Experience can be summed up as active involvement in something over time…
In commerce terms it doesn’t just mean the customers current experience of your company’s products and services…their experience starts before that point, before they became your customer.
If we are to understand our customers better we have to adopt a completely different mind set, one that looks at the starting points of relationships as well as the ongoing customer conversation.
New marketing rules are evolving which hands power to the customer as never before. The internet has allowed choice coupled with knowledge, customers have instant market appraisals at their finger tips. More importantly they can deliver their own feed back which can have serious consequences for a company, eg Gap Logo.
When we engage with a company we have emotional as well as defined physical needs that have to be satisfied.
So much can go wrong at the “Top of Funnel” process when choosing who to spend your money with.
Was it easy to navigate the web site? If you left a message by email or via the web were you contacted in a reasonable time?
Your preconceptions of a company are either shattered or reinforced at this stage. These can be positive emotional associations as well as negative ones – you may have heard feed back that suggests that company A is good but difficult to deal with. If your initial contact experience confirms this then you are less likely to continue and start looking at company B.
Is company A miles from anywhere and difficult to get to and meet with? If Yes then again our needs may be better satisfied by company B.
Once a customer has engaged with you their continued experience needs to be monitored. Feedback systems, however basic, are vital to sustain them as your advocates. Price is dead as a reason for customers staying with you.
Customer service is an important factor in sustaining loyalty but Experience is vital in driving sales.
In the new marketing age having attracted customers you must remain attractive to keep them. Engagement allows customers to reinforce positive emotional factors and project out to a wider audience meaning more potential customers.
Good Customer Experiences come about as a result of understanding the whole process not just parts of it.
The intention of this small offering is to generate some debate about how the Customer Experience can be used to benefit sales and growth. Your comments and feedback are very welcome. I can be found on Twitter @angusgrady, web site www.customeyes-research.co.uk and Facebook,www.facebook.com/Customeyes.Research.
Listen to your Customers before someone else does…
