Designing a Customer Experience That Drives Results

Good customer service is not good enough. Everyone boasts good customer service, but everyone doesn’t deliver memorable and targeted customer experiences.

In my experience as a leadership change consultant, companies are able to differentiate from competitors when they shift their focus from customer service to providing memorable customer experiences. Everyone remembers when they receive great service that goes above and beyond; and it’s this experience that is often the deciding factor on coming back to do business with your company.

As I have previously discussed in Creating a Customer Experience that Drives Results, “Successful companies create desirable customer experiences by focusing on emotional connectors. They put themselves in their customers’ shoes, understand their needs, anticipate future needs and understand the emotional need and the problems or issues customers are trying to solve.”

You can deliver change within your approach and create a new level of service by defining, designing and delivering a memorable customer experience.

The 3 D’s for Creating Customer Experiences that Will Drive Results

Design the experience you want your customers to experience from a logical, functional and emotional perspective. Factor in the issues you will be resolving for your customers through the products and services you are offering.

Define the ideal customer experience based on what you know about your customers. Outline your goals and objectives and the desired outcomes of your interaction. Think about how this experience will further your relationship with your customer.

Deliver on the experience you provide your customers in an intentional way. Make sure you embed the elements you have designed into the process and do not leave it to chance. If you don’t deliver a memorable experience, you risk failing to differentiate from other companies. Deliver on your marketing and service promises and create memorable experiences, or you risk losing your customers.

Related Article: A Measure of Customer Experience

Keep in mind that this is a cyclical process. As you deliver on your customer experience, you will continue to learn new things about your customers. Your ability to constantly evolve, re-define and re-design your customer experience is what will make it memorable and help you develop customer loyalty.

Customer Experience Strategies to Increase Satisfaction, Reduce Churn and Increase Revenue

Integrating customer service strategies into your business plan is important to help retain customers and ensure your customer service does not become static. Using customer experience strategies help you remain focused on creating dynamic customer experiences that will reduce churn and support the 3 D’s of defining, designing and delivering memorable experiences.

Here are 4 strategies to integrate today:

1. Keep your customer experience consistent: Don’t lose sight of the fact that your customers will interact with different areas of your organization. Whether they are interacting with your company on the phone, in person, or on your website, your level of service must remain consistent.
2. Base the experience on individual customer needs: You need to know your customers’ needs on a personal level in order to satisfy and exceed their expectations. Gather input and feedback from your customers to learn about their expectations.
3. Create experiences with real people: Make every experience as personalized as possible. Your customers want to deal with real people, not a drone following a script to the letter. Train your team; get them engaged and excited about your product and service offerings. Their excitement will be passed onto your customers.
4. Use technology to enhance, not create experiences: Technology cannot create the customer experience, but it can enhance it. Define the experience first, then use technology to support your customer experience strategy.

Creating a strong customer experience leads to higher referral rates and customer satisfaction. This is why it’s important for companies to always be refining their customer experience. When you provide great experiences, it makes customer acquisition easier, creates loyalty, and creates a competitive advantage for your company in your industry.