Q. Why is great CX breaking my bank balance?
A.Well through the power of a delightful customer experience!
Living in a digital era has truly revolutionised how we do basic day-to-day activities. This includes how we socialise and interact with each other, the types of services offered and even how we purchase products. We can pretty much operate our lives through some form of technology no matter what time or place, it can easily be done.
One thing is for sure, if you love to shop (yes I am also referring to myself and can describe myself as being a serial shopping offender-no judgement please) you can easily shop your favourite online retailers via the web or even through apps, all with the click of a button.
With a surge in online shopping, E-Commerce retailers need to know how to play and WIN within this realm. Those companies who are winning in this area are those that see the value and importance in designing a delightful digital customer experience (CX) and user experience (UX) throughout their digital channels and spaces they decide to play within.
So here is my question to all you senior leaders and business owners:
Q. How would you describe your customer experience (CX)?
Now if you haven’t invested in CX professionals within your organisation, I would highly advise making this a priority hire to ensure you are not left behind from your competitors!
To provide context, CX refers to how a company talks and interacts with their customer’s journey and touchpoints from end-to-end. Throughout this journey, you get to know their every move inside and out to design a considered connection based on the users’ feelings (whether they are negative or positive- pains and gains), as well as considering their needs, wants and desires from all stages past, present and looking forward into the future state.
To uncover “who” the business truly aims to target, the CX team works through a number of phases using a design thinking cycle framework (divergent, convergent).
Starting with discovery (initially with research and data first, followed by liaising with customers and stakeholders) leading the CX design framework to explore further opportunities by synthesising and validating information to uncover nuances within experiences, insights and underlying causes.
Through these findings rapidly designing prototypes to test and learn if these solutions fit the needs of the user and hone out and solve any issues that arise at any particular stage. Once confident with the solution it's time to deliver.
Now think about all the online retailers you LOVE to visit/interact with, which companies are they? Why do you keep returning back and spending your money there? What makes them stand out in your mind? What makes them break your bank balance and decide to purchase?
Well I bet it’s because you find the experience to be rather delightful catering to your needs and desires. Whether its ease of navigation throughout the site from purchase, tracking and delivery, remembering login and customer details, personalisation (without being too much of a stalker), accrued member discounts throughout all the various touchpoints creating a sense of trust, loyalty and confidence. Having the ability to reach out for assistance virtually; possibly through digital customer service, live chat or even chatbots, no matter the time or place, it has all been made conveniently accessible to you via the use of a digital device.
So the next time you purchase something online or via an app and you think to yourself, ‘that was a rather seamless experience I’m going to shop there again!’ It is because of a great CX strategy and design striving to constantly provide the best experience and confidence through a Human Centred Design (HCD) approach based on getting to know the customer at the core rather than designing something based on assumption.
By truly getting to know “you” the customer and your preferable experiences (achieved by eliminating areas of pain) this process ensures you have a positive experience and you check out satisfied with a smile on your face.
Ultimately, implementing a strong customer experience strategy and design is vital to connecting with customers at a deeper level and achieving a competitive advantage over competitors, whilst maintaining customer loyalty and retention. So why wouldn’t business owners or senior leaders invest?
The customer is truly at the heart of driving a profitable e-commerce business.
Great CX = long term success!
This article was written by Natasha Ramkissoon originally posted on LinkedIn