Digital Strategy & Why Customer Experiences & Expectations Matter –
First of all, “Customer Experience” gets tossed around a lot, The term seems pretty straight-forward, but what does it really mean?
When it comes down to it, it’s really about the way customers engage with your business AND the impression, even the sensation each encounter leaves behind – from the moment of discovery through each stage of your journey together. Expectations are often high for quality engagement outcomes. Most businesses already know that they can either be rewarded or penalized based on how well engagement with a brand met or failed to meet expectations. Opportunities to earn your customers’ trust, win their business, and implement your digital vision are rooted in your customer experience (CX) and customer care strategies.
Your customer views every interaction with your business or organization as a reflection of their entire experience. And they may not be saying so, but they expect those interactions to be consistent, and unified. And they expect to leave each encounter feeling good about themselves and their decision to patronize your business.
Customers want to be valued.
If Customer Experience isn’t your north star for your Digital Experience strategy today, you’re simply NOT setting your customers or your business up for success. And in a saturated, goods and services environment; with competition for customers through the roof, customer sentiment, simply cannot be an after-thought.
Here are 5 ways to tell whether you’re ready to be a Customer-First operation
- Our teams are extremely competent. They understand market demand and they know what our customers are after. Taking time to understand customers’ unique priorities, preferences, and goals just isn’t efficient, or productive.
- I agree that it’s important for my customers to receive timely and relevant communications, but it’s not at the top of my priority list. My customers understand my limitations, and that I’m juggling competing demands.
- Customer feedback and timely responses are important but again, I have limited bandwidth.
- We’re in a growth stage and focusing on organizational silos and disjointed messaging might confuse or frustrate my clients a bit, but addressing it can wait.
- Yes, our tools and systems are kind of all over the place, and that does have negative impacts on productivity and on our clients, but what startup or SMB has time to manage all that?
If you disagreed with the points above, you’re either already a customer-driven organization or well on your way to becoming one. If you were in agreement, it may be time for a shift in perspective and practices, but that can be a tall order when you’re overwhelmed by all the balls in the air.
If you would like to transition to a Customer-First operation, but don’t know where to begin, 99Stones Digital can help you take those necessary, and sometimes daunting first steps to synchronizing tools, practices, or processes, so they meet the demands of your unique operation, and deliver the quality outcomes your customers expect. Contact 99Stones Digital for a free initial consultation. | info@99stonesdigital.com | 609.455.8221.