Rock your 2020 with Customer Experience Management Strategy [3 Step Plan]

We are sure many of you are wondering, how 2020 is going to be any different than 2019 when
it comes to managing our business. We agree! There is no drastic change in the dynamics of our working environment that we anticipate soon! What we can't deny is the fact that all of us while cheering for the New Year spend some time introspecting and promising ourselves a better life, both personally and professionally.

When it comes to managing your work/business, some of these pointers will come handy! Before
we even jump to any insights etc. make sure you have the basics covered. Ensure there exists a business strategy with a mission and vision statement, clearly defined goals, business model, etc. As basic as it may sound, in many of our interactions with micro/small enterprise owners, we find these missing.

Talking about revisiting our plans and evaluating our results, in today's market dynamics it is almost naïve for us to not consider Customer Experience Management as one of the parameters to look at. A lot of our prospects/clients share the discomfort in understanding “Customer Experience Management” completely to implement it within their system to make it work in their favour.

Customer Experience Management can support your business success through a defined strategy by working out on how your customer is interacting with your organization and perceptions they draw through all the interaction points. It is a long growth engine instead of short term sales to thrive and survive. Research proves that it is a differentiator that makes a customer loyal to you and be an active advocate. It will bring in more customers through references along with reducing the customer churn.

When it comes to Customer Experience, there are a lot of terms that are thrown around like Customer Journey Mapping, Empathy maps, Design thinking, NPS, Customer Centricity and many more but at the end whatever jargon we may hear the ultimate objective of Customer Experience is to provide you with mechanisms so that you ‘Understand your customer and establish a better connect with them’. Engaging to retain and attract more customers.

You will agree that there is no debate needed today to explain WHY “Customer Experience Management “is so critical but it is worth knowing HOW to implement it within your system. It essentially needs a framework that involves policies, people, processes, technology with a seamless integration amongst all to create value for the “Customers”.

There is definitely, a hue and cry about how customers are becoming demanding and empowered and we
usually hear that as a business owner, I run into a panic of

- How I would stand out in the crowd of so many providers of similar service or product?

- How would I differentiate myself from others?

- How do I acquire more customers and make the one with us to stay?

Customer Experience Management is essentially a strategy with long term planning involving brand building and relationship management.

So here we are listing some critical steps for you to start seeing to establish and implement
“Customer Experience Management” in your organisation.

Value for your “Customer” and “You” (3 Critical Steps)

To start implementing “Customer Experience Management”, all we need to consider is
following basic facts that won’t change for any customer at any given point in time:

1. What you offer and when you offer has to be relevant to your customer.

2. Understanding is built by reaching out to them, listening and be responsive to them

3. They will come back to you if they find you reliable. It is all about building trust and relationship and engaging in a way that it adds value to all involved.

Easily said than done but it makes a case at any point of time to know how “customer satisfaction” correlates
with revenue. It will make your investment and efforts in tune with your offerings.

Action Plan to start implementing Customer Experience Management (3 Steps)

If you take these three E’s into consideration and draw your strategy or action plan around these, consider it the beginning of customer experience management. The question is now that I have understood what customer WANTS, can focus now, on how I approach it.

Well simply put:

1. Make it EASY for your customers at every step of their interaction i.e. customer is achieving more with minimal efforts.

2. Keep it ENJOYABLE for them by giving a personal touch and showing them that you know and you care

3. Be EFFECTIVE in your overall operations so that you can minimize the cost at your end to deliver at the right price

Do it by

- Regular engagement strategies along all or crucial touch points though Customer Journey Mapping, Customer Maturity Assessment, Feedback Surveys, etc.

- Deepen the cross-functional teams engagement through processes, so that all key personnel and departments know how they make a difference to their customers. It simply means that operation, marketing, sales, R&D knows who is their customer and what value they add on through their work.

- Work to create a culture of customer-centricity by hiring people with growth mindset, enhance skills and understanding through training/workshops and above all create customer centric culture through “Customer Centric” policy support.

- Use data; invest in research to learn more about how you are doing and more about “what “is customer wanting. Is the customer expectations and your deliverables in sync. What else can you do?

Improve, Improve, Improve

Now that we have understood the beginning of Customer experience we can plunge into more
advanced tools and techniques, using the help of experts to refine your next steps and aim for higher goals. We have to come out of a legacy mindset and take an innovative approach to manage the business.

There are some challenges that we do foresee in the coming years with all the shifts happening
around us in our business environment:

1. Balancing digitization with personalization.

2. Being predictive in our solutions

3. Excelling in experiences rather than only in our products and services

4. Handling a customer who is spoiled with choices and zero tolerance.

5. Managing and using ever-growing big data

Take this time, the last few days of the current year and ponder over the listed factors!

If in doubt while taking any decision, just assess if that decision is right for your company, for you and your employees/collaborators and most importantly your customers. If you are not able to check even one of the three boxes give yourselves some time and keep reviewing it till you get at least three checkboxes
right!

It is just about not commoditizing or competing on prices but through offerings that add value to your “customers”. It’s a long term strategy that will pave way for innovation, newer markets and long term growth for business success.

May the New Year brings in more business success and growth through “Customer Experience Management” to you.