Do you ever feel frustrated talking to companies on the phone? Do you get irritated trying to navigate chat bots? Has someone been rude to you in a shop?
Every day we interact with myriad organisations, their representatives, and digital services. At each interaction point, we have a certain expectation of what we want to achieve: get to work on time; receive a hot coffee quickly; renew your insurance; book a flight; sleep in comfort on holiday.
Sometimes we need to pay to achieve what we expect, or sometimes we can pay more to get something better. Either way, at each interaction point, a value exchange occurs: we (hopefully) get what we want whilst the provider receives your business or has the chance to offer their services to further their own ambitions.
When organisations get this right, it might invoke a sense of loyalty in us. Maybe next time we need the service or want to achieve something, we’ll go back to that provider. Earlier this year, we wrote that customer loyalty is paramount to a brand’s success and should be a priority focus for ensuring long-term growth. However, loyalty is not a consideration that should be triggered only by an initial sale, booking or sign-up. It’s something that should be embedded into the whole customer experience, from that initial brand interaction through to a 100th purchase, and it should also be consistent across the whole organisation.
Expectations are at an all-time high and can often be a make-or-break factor when it comes to a consumer-brand relationship. It’s not until it exceeds, or lags behind expectations, that consumers really think about the service they’ve received. Recent research from Salesforce showed that, 48% of customers have switched brands for better service. And you won’t have many chances to get things right: PWC found that almost a third of people would walk away from a brand they love, after a singular bad experience.
Our recent Merkle whitepaper, Integrated customer services: the new loyalty frontier, discusses the key ways to build strong customer relationships and the importance of implementing the right marketing technology to deliver a great experience. Central to this are Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. Providing they are fed well-structured and holistic customer data, CRMs are powerful tools that allow for personalised and seamless interactions as well as seamless business operations. Download the whitepaper to learn more.
As you build plans for 2024 and beyond, the customer experience should be at the heart of decision making across the business. Data and tech can be leveraged to enable and enhance connections through the consumer journey. If this topic sparks your interest look out for our upcoming report exploring the possibilities of creativity in the customer experience.
