Customer Experience, is it Worth the Hype??

Is Customer Experience worth the hype?

Let us dive into the subject of Customer Experience with some thought-provoking questions. Firstly, how do you value your customers as entrepreneurs or business leaders; are they genuinely important to you, or is closing a sale your sole focus? Also, is Customer Experience part of your Key Performance Indicators (KPI)?

Now, Customer experience involves delivering excellent value at every interaction. It is the blend of your organisation’s physical performance and the emotions that you create all measured against customer expectations across all your points of interactions. By this definition we can say Customer Experience qualifies as an attitude and not a department. The new era of Customer Service has gone beyond just answering phone calls. The quality of support a customer received fundamentally affects customer’s perception of your brand and this is where Customer Experience comes to play.

Picture this: You crave for coffee. As you enter the coffee shop, are the staff attentive? Do they greet you by name if you’re a regular? Is the store layout intuitive? Do they take your order promptly, with a smile? And if an issue arises, is it swiftly resolved?

Customers notice these details, and they would not hesitate to switch to competition if they are unsatisfied.

With a great customer experience every organisation has the power to turn their Regular customers into VIPs. It is all about how intentional and proactive the organisation is in its approach to satisfy its customers. As simple as it may sound, customer experience involves a lot of hard work and intentionality. It is a collective effort and no one in the organisation should be left lagging behind. All functional units, departments and areas in the organisation must work together for the organisation to achieve a great Customer Experience.

In achieving a good Customer Experience, you would also realise that creating and offering a good quality product which works is the least of it all. The most important factor is the ability to relate with your customers on an emotional level, meet their expectations and build good relationships that will promote repeated business.