- Salice Thomas
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- January 10, 2015
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We have discussed the overview and importance of customer experience management in the previous article Customer Experience Management(CXM): The New Frontier for Companies to Focus on. Here is the recommended approach/process for the implementation of customer experience management in your organization
1. Business Goal definition and Strategy Implementation
Align your business goals with your customer engagement strategies. You have to first define the intended customer experience in line with your business goals. Few examples are brand awareness, customer satisfaction and loyalty improvement, Cost reduction, Market penetration, New customer segments, Enterprise Growth, Increase Revenue, New Products / Services creation, Innovation and so on.
It is important to think about customers as individuals and to treat them as individuals, rather than just looking at a mass of customers. In other words, your individual customers should be the heart and soul of your organization. Creating a customer centric culture in your organization is important in order to deliver your brand promise. Then everyone in your organization can effectively work together to improve the customer experience. You can put a strategy in place in line with your business goal that will include the processes you put in place, the people involved, training, analysis, governance, and the specific technology needed.
2. Build a Seamless Experience across Multiple Touchpoints
A touchpoint is any and all interactions a consumer has with a company via physical communication or digital media. Examples are Social Media, email, mobile, word of mouth, campaign pages, call centers, online chat, trade shows, blogs etc. Consumers are using these channels to influence their buying decision. It can be to get information, or interact with the company or past purchasers. Ensure that you’re presenting your audiences with a cohesive, consistent and engaging experience across their customer journey.
Customers must be presented with an experience where content and brand is in accordance to the user and their context, and will be encouraged to move forward to what best leads them to conversion. Follow below steps to achieve this.
- Map out the multiple paths your customers take
- Determine the different touchpoints in the path
- Understand what customers are trying to accomplish and the actions taken at each.
- Understand what could prevent customers from moving to the next stage and solve them.
Companies should present a cohesive experience at every stage of customer experience. By taking a look at the customer journey and understanding how each touchpoints are connected or overlaps with each other, an organization can then plan out cross channel experiences that they can deliver.
3. Asses your CXM Solutions
Organization requires an ecosystem of technology products working together in order to provide a personalized experiences across the touch points. Digital channels are growing and will continue to do so, enabling digital marketing to become a huge influencer. Take an inventory of all your systems of experience your company has in place today. Who do you use for web content management, analytics, CRM, marketing automation, email marketing, social media monitoring, and other repositories? What other types of technologies do you use to help you in delivering the best customer experience to your audience?
For example, analytics solutions provide a way for organizations to track data, which in turn allows them to be customer centric because, to have a good CXM platform, you need to have a strong data management strategy in place. You also have to be able to track customers and that is a tie to CRM solutions. Email remains important because it is one of the predominant methods of communication used to keep in contact with customers. Web Content Management platforms are also important because content is the cornerstone of cross-channel engagement.
4. Integrate Customer Experience Management Solutions
Companies will want to adopt the right technology framework in order to have a clear, holistic view of the customer and deliver them with the best customer experience throughout their journey. Email Marketing, Web Content Management, Customer Relationship Management, Social Media Monitoring, Web Analytics, Videos, Social Media and Networks etc. are some examples for CXM solutions that will Enable You to Achieve Success. Each touchpoint should be in sync – the website, mobile, in-person, email, call center – calling for the organization to take a unified approach when properly implementing a customer experience strategy.
Your customers not only visit your website, but also visit your Facebook page, read your emails, and interact with you through their mobile device. They’re going to weave their way in and out of every channel, so ensure they’re having a consistent and integrated experience no matter how they interact with your brand. The foundation to a successful CXM strategy is content which comes in many forms like website content, eBook, webinar, video, podcast, infographic, blog, article, slides, research report, etc.To create a holistic view of your customer as well as have a full account of their interactions, you’ll need to successfully integrate these applications and contents together since these accurately record who your customers are, how they’re reacting, what they’re saying, and what they would like to achieve. In order to accomplish this, companies need to integrate their existing technology applications and contents into one comprehensive digital experience hub.
5. Deliver the Best Customer Experience
Understanding who your customer is essential to providing them with the best customer experience. Personalization and Content Targeting can be achieved by presenting, at the right time, the most relevant content to each unique visitor based on the information you know about them to ensure they take the desired next step. You can build a customer profile and target the right information to them. Some of the examples are purchase history, demographic data, social data, preferences, site behavior, search history, device types etc. The Widespread Growth of Mobile and Social media can boost your customer experience delivery more efficiently and effectively.
Mobile: Companies need to be aware of the wide array of the potential devices their customers could be using when they start thinking about their mobile strategy. If you are not presenting consumers with information via the channel they’re utilizing, it could potentially have a negative impact on your company’s brand image and sales. A location based service can be a best example in this context. If a customer is around the corner from your store, send them a notification that you’re having a sale if they opted in.
Social: Social is becoming an integral part of a customer experience. Consumers are interacting with companies on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Social’s main advantage is the ability for anyone to have a conversation with a brand and let their thoughts and experience is known to a much larger audience. Managing the customer experience across social media is just as important as managing their experience in person or on your website.
Adding social sharing buttons such as “Like,” “Tweet,” LinkedIn Share, or Google + can spread your content. Brands should also consider adding commenting and ratings of products, services, blogs, and articles. Social media monitoring gives companies the ability to analyze numerous media channels – online news sites, blogs, forums and posts, and social sites. They can monitor the pickup and buzz surrounding their brand, competitors and industry and respond in real-time.
6. Analyze, Measure, and Improve
Companies are always looking for ways to improve the customer experience. By tracking how customers are responding to your channels and interactions and analyzing that valuable data, you can make improvements to the customer experience. Know which marketing messages work fine and which is not fine to further drive your visitors to take action. Start measuring how your customers distinguish their interactions across channels through technics likes social media analytics, surveys etc. determine how there metrics and models performing against your set strategies and goals. Apply appropriate corrections based on the findings will help you to meet the objectives.
