It’s no secret that delivering excellent customer experiences has become a priority for virtually every business. In today’s competitive world, 89% of consumers say they’ve switched companies after encountering a bad experience with an existing vendor. Additionally, studies show that consumers will happily pay extra for a service or solution from a company that offers great experiences.
Optimizing any CX strategy starts with research. Businesses need to know where the friction points in the customer journey are, so they can deliver more personalized, streamlined support and guidance. Unfortunately, gaining a comprehensive view of the customer journey, and the satisfaction levels of customers can be easier said than done.
Collecting feedback from surveys and customer testimonials provides a fragmented, and often inaccurate insight into the CX landscape. In fact, while many organizations have implemented feedback management tools in the past, only 21% saw an increase in their CX scores as a result. The simple reason is that only a handful of customers will ever respond to surveys.
So, how do businesses gain a truly complete view of their customer experience performance?
Brett Weigl, SVP & GM, Digital, AI and Journey Analytics at Verizon Business Group says:
“Gaining a complete view of the customer journey and the success of your customer experience strategy in today’s landscape requires more than just the assessment of surveys and consumer feedback. Companies need intuitive new ways to draw data from every part of the customer lifecycle. Leveraging AI, and intelligent orchestration platforms, empowers company to turn more of the raw data they collect about their audience into actionable insights.”
Step 1: Auditing the Data Landscape
The first step in developing a unified view of the customer experience landscape is examining the current data ecosystem. Even as customer journeys continue to evolve, spreading across multiple platforms and channels, many businesses are still relying on a selection of disparate tools to power interactions and collect insights.
This unfortunately means data silos can quickly appear throughout the company. Business leaders need to evaluate the tools they’re already using to collect and generate data, from CCaaS platforms to ecommerce platforms, CRM systems, and customer satisfaction surveys. During this stage, it’s worth looking for potential insight gaps which could be preventing the business from reaching it goals.
For instance, being able to effectively identify customer intent at different stages of the marketing, sales, and service funnel can make it easier for companies to route clients to the right agents based on their needs. Alternatively, gathering information about common customer issues can help organizations produce self-service solutions that minimize contact volumes.
Step 2: Set CX Objectives and Define Metrics
After auditing the data landscape, and pinpointing potential problem areas, companies can then start to set specific goals for what they want to achieve with a more complete picture of CX performance. Common goals can include everything from improving customer loyalty and retention, and minimizing revenue churn, to improving business efficiency and productivity.
With a unified view of the customer journey, businesses can rapidly personalize the customer experience, reduce costs, and call volumes, and even increase customer lifetime value. Defining specific goals, and the metrics teams will need to monitor on the path to success can help business leaders to gain the buy-in and input of the stakeholders responsible for managing data through the business. It also ensures teams are aligned around the same targets.
Synchronizing staff around the same consistent goals ensures everyone is focused on achieving the same crucial results for future growth.
