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How to Improve the Customer Experience Throughout Their Journey

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article

There’s no getting around it; the customer is king. Without them, your business will be going nowhere fast. They have the power to make or break your business, and your aim should be to do everything in your power to make their experience a good one. Once upon a time, it would have been the quality of your product or service that made you stand out from the competition. Nowadays, however, the focus has shifted to the experience a brand is able to offer the customer throughout their journey. Improving the customer experience is not the easiest thing to deal with. There are certain things your customers will expect. These include being able to interact with your company, however they decide to do it. It’s also important that their experience is a personalized, rewarding and effortless one. Above all, they want this to be provided in an efficient amount of time. Here are some things you can do today.

The Customer Experience vs. Customer Service

You might think that they’re one and the same, but they’re actually quite different. Customer service focuses more on the way a service is delivered, before, during, and after a purchase. Customer experience, on the other hand, is the sum of all the experiences and interactions the customers have from your business relationship. The two work closely together, and you can’t have one without the other.

10 Steps to Improving Your Customer Experience

The first contact your customers will have with your business will be via the phone, email or one-to-one interaction, and this is where you can start making improvements.

Create a Customer-Focused Culture

There is little point in trying to make improvements if the whole of your workforce are not behind the changes. From the bottom to the top, everyone has to be focused on customer satisfaction. A good way to do this is to create a list of statements that can be used to guide company principles and focus your staff. Principles can include delivering an excellent service, to show humility and welcome change. Take steps to introduce a staff training program and focus on etiquette, how best to address customer complaints, and the standard responses to use.

Know Your Customers

If you don’t know who your customers are, how can you address their needs to improve your customer experience. The beauty of humans is that we are all so different. We don’t have the same needs, desires or expectations. As well as understanding demographics such as age, race, and residence you need to consider several other things. For example, how will they use your products and services, what are their expectations, and how will they prefer to interact with you.

Understanding who your customers are will result in a deeper understanding. Your employees will be able to empathize with them and look at the service they’re providing from their point of view.

Live Chat

Providing your customers with a live chat option is crucial to improving the customer experience. If your audience is within the 18-34 age bracket, you might do well to appreciate that more than half of them prefer this option over phone interactions. It is particularly popular among online retailers. However, there’s more to providing live chat than just having a person to answer customer questions. It can include co-browsing, which is where an agent takes control of a user’s browser to provide technical support or to direct them to pages where they will find what they want. Audio/video chat services, integrated knowledge bases, and Chatbot services are also being added to the list.

Mobile Customer Support

More than 91% of adults in the US own a mobile phone, and more than 63% of them use their phones several times a month to search for products and customer support. Providing a mobile interface for your customers is vital. Unfortunately, many are poorly designed and cumbersome to use, even if there is an optimized website. The result of these poor designs is that customers are forced to contact a business directly for simple queries. Contact centers are then flooded with queries. Allowing customers to solve their problems using their mobile phone will improve the customer experience.

Social Media Support

It’s possible to use social media to communicate with customers in a customer-centric way. Many large companies use it very effectively. Using a variety of social media platforms, companies can share content and answer questions from customers. The marketing department can also ask interesting questions and gain a better understanding of the customer base.

Self-Service Portals

There are two ways self-service portals can help a company. Firstly, they improve the customer experience. Secondly, they reduce workload and thereby increase company capacity. A self-service portal provides customers with instant access to information. A series of self-help functions are open to the customer and accessible through a company’s website. Features include:

  • Self-resolution of issues through the use of a knowledge base
  • Password reset
  • Self-logging of incidents
  • Service request
  • Collaborative spaces
  • Chat services

Empowering customers to find information, request services, and resolve their own issues is a great way of improving the customer experience.

If you think outside of the box a little, you can probably work out some pretty ingenious ways that you can help people to improve their own experience with these kinds of portals. You might have a visitor sign-in app, for instance, so that you know who is in the building. However you approach it, the fact is that these kinds of portals are growing in popularity with good reason, and they are some of the best ways to make sure that the customer’s experience is so much better throughout the journey.

Provide a Range of Communication Channels

Not so very long ago, customers would have been more than happy to call customer care to get assistance. Those days are long gone, and today’s customers want to have access to more options. These should include text, email, and social media, depending on which your customer is most comfortable with.

