the time
Now that you have these 5 steps in place, provide your employees with tools to achieve this clearly defined objective (resources etc). Support them along this growth journey. It takes changed behavior and a collective commitment to delivering extraordinary performance to stand out in a sea of business sameness. Before long, these new behaviors (your improved culture) will become secondary and highly effective. All you need to do is that little extra on a consistent basis. You’ve got this. ENGAGE Teams 360 would love to help you get there.
Sincerely,
PRESIDENT of ENGAGE Teams 360
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