Elements Of The Customer Experience Many Businesses Forget About

Collaborative Post

The customer experience should be the meaning behind your business. The way the customer feels when interacting with you, shopping with you, choosing you as a service, etc., makes up the foundation for your long term profit line.

The more you understand why customers are feeling and choosing the way they do, the easier it’ll be to both bring new customers in and get old ones to stay. Without defining this process, you’re not going to gain very many customers at all!

And while most business owners understand this, there are quite a few elements that often get left off the table. Those are the ones we want to focus on in this post.

Being clear about customer expectations and all the different factors that make those up is the best way to do business in the modern era. It’ll set you apart from your competitors, for one, and it’ll also generate a very positive reputation that’ll do all the talking for you.

So, with all that in mind, here are some of the main elements of the customer experience that many businesses forget about. If you’re a new business looking for the best way to gain attention within your niche, these are the factors to put to work within your market strategy.

Really, the more you incorporate them into your customer service, the better the customers are going to respond to you.

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Communication Needs to Be Convenient

Customers are going to need to reach out to you sometimes. They’re going to have queries that need answering, or complaints that need solutions, and they may even have a compliment for you that will be amazing to hear.

Because of this, a focus on communication convenience is essential to the overall customer experience. Sure, they can reach out via email and open up a support ticket, but that’s a system that can be difficult to understand.

Using this system should form part of the communications process, but it shouldn’t be the only way a customer can get in touch.

How can you expand it? Start with your social media DMs. These are another great way customers could reach out and get a response. This is usually more accessible than contacting you via email or using a web form, especially if the person on the other side found you on social media to begin with.

Social Media Strategies Need to Be Interesting

And not just for you, but for the customer too. They follow you because they’re interested in what you have to offer - that’s the basis of every decision to hit the follow button - but you can’t rely on that forever.

Indeed, customers want to hear about all the special offers you’ve got on, the new products you’re launching that they might enjoy, as well as all the various ways you’re trying to include them in the day to day of the business.

From feedback surveys they can fill out to the new loyalty program you’re launching to seeing you interact with user generated content, your social media feed needs to be diverse and in the customer interest.

If you’re not approaching social media with this in mind, there’s a high chance your strategy is already going wrong. Diminishing returns in the form of engagement, such as likes, comments, and shares, are always a sign you need to switch up your content and do something different.

An Easy to Use Website

Another element of your digital strategy, the website that represents your business needs to have the customer’s journey in mind at every step. That means creating a website that’s easy to use, has been set up properly for navigation, and has correctly tagged pages that can be easily followed via breadcrumbs.

Not only does this work well for the customer experience, but it’s also an element of SEO that’s great for reaching new prospective customers too. In refining your website’s design and ensuring it’s made to be friendly to any and all who come across it, you may end up ranking higher thanks to the sheer easy-to-see relevance.

Product Packaging Needs to Be Appealing

Your product was designed to look good to the customer, alongside functioning in the intended way and to keep the cost of materials down. However, your focus on the aesthetics of the customer experience shouldn’t end there. The way your product is packaged forms part of it as well.

That’s why so many people focus on packaging as an element of good product design. When an item is appealing before the box has even been opened, it’s a sign you’ve hit the jackpot in terms of creating something eye-catching when just sitting on a shelf.

Of course, the packaging also needs to be sturdy and shippable, but the better it looks, the more your customers are going to enjoy the entire buying experience. Investing in high quality packaging materials from a company like Ozpack is a good starting point for this.

The better the material you’re using, the easier it’s going to be to work with. Plus, with modern software allowing a full lift from the digital design you’ve drawn up, to something that exists in a 3D space, it’s easier than ever to achieve a packaging level that pleases the customer as well.

Well Trained Staff

Choosing the most personable staff to be customer-facing isn’t the only way to approach your customer service. If your staff haven’t been trained in customer service specifically, there’s a chance they’re not giving the best responses to the people who contact you or come to shop in person.

Customer service training is essential to the way your employees interact with your prospects, and the more training they have, the easier and smoother these interactions will be to handle.

After all, with well trained staff in your business, you have every advantage over the customer’s opinion of you. You put time and effort into ensuring they get what they need when they’re with you, and that will be clear in every step of their journey.

Being Responsive

How responsive are you to your customers when they make an attempt to reach out? This applies to both in person and online interactions. Because the more responsive you are, the more a customer is going to feel like you have the time and attention to detail that’s required for them to have a good experience with you.

An unresponsive company doesn’t keep customers for long. Indeed, it doesn’t convert very many customers either, as the reviews you’ll get will highlight just how low quality your customer service interaction really is. Reviews are the first thing someone will check before choosing you.

If you can’t even get back to a customer within an hour to simply let them know you’ve received their message, something needs to change in your customer experience strategy!

The Customer Experience: What to Remember

If you want your business to be as successful as possible, you’re going to need to focus on the entirety of the customer experience. You don't want to forget about elements above, as they’re crucial to your customers’ time and happiness when they’re shopping with you, and that's something that’s going to turn them into repeat customers.

And not only that, they may even end up brand ambassadors too. All you have to do is ensure they have a great time when they’re on your website or in your store, and that's usually a lot easier than many new businesses believe.

—End of Collaborative Post—

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