Younger age groups may prefer to use social media while those over 40 might prefer to call customer care. The industry you’re working in can also influence the channels you choose to use. In a more professional industry, phone calls or post might be more appropriate. There is no one size fits all, and some experimentation will be required to find which fits best.

Customer Experience Manager

This is a relatively new role and has come about because customer experience requires effort from across a company, which means someone needs to be managing it. A customer experience manager will look across a range of departments such as customer service, sales, market, production and more. They will act as the link between customer and company, coordinating work across all the different departments.

Researching and Gathering Data

A crucial part of the customer experience is conducting research and gathering data. Customers expect a certain quality of service when calling your company. The service you deliver has to be above average. If the service received is excellent, it is more likely they will pay more for your products or services and return time and time again. To provide exemplary customer service, you first have to do some research and gather feedback from your customers. Asking customer testimonial questions will help you to establish their needs, wants, and expectation. It will also help you to grow your company with the help of customer reviews.

Benchmarking and Evaluating

There is no point in implementing any changes if you aren’t going to spend time evaluating whether the processes, teamwork, and technology are paying off. It’s important to measure the return on investment of customer experience. Finding the best strategy will be much easier if you’re able to try different things. Collecting data to ensure you know what works and what doesn’t. A good question to ask customers that will gauge the effectiveness of a strategy is “Would you recommend this service to a friend or relative?”. Provide a point-scale to measure how happy or unhappy they were.

The Benefits of Optimizing the Customer Experience

Companies who invest time and effort in improving the customer experience will reap the rewards, both in terms of revenue and financial health. There are many benefits of providing an excellent customer experience including increased customer loyalty and higher customer retention. It’s also interesting to learn that a high percentage of customers will pay more for a better customer experience.

There’s no way you can anticipate every customer issue, but you can anticipate there being an issue and making it easy for customers to contact you. Being reactive and proactive will pay off. Customers want to be treated well, respected, understood, and get what they want. They want a good experience when dealing with your company and an assurance that every time they get in touch, the experience will be equally good. The modern consumer has an immense amount of power, and they can choose to wield it as they see fit. Providing an excellent customer experience will instill trust and boost revenue.

Providing the best customer experience can help you to build meaningful relationships with your customers. The experience you provide is a reflection of your business. Your brand image depends on more than just a single moment when a purchase is made. It is a culmination of every interaction they have with your company. Provide a superior customer experience, and you will have a competitive advantage, build customer loyalty, encourage positive word-of-mouth, personalize relationships, and provide customer satisfaction.

Five Key Aspects You May Miss Out When Starting Your Business

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship ArticleStarting a new business can be simultaneously exciting and terrifying. You have this idea in your head, and now it’s time to make it into reality. But it can be easy to get caught up in the excitement of starting something new and wholly yours that you might neglect some parts of the process. And as the saying goes, “the journey is far more important than the destination.”

Here are five things you may miss out as part of your business endeavor that proves to be essential in the long run:

Make sure you have a detailed and well-researched business plan

This is the foundation of your business idea. Without a business plan, you might as well be grasping in the dark and may even jeopardize the running of your business in the long term. It’s easy to make mistakes when it comes to business plans, and you may miss out on certain things so do your research, and you’ll thank yourself later.

Customers, products or services, operations, sales and marketing strategies, management and competitors – these are the absolute minimum, and when writing up your business plan, you must include all of these key areas. Show that you have done your research and that you did not just run into the business industry with an idea and no plan by including industry trends and market analysis. As well as this, your plan must include a detailed financial flow, from month cash flow to income statements.

That being said, don’t get caught up in the details. This can be common with technology-based start-ups where technical jargon is thrown around, without taking into account the reader. But if you must include such keywords, make sure to include an appendix to increase accessibility. A business plan must be easy to read and understand so lay down your idea and your plans as succinctly as possible. Take into consideration that you may be required to submit a business plan when asking a bank for a loan or applying for business grants to further grow your business. Without strategies set in place, whether this is for sales and marketing or otherwise, you cannot persuade a bank to lend you what you need.

