Over the last 3 decades technology has exponentially created a changing environment in which customers communicate with and about brands; from Telephone to Cell phones; to SMS and Email and finally opening up online web channels and social media. In today’s competitive business environment, managing customer experiences is not only more sophisticated, but also more demanding in ensuring customer loyalty and retention.

Customer Experience stems from the relationship that customers have with your brand resulting from all their interactions with your brand at various touch points.

Recognising the Gap:

Customers speak in 3 ways:

• When spoken to. Typically these are event triggered follow-ups; such as a customer care call after a customer has completed a rental or made an enquiry. It can also be a marketing or market research campaign when we reach out to customers for their opinions or ratings.
• When they need to. This is when they raise concerns or issues, complaints or compliments or recommendations. Human nature is that customers complain far more readily than compliment.
• When spoken to. Here the brand usually isn’t involved in the conversation. Years ago this often involved a small circle of acquaintances or colleagues but today, with social media, it can involve hundreds of thousands and it becomes much more critical that the brand listens and engages.

This makes it difficult to listen…

Closing the Gap:

By extracting insight from all customer touch points and channels across your entire organisation in real-time, you have the advantage of reacting to customer interactions promptly and in turn increase customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy. These insights can be used to:

• Identify and address any customer concerns more efficiently
• Escalation that provides actionable processes
• Service quality measurement
• Operationally understand your business
• Benchmark National, Regional and Individual branches

Bottom line: Improved customer experiences convert satisfied customers into loyal customers, and turn loyal customers into advocates of your brand.