New generations assume that they can order or buy almost anything by simply talking to a device. Therefore, companies are more focused than ever on going beyond the expected products or services, giving the customer a unique experience, which will be the one that really makes a difference with the competition. But as these personalized and connected experiences become a reality, companies make use of the data collected, to strengthen consumer confidence.
Customers expect more than ever
With more options, more access to information, and fewer incentives, today’s customers are the least loyal. Consumers seek the difference through experiences based on trust and understanding, and will compare among all companies to find them. 80% of customers say that the experience provided by a company is as important as its products and services.
In this era of exponential disruptive technological change, often referred to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, cutting-edge products and services quickly become obsolete.
In this context, the experience that a company offers is increasingly a differentiating key. To achieve consumer loyalty, companies must not only think about marketing, sales, e-commerce, and service interactions, but must also keep customers’ interests in mind. The company Schibsted Spain has created a program called “Customer Experience Training Program” to respond to your needs.
Customers expect a lot from companies, however, only half of them are satisfied with the experiences they have. It could be a worrying thing, but there is even worse data, which is that six out of ten consumers do not believe that companies are mindful of the interests of consumers. The reality is that today’s customers expect companies to understand and care about them as individual consumers.
It’s very important for companies that their consumers don’t have bad experiences, and that, according to Salesforce, 57% of customers have stopped buying a brand because a competitor has provided them with a better experience. In addition, 62% of the customers say they share bad experiences with other buyers. With the proliferation of social media and forums, this practice can damage a reputation of a brand. But, this new dynamic is not all darkness and bad data, 72% customers share good experiences with others, 10% more than those who share the negative. In addition, two-thirds of customers will even pay for premium service to companies that offer superior experiences, thus introducing not competitive differentiation, but adding new revenue streams.
Companies face new demand: personalization
Within loyalty, personalization has a great weight, today’s customers want to be understood and respected as individuals. 84% of customers say it’s important for companies to treat their consumers as individuals and not as a number.
In addition, customers judge companies based on their complete experience, not just interactions with individual departments, so they expect global consistency. According to a study conducted by Genesys, responsibility for the customer experience lies with: Marketing departments (30%); Customer Service departments (45%), CX departments (19%) and a 6% that does not fall to any department. When it comes time to buy, customers expect more than expert sellers and a quick and easy exit, which is why it attracts more and more of e-commerces, they are the comparison tools as well as the mobile applications. Customers also expect to be able to move seamlessly between digital and offline channels. Therefore, executives expect their workers to be able to offer in person, what consumers can also obtain in the digital world, price comparison, additional information, etc. Customer service is not only an additional cost, it is a central element of differentiation. To meet standard current, service must be fast, easy to use, available from anywhere, and even proactive. Increasingly the option to wait for someone to answer is falling into disuse, now customers are interested in self-service, thanks to tools that allow them to quickly find the answers they are looking for, for themselves when they need it. Despite this trend, there will always be times when only one human can respond or help customers, in decision-making or even in understanding some of the parts of the trip he has made during his online purchase.
New benchmarks for innovation
On the other hand, in recent years, the word “innovation” has been everywhere. The emergence of new technologies such as artificial intelligence makes the bar of what looks like innovative, rises. For most customers, innovation affects shopping habits. There was a time when the mere presence of a social channel or the presence of a mobile application met demand, but currently not, 59% of customers consider that companies need cutting-edge digital experiences to maintain their Business.
Smartphones, social media and other innovative technologies marked what is known as “always-on”, yet they are just the beginning of what customers are asking for, such as new Artificial Intelligence capabilities and IoT devices.
Most customers believe that these technologies and the experiences they offer will transform their interactions with businesses in the very short term. In fact, most say that expectations are already marked by promising technologies such as IoT (60%), by voice-activated personal assistants 59% and by IA a 51%. On average, 56% consumers say that technology is transforming their expectations. That figure rises to 63% for business executives, who are more likely to experiment with virtual reality and augmented reality (54%), cryptocurrencies (50%) and blockchain (51%).
What happens in the midst of a crisis of confidence?
Despite the implementation of these novel technologies, not all companies have earned the trust of their customers to be able to profit from those technologies. The problem is, fundamentally, customers have lost confidence in companies to do the right thing when it comes to their data. The 57% customers are uncomfortable with the way companies use their personal information. Some of this discomfort comes from a lack of information about how the company actually uses that data.
Initially, it can be paradoxical, and how can companies provide personalized experiences when customers don’t trust them enough to share their personal information?
Most consumers are willing to share relevant personal information in exchange for benefits such as personalized offers, individual shopping experiences, and consistent omnichannel interactions. An example of this is the company Vodafone, which through a platform created by Genesys, is transformed the experience of its customers.
In other words, companies that stay true to using data to provide a unique experience have the advantage of creating truly differentiated customer journeys.
Conclusions
At a time when products aren’t everything, companies need to go the extra mile to earn customer loyalty. It is therefore interesting that companies pay attention to three main points:
- Customer experience: Today consumers have access to all the information they want which makes them hard-to-impressionable individuals. It is at this point that companies have to make an extra effort, and offer the best possible experience, that meets the needs of their customers.
- Customer Success: Customers take their time when evaluating purchases, comparing online options, asking for references, or searching for different devices. The success of the client will be that the company is able to understand the needs, objectives and circumstances in which the buyer is located, and once the transaction is completed, that the customer-company relationship is maintained over time.
- The secure protection of private data: Shoppers expect companies to leverage data statistics and new technologies to take their experiences to a whole new level, without compromising their privacy.
