Customer experience: what you can't get wrong ✅
Offering the product is no longer enough: businesses must also give their customers the best possible experience.
In your online retail business, who is responsible for customer service? Do you have a team answering customers' questions and handling returns or exchanges?
Whether you sell clothes online or trade in home decor, among other things, you must always make sure you give your customers the best shopping experience and support when they need help. Yes, even if you work in aesthetic medicine or run a dental clinic.
But trends are changing. Indigit now brings you the main points to consider if you want your business, whether it is in Paços de Ferreira, Coimbra or Faro, to be the customer's first choice.
Data storage
Today, businesses gather endless data about their customers. It can come from the telecoms devices they use, surveys, internet activity and much more.
Brands that give their customers great experiences use this information to their advantage, as it helps them understand their audience better. Amazon, for example, uses this information to create personalised product recommendations for its customers, which improves how they see the brand even further.
And this use of data really works: 35% of purchases on Amazon come from those recommendations.
Personalisation
Modern customers expect personalised interactions with brands. By using data about them, businesses should be able to understand what each customer wants to see to meet their individual needs.
The "one size fits all" approach no longer works, and Spotify is a good example of this. Using listening history and preferences, the music streaming service creates personalised playlists of new songs.
The service works like an employee who works exclusively for the customer and even helps them discover new releases or genres.
Artificial Intelligence
Brands are finding endless new uses for Artificial Intelligence (AI). From algorithms powered by this technology to robotics and automation, AI is the engine behind many of the tech trends we see today.
A good example is the virtual assistant that many businesses offer through devices such as Amazon's Alexa or Google Home.
Self-service options
Customers do not want to wait to speak to an assistant; they want to solve whatever problem they have themselves. That is exactly why self-service options let customers find answers to their questions at any time.
Chatbots are extremely useful here, as they book restaurants or hotels, find tourist routes and help with rewards programmes.
It is much more convenient for the customer than waiting on the phone for someone to answer.
Consistency
However they interact with the brand, customers expect consistency. This is where the omnichannel experience comes in: customers cannot be told one thing in the physical shop and something different by customer support.
Any business that wants to fully satisfy its customers must speak with a single voice. In other words, it must remove the barriers between departments so that everyone speaks the same way when dealing with customers.
Virtual and augmented reality
If anything really connects customers with businesses and opens doors, it is virtual reality and augmented reality. Customers can examine products virtually from any angle, without even leaving home to go to a shop.
This is especially useful for people who live far from physical shops. Imagine you have a shop in Lisbon and a customer in Bragança wants to buy one of your products. Without travelling to the Portuguese capital, the customer can see the item they want and buy it directly, without worrying about anything else.
IKEA uses this technology very well with its Place app, which lets users try placing furniture virtually in their homes before they buy. The app surely reduces the stress and uncertainty that often build up in store.
Predictive analytics
Instead of looking at the past, modern use of data can look to the future. Predictive analytics lets you anticipate customers' needs, adjust operations and get feedback in real time. With this tool, you can get a very close idea of which customers you may be at risk of losing, and offer them what are known as retention gifts.
Digital transformation
A growing number of businesses are going through a digital transformation today, which means bringing everything done before together with new technologies.
If you visit the Mini website, for example, you will see that you can fully customise the car you choose and see straight away whether your choices work on the car, whether you like the model or whether you would prefer something else. All of this from your smartphone or computer, which greatly improves the experience for someone who wants to buy a car.
The team
Company management used to think they could appoint a few people to handle customer support and even have a manager in charge of that department.
Today, that cannot happen.
In today's world, everyone has to know exactly what to say to the customer. And for this new culture of user experience to work, the whole team has to be involved.
The role of the modern marketing director is changing. To stay on top, the person in this role must keep up with trends in the experience the brand gives its customers.