A business plan is not only useful when applying for loans or grants, but also acts as a guide to grow your business. This helps you identify and pursue goals and objectives that lead to the growth of your company and details the steps that will need to be taken to accomplish this.

Invest in reliable security

Whether you are starting an e-commerce or are venturing into opening a physical store, investing in reliable security is one of the most important steps you can take.

This is particularly relevant to data security. Chances are, your business will use electronic systems and these use data to operate. From information regarding your employees to your customers, these are all data.

With such sensitive and confidential data in your company’s system, you must put into place to keep these as secure as possible. Your customers, particularly, are trusting you with their sensitive information, whether these be bank details or home addresses, whenever they buy your product or use your service. When there is a breach in security, it is not only revenue that is at stake but your customer’s trust – and as a result, your company’s reputation. It is important that you invest in reliable security to keep sensitive and confidential data as safe as possible.

Likewise, keeping your home office or store safe is also a priority. There are many security technologies that allow you to monitor the location through real-time updates and notification systems and you can find out more from this website about the options available.

By increasing the security for your business and ensuring your customers know that you take their data protection and safety as a priority, you can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty and increase your business’s reputation.

Check if you are legally allowed to use your business name

Make sure you check if your business name is taken by another company before you start printing this on business cards, social media and other marketing and sales related areas. A simple search can let you know if the name you have chosen for your business is already taken or if you are free to use it. If the name is already trademarked and you have used it, then this can land you in legal trouble.

Don’t forget to set up a business bank account

Combining your personal and business finances leads to confusion – and it can create suspicion if ever your local or state tax bureaus or the IRS start asking questions. You’re far better off keeping personal and business monies separate for those reasons – and certain legal structures require you to do it that way. As a bonus, you’ll appear more professional and credible when writing checks from your business versus your personal account.

Know your competitors

You may think that your new product or service has no competition, is novel and above existing products – you’re wrong. Most often than not, it’s extremely rare to not have any competitors in an increasingly saturated business industry. But this doesn’t have to be a weakness; instead, do your research. Find out who your competitors are and how your business can be better.

How can you differentiate your business from an existing one? By researching your competitors, you can not only find ways on how you can improve your own business but also learn more about your own business as a whole, your customers and their habits.

By constantly improving and adapting to a constantly changing business industry and customer base, you can ensure your business stays on top and beat out competitors when the tides change.
Making your business idea, a reality can be exciting. With these few things in mind, you can ensure that even if the road towards your business goals and objectives is rocky, that you will know exactly where to go for success.

Restaurant Design – Why It’s About More Than Aesthetics

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship ArticleWhilst restaurant design is about aesthetics, there is far more to it than that! It is about the atmosphere, the comfort, and the functionality just as much as it is the aesthetics – with a restaurant, there are so many parts and processes that it is important to consider every possible angle when you are designing something. There are a lot of logistics involved, too.
So, if you are choosing to take on the task of re-designing your restaurant on your own then carry on reading. This and so many other resources cover the things that you need to know.

#1: Choosing the Right Furniture

One of the most important aspects of restaurant design is the furniture that you choose. After all, your furniture can make or break the entire look, feel, and atmosphere of your restaurant and it is what all your guests are going to use. Finding a suitable restaurant furniture supply company can be difficult to get right, but it is important that you settle on the right supplier for the job. Look for one that supplies furniture to fit your budget and aesthetic.

For restaurants, the best furniture design and arrangement is always going to be one which maximizes the number of covers without making things look overly crowded. It’s not just about how the tables look; it’s about mixing shapes, sizes, and types of table, and possibly even materials.

#2: Restaurant Acoustics

Acoustics should match the overall style of your restaurant. If you have a quieter restaurant then your acoustics shouldn’t be too loud or echoey. Don’t be afraid of installing acoustical ceilings or using larger and taller ceilings (if possible) if you want a louder and more open space.

Tiles, accent walls, and banquettes are ways that you can use different textures and styles which aid with the acoustic aspects and provide a stylistic effect.

In addition to the ceiling, the material used on the floor can either help to dampen or heighten acoustic noise. We’re not talking about thick carpets either – these are massively outdated. There are plenty of specialist materials which can get the desired look, feel, and effect.

#3: Lighting Creates a Vibe

Lighting can either create a great vibe or completely destroy one. It’s not just about ceiling lights and making the room brighter, lighting is about lighting up art and accents, interesting design pieces, and it helps to set the overall atmosphere.

A restaurant that carefully thinks about its lighting fixtures and places them properly helps to make the place more theatrical by highlighting not only the guests’ tables but by making everybody look good and setting the overall ambiance.

When you are designing your restaurant, it comes down to far more than the aesthetics of the furniture that you use. You can have the best-looking furniture and design in the world, but if you can’t set the right ambiance and overall atmosphere by properly working with lighting and noise in addition to other important factors, then you are unlikely to impress your diners and achieve the desired impact.

10 Signs Your Website Is Not Working Anymore

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, 10 Signs Your Website Is Not Working Anymore

A business’ website is the basis of their online presence and marketing strategy. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that it is effective and up to date. The set up and initial design of your website is important, but so too is the website redesign. After all, what was effective several years ago is not going to be now. The following ten points are indications that it is time to engage in some redesigning.

  1. First and foremost, you should never leave your website for longer than two years without an element of a redesign. The reason for this is that your website will almost certainly be out of date and old-fashioned if you leave it unedited for such a lengthy spell.
  2. The second telling sign that you need website redesign is if you are suffering from a lack of visitors. This means that you have lost a connection with your viewership; this is likely to be as a result of the fact that you no longer offer them anything new.
  3. In addition to this, you should consider redesigning your website if it is entirely based on flash. This is because search engines view flash as one page and so you are missing out on a whole host of visibility and traffic possibilities. Moreover, flash can take a while to load and this also impacts your search engine ranking.
  4. A fourth reason why you should consider a revamp is simply if your website looks old fashioned. It is advisable to keep up to date with the latest trends in regards to colours, patterns and fonts.
  5. Another factor you should consider is how high you are ranking on the search engine pages. If you are not ranking high up then some changes need to be made.
  6. If the navigation of your website is slightly complicated, then this is a massive indication that you need to engage in website redesign. After all, convenience and ease of navigation is everything. You will lose customers if you have a complicated interface.
  7. The seventh reason why you would need to revitalise your site is if you have a high bounce rate. This is when someone visits your website but then leaves it from exactly the same page. This indicates that your website was not engaging enough. A slow website is one of the main reasons for this, and switching to VPS can assist.
  8. Furthermore, if your site is not compatible with all browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari etc.) then you need to redesign it so that it is.
  9. The ninth reason in the list as to why you may need a redesign is if you are benefitting from high visitors but are still suffering from low sales. This means that your design is not effective with regards to e-commerce and directing people to the sales section.
  10. And finally, if your website is no longer reflective of your business image and aims then you need a change. After all, companies’ objectives are constantly changing and thus your website will need to adapt to this too.

To conclude, if your website falls into some of the categories mentioned above then it is highly recommended that you consider the prospect of website redesign.

How Business Consulting Can Help Your Healthcare Business

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship ArticleYou want your business to be the best that it can be. The only way for that to happen is to make sure you have a good plan in place. By scheduling healthcare consulting, you can ensure that you have thought of everything. Sometimes, it takes someone from the outside to see what’s really going on with your healthcare business.

Explore Organization

A consultant will be able to look at the organization of your business. This includes looking at the effectiveness of the structure, how it can be better aligned, and how it can be developed to get you to the next level. It might be too top heavy or it might not have enough people in key positions. Once you have a better organizational design, it can strengthen your capabilities.

Look at Decision Making and Strategies

It’s important to look at your strategic operations as well as how decisions are made. A consultant will be able to look at who makes the decisions, what information is used to make these, and how information flows to the various stages of management. If there isn’t enough strategic thinking taking place, practical solutions can be executed.

Measure Performance

A consultant can also help to establish KPIs and manage performance. If there is no measurement on performance in place, it can be difficult to see if you’re doing well or not. Performance management should be on every level, including employees, managers, and individual projects.

Asking for help in the form of healthcare consulting can be just what your company needs. An implementation team can help to improve the effectiveness and increase the value of your business. You can stay competitive and ensure that you’re becoming the innovative healthcare business you always knew that you could be